Flame Throwers

The blogosphere and FaceBook are replete with flame throwers. It seems that people are not content to express their opinions and leave things at that. This is the age of ad hominem attacks. What used to play on air as slander is now the stuff of daily discourse. People have become "haters" on both sides of the political divide. No individual is immune from motive baiting, and no action from and ulterior-and sinister-motives when analyzed from the other side of the political spectrum. That anyone could hold an idea from inner convictions or altruistic motives is categorically denied.

I am not promoting a kind of bland "let's-just-all-get-along" dialogue. Convictions matter. World views are real entities to those who hold them. But there are ways to talk about these things without tearing at each other. Without ripping apart the personal character of the President. My friends who call him a "crypto-Islamist" or question his citizenship have already surrendered not only their civility, but their commitment to rigorous discourse in framing their views. Equally, those who characterize all evangelical Christians as fascists, bigots, and homophobes show that they do not know some of us evangelicals who-based on our own religious convictions-are decidedly not any of those things. It's simply too easy to trash any group of people with whom we disagree. Evidently, it is easier to flame one another than to find ways through the thicket of beliefs and opinions. Trouble is, throwing flames will also destroy the landscape we are trying to clear and leave nothing standing but a scorched earth.


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