America’s Watershed

One afternoon, I was picking up my children from school and while waiting for them to emerge from their school building, I noticed something that caught my attention: a runner who happened to be running while carrying the American flag with pole in hand going up the street. What made this stick out even more to me was that I saw this runner carrying the flag on the Friday of a very heavy and difficult week for America.

I started getting teary-eyed as I thought about what was happening to our country, and my heart was filled with dread and apprehension at what could be ahead of us. It had been a week of vivid reminders of how broken, divided and unhinged our country and society have become. The Bible foretold that in the last days, the “love of many would grow cold” (Matthew 24:12) and the cascade of viral examples of how heartless our society has become — from ongoing mass shootings to the viral video of a Ukrainian refugee getting fatally stabbed for no reason, to the graphically horrible assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk — all demonstrate that we are tragically there.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk is the most graphically brutal act of political violence we have seen on camera since John F. Kennedy, and it went viral quickly. Yet, as tragic as it was to happen and as shocking to see, anyone who has been paying attention to the growing epidemic of political violence in America cannot be totally surprised we got here.

Sadly, we have seen numerous examples of political violence carried out by actors from the far left and the far right, and a growing acceptance in the polls with political violence from all sides. We have demonized those with whom we disagree; our politics have become so polarizing that we see the other side as the mortal enemy. And once we get to the level of dehumanizing those with whom we have strong political and ideological disagreements, it creates a toxic culture where acts of political violence can not only happen but can even become mainstream.

Whether someone agreed with Charlie Kirk’s views and faith or not, murdering someone who is engaged in the act of sharing and exchanging those views is an attack on American democracy itself.

In an age where we have the tools to be more interconnected than ever before in human history, ironically, we have been losing the art of dialogue. The algorithms that feed us information are designed to keep us coming back for more and are designed to keep us angry, surrounded by our own echo chambers. They have served to only further create large chasms in American society, making it much harder to truly share and listen to one another.

Social media has made it easy for us to shout instead of listen and to be entrenched entirely with our political and ideological tribes. We have lost the art of civility, of being able to have radically different views from one another, and to disagree on fundamental issues without hating one another.

In a passionate plea, the governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, recently said that our politics have become “rage” and that they can be changed only if we are willing to cultivate a culture where we can have “hard conversations.”

“History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country, but every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us; we get to make decisions,” Cox summarized.

For those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ and passionate about our faith and our beliefs, we have a decision to make. Are we going to be part of the solution or part of the problem? Will we live out the radical teachings of Jesus in a climate like the one we are living in now, or will we allow the toxic anger, polarization and hate that is permeating our culture to rub off on us?

The call of a Christian is to be counter-cultural, and in the political environment of 2025, that means standing out and speaking up in a way that reflects Christ to a world that so desperately needs to see Jesus’ people speak and act like Jesus’ people. If ever in America there was a moment to truly shine the light and love of Christ and to share the truth of his message, it is now. The only hope for America and for the world is Jesus.

We can either join in on blaming those whose political and ideological views are different than ours for the escalating political violence in America, or we can seek to cultivate respectful dialogue as the Bible instructs us (2 Timothy 2:24). We can join in on demonizing those with whom we disagree, or treat them and see them as God does, image bearers form whom his son died.

Jesus calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and that means our Republican or Democrat neighbors, our conservative or liberal neighbors, our progressive or MAGA neighbors. The only way we can reverse the escalating political violence and turn down the temperature in our nation is if we all do our part to be part of the solution and not add to the problem.

The only way we can avoid civil war is if we can continue to see one another as human beings, family members, friends, neighbors, and coworkers and if we continue to choose to peacefully exchange our views and work together to preserve the republic that is not guaranteed for tomorrow unless we do our part to preserve it today.

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely, they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” - Abraham Lincoln

Stephen Mitchell is the senior pastor of Trinity Bible Church in Severna Park. He also is the host of a regular podcast, “Real Christian Talk with Pastor Steve,” available on all podcast platforms.