For Episode #2 of Finding Good, host Andrew McCourt went deep-sea fishing with pastor Chris Brown to talk about how to do good, even when you disagree.
During the discussion, Chris tackles how to be a Christian and have a political view, how we can love the people we don’t see eye to eye with, and how to keep our eyes on the eternal and not the temporal in 2020.
Below is an excerpt from the interview:
Andrew: What’s the Christian response? How can Christians still be patriotic, have a political viewpoint, and yet rise above it and try and choose something different?
Chris: I think your definition of that question nailed it. What is a Christian response? Everyone has a response, and before we give our response, we have to go, “Wait, what’s the Christian response?” because 9 times out of 10, my response to whatever the issue is in front of me is not a Christian response. It comes from my frustration, my angst, this season that we’re in, our political system. I have a response, and as a Christ follower, I cannot afford to respond before stopping and saying, “Now how does this go through a Christian filter?”
Andrew: [People of different political parties] carry the image of God, so we’ve got to see not a political party in other people; we’ve got to see the very image of God. They carry God inside of them, but what we find now is people with their strong opinions taking so much offense. Christians are getting offended; they’re going on social media, they’re sharing their opinion and causing offense, and then they’re sharing their offense as well. What do we do with this level of offense that’s coming, and [with] people running around wounded and then retaliating?
Chris: Hurting people hurt people, and there’s a lot of hurting people right now because of the state of our nation and because we’ve been so closed down. Our crowds, our movie theaters, our restaurants, our golf, our fishing [have been taken away from us]. Our comfort, our releases [were taken away, and they’re] pent up. All that energy is just looking for a lightning rod to leash out against.
My joy is not going to be taken away in the next two months because of a political party, because my joy isn’t found in a political party. My encouragement and hope is not going to be put in when the government opens up, when schools open up, and what happens in the next 4-6 months because my hope and joy isn’t in the government and its choices. That was the beauty of Paul going to the churches in the New Testament telling them, “I’m going to preach [about] Jesus. I’m not going to talk about the politics, the racism, the slavery of the day, because those things are temporary. Christians, you need to be involved in that. But if you’re anchored to a hope and joy that’s never going to leave you, then your hope and joy never leaves. Don’t put it in the political system.
Want to hear the rest of the interview? Tune into the second episode of Finding Good below!
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