Friday, October 11, 2013

Ed Stetzer: Politics, Social Media, and More Important Things


All those political rants may be hindering your Christian witness. 

You can't blurt at a people and reach a people at the same time. This is true no matter how satisfying it feels to add your voice to the political rants on social media.

In the current political climate in our nation, with shutdowns and blame, I have watched the volume grow and the civility shrink.

I  believe in the importance of civility for civility's sake. Yet, I think it goes even further than that if you are a Christian who wants to reach those disconnected from the church. In other words, I believe the way we handle political issues has a missional implication. So a few days ago, I posted this thought to Facebook (and a shorter version on Twitter):
"Statistically, the unchurched lean heavily Democrat. So—and I know it's just me talking crazy now—if you want to reach the unchurched, maybe constant Facebook/Twitter posts about how stupid Democrats are might be a bad idea."
The post was shared hundreds of times on both social media outlets and appeared to draw a largely positive response, so I thought it may be appropriate to elaborate a bit on this idea and why it's so important.

The angry accusations are flying around Washington. And that's one of the reasons people don't like Washington, think it is broken, and give it such low approval ratings. Yet, as I observe the relentless mudslinging between professional politicians with less and less surprise, I've sadly concluded that Christians are often unnecessarily burning bridges on the altar of political partisanship. Keep reading

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