It is an election year once again, and it came so quickly; where did the time go? Elections tend to till up our most partisan thoughts to the surface. The political divisions within our country have never been so stark and these divisions occupy a whole different dimension than ever before.

In the past, divisions fell along policy differences such as, tax more and provide more services verses tax less and reduce the size of government, or restrict the number of legal immigrations to a small number verses encourage legal immigrations, especially for the highly qualified (professionally). But now, there are two different realities, going far beyond the traditional differences. Tribal.

I am confident that this present novel situation is a product of the late postmodernism thinking fad. If you establish there is no overriding narrative about life, no truth, and all opinions are the same, the result is designer realities. Create the world that you want to believe in and try to live in that world—supporting evidence superfluous.

This writing is a conversation I am having with myself, trying to stake out how we handle things that we disagree with, when to speak, when to remain silent.

The impetus of this inward conversation was an event last week. A poignant cartoon was posted on Facebook, one supporting my feelings about a particular politician and it resonated deeply within me. I was poised to share it to my own feed, when that familiar mene popped up from another poster, “Someone shared something on Facebook that angered me, I was just getting ready to respond when the Holy Spirit said, ‘Let it go.’”

So, I asked myself, “What do I hope to accomplish by sharing this cartoon?” In my sphere of life, including Facebook contacts, it is equally shared between those that adore this politician and those that despise him. So those who despise him might be humored with the cartoon, while those who adore him, alienated. But none of the adorers would change their views based on the cartoon, so what’s the point? However, there is a place for sharing your opinions. I’m going to give bullet points of my conclusion I’ve made through this internal conversation.

1. Some people never share opinions out of fear of rejection or having a social ideal of being nice. While that is safe, they may have missed opportunities to raise good questions and influence society.
2. I am cursed because I do share controversial opinions, but I never intend them as personal attacks. However my skin has become quite thin from the years of personal attacks in response to my general opinions. I have to be more careful.
3. Differing opinions should never become personal. People who believe differently from yourself, usually do so not because they are intellectually or spiritually inferior, but from diverse life experiences. They deserve our fullest respect. Emotionally driven arguments are almost never fruitful.
4. Never engage in discussions that are exercises in futility, where the other side has no interest in changing their minds. However, it is okay to share your views on a topic (e.g. war in Gaza, climate change) to make it clear where you stand, but repetitive postings or comments or becoming argumentative is never helpful.
5. Be ready to give a defense for your position if honest questions do come, but do it with respect.
6. People in certain positions, such as owners of businesses or pastors must take great care in sharing opinions because they represent a broad spectrum of people.
7. Since we live in a postmodern age where evidence is no longer important, we do have a responsibility to take great care in resisting that fad by examing the supporting evidence of our positions. It is appropriate to challenge claims that are based on misinformation or rumors without evidence. However, we must do it respectfully and we must check our own facts. Wishful thinking is not the same as facts, even unsavory facts.
8. The postmodernist viewpoint, that all opinions are the same, is a poor reason not to speak up. Throughout human history there has been healhy debates between oposing viewpoints, that helps a society reach the truth. Yes, there is discoverable truth. The Christian has a special calling to seek truth and proclaim justice and to do it with love.

Mike