Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s presidential election, roughly half of Americans will be happy and half will be upset. As important as politics is, however, a former Muslim turned Christian apologist encourages believer to keep their priorities straight.
“Politics is a means by which we can look at our moral values and apply them in a public way for the public good,” Abdu Murray told CBN recently. “But here’s how I really have to orient myself. I think every believer in Christ has to ask themselves the following question: When you’re engaging with someone in a political conversation or a cultural or a social conversation, and that person disagrees with you, how do you see them?”
Murray went on to explain, “Do you equate their value as a person with the value of their ideas? Because if you do that, when you dismiss their ideas, you dismiss their value as well.”
An Ipsos survey from April found the vast majority of Americans – 81 percent — believe the country is more divided than it is united. And compared to a decade ago, 78 percent said the U.S. is less united now. Nevertheless, 69 percent of survey respondents said they believe most people in the country want the same things out of life.
With division at an all-time-high, Murray believes it’s the fallacious belief that politics can solve our problems that has led Americans to demonize and devalue one another. But the Christian worldview does not allow believers to denigrate the worth of others simply because of their perspectives or political persuasions.
“Other worldviews do allow for that,” Murray said. “Other worldviews, whether it’s Islam or other things, will equate the worth of a person with the value of their beliefs, which is why you have apostasy laws in some religious systems, where you can eliminate someone based on the ideas they hold, because the value of their ideas and the value of them as a person is equated. The Christian can’t do that; there’s no place in the gospel where you are allowed to do such a thing.”
Referring to Genesis 1:27, which says human beings are made in the image of God, Murray said Christians “have no right to devalue [an individual] as a person, even if I have the right to not value their idea. We can separate — and we’re obligated to separate — the value of the idea a person has from the value of the person themselves.”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice