Prioritizing relationships over winning arguments is key because as Christians we need to lead with love. Christ is our greatest example of this. Brant shares personal experiences where respectful discussions are possible when you can honor people with differing opinions. Unity and love amidst disagreements can serve as a powerful example to others.
Transcription:
Brant:
Got a great question. I wrote about being kind; radically, boldly, kind to people online who are your brothers and sisters, if you’re a professing Christian about how to do this together, even if they disagree 100% on your politics.
Sherri:
Which I’ll say for myself, that’s not my goal when I go to engage someone who doesn’t agree with me to be radically kind.
Brant:
Me too,
Sherri:
Not my nature. That’s not the first thing. Yeah.
Brant:
Right. So it’s got to be though, so that people look at us and they go, wait a second. How are they able to work this out? They still love each other. They’re still unified, even though they clearly a hundred percent disagree. What’s up with these people? Why did they stick together? You start and end the conversation with kindness, and when you’re debating, you’re debating against an idea, but always, ALWAYS with love, and you communicate that even in the text. You bend over backward to make sure that the person understands, I really love you and I value our relationship more than being right. I’ve had that happen a couple times where I’ve been in a debate online with somebody, and I’ve had a third party step in and say, you know what? I really appreciated this because both of you guys clearly respect each other. That’s what should be apparent. We’re disagreeing, and yet there’s this honor for each other. We’re supposed to consider each other better than ourselves. When people see that, it would be remarkable. Some people have said, well, then we just have to flush truth down the drain. No, no, no, no. That’s not true at all. I have to though, look at Jesus’ ability to sometimes allow people to be wrong, and he did. Amazingly, He would allow people to walk away from him and be wrong.
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