Streams of Mercy

With election season in full swing, and debates on stages and around dinner tables gaining intensity by the moment, Jill Duffield writes an insightful editorial, in last week’s Presbyterian Outlook - “Navigating Politics in our Pews.” She challenges us “to think about what is at stake in these conversations and debates- what truly matters and what is only a distraction.”

“When the cultural climate is one of deep schism and inflammatory rhetoric, what should people of faith do?” she asks. While a strong separation of church and state is critical to the health of both church and state, individual Christians are called to be deeply engaged in both for the sake of the world God so loves. “As children of God and disciples of Jesus,” writes Duffield, “we are called to view every issue, person and practice through the waters of our baptism, allowing that perspective to shape all others.”

As we do this, we will not always agree or come to the same conclusions; we will have many differing opinions on the same issue. We need each other, as together we seek to discern the working of the Spirit and the will of God. Whatever our political identity, above all, we are children of God and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, called to be “involved, and actively working for that which we believe reflects the character of Christ and the will of God … and we need to be ready to love those with whom we disagree.”

Duffield challenges us to “speak boldly and advocate relentlessly for those policies and practices we believe to be in line with the person and work of Jesus, with the command to love God and neighbor … even if we don’t agree all the time on what those policies and practices are.”

May God help us to find our way and to live faithfully.

Elizabeth