My heart is disturbed when heard about the violent death of Alex Pretti. I then watched a video I did not want to watch, maybe you did the same. If you haven’t heard about the story, you can learn more here. My challenge to every follower of Christ is to think theologically when the tension is high, the emotions strong, and the people in the Facebook comment section seem to have collectively lost their moral compass.

Within Christianity I see Christians missing the mark in two broad ways. I see conservative leaning Christians who make the work of the gospel only about saving individual souls to the point that they seem to ignore all the suffering that breaks God’s heart in the world around them. I see progressive leaning Christians that seem to be so focused on changing our broken world that they seemingly forsake the responsibility to transform individual hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe God wants to transform every heart and we must participate in that while also caring for the vulnerable and correcting injustice. I believe Christ calls us to be transformed at every level of our lives while being agents of God’s redeeming transformation.

This moment reveals something we already knew. We are a nation deeply divided along partisan lines. This divide is expanded by partisan news outlets and social media algorithms which strategically show us content evoking strong reactions to get more of our attention which is then monetized. Rather than add fuel to the fire of division I challenge us to refrain from partisanship and refrain from quickly jumping to conclusions.

The word remember is mentioned over 300 times in the Bible.  This repeated command implicitly acknowledges that we are often a forgetful people. The people of God have built monuments, enacted rituals, told stories, and written the Bible down to help remember. This memory includes joyful times like entering into the promised land and the painful times like slavery in Egypt. Remembering the whole story is at least part of the solution, equipping us to have the wisdom to do better in the future. It reminds me of the old saying, “those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it.”

If we are truly serious about following the way of Jesus, we need to be serious about following Christ even when it makes us uncomfortable. If every person is made in the image of God and we believe in God’s justice, how can we accept a system that seems to imprison first and ask questions later? If we believe in the values of helping the poor, how can we accept a system where some people profit financially from the suffering of the vulnerable? How do we offer a witness that is not easily dismissed as partisan but wisely framed through the values of our faith in Jesus?

Our witness to those outside the church will be greatly compromised if we make partisan endorsements. There is an old southern saying that goes something like this.  “Never wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty, and the pig likes it.” I don’t want to be a pastor covered in the mud of partisan politics. I fear that whenever we engage with politics at the partisan level we forfeit the opportunity to challenge people to think theologically.