Spare the Drama

In the 14th chapter of the book of Romans, Paul addresses how our personal privilege can be a stumbling block to others and disrupts the practice of peace. He says:
15 Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.
16 Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil;
17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
18 For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.
19 Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.

We should all possess personal convictions, rooted in the Scriptures, and all of us were created differently by our Creator. So we will have personal preferences, and that's OK. Yet, we have to remember to treat others with grace and not allow our conviction to become arrogance or even dogmatism or legalism. We can even respond to those with whom we disagree with a measure of grace and seek to display the love of Christ through our willingness to listen and to accept them unconditionally.

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We have a high level of responsibility to represent our Savior and to not follow the ways of the world and human impulses. 1st Peter 2 states:
1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

It looked for a moment, albeit a brief one last week that perhaps members of Congress had reached critical mass.  In the midst of the action taken by stock trading app Robinhood in light of the grassroots investment in GameStop and other companies to halt the trading of those stocks temporarily, two lawmakers, who, incidentally have shown a propensity to agree in the past, despite their ideological differences, demonstrated their agreement on this issue. The lawmakers: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ted Cruz.  As CBN.com reported it:

The brief reprieve from the division came when Cruz responded to a tweet from Ocasio-Cortez, who had called out the financial investing company Robinhood for its controversial decision “to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stocks as they see fit.”

Cruz quote-tweeted his Democratic colleague in the House of Representatives, noting he agreed “fully” with her criticism.

Remember what I said last week, based on those issues George Barna was talking about where people could find "common ground?"  Well, here is an example of an effort to find such ground rebuffed.  Back to the CBN story:

The Texas senator sent his tweet at 11:47 a.m., and, 59 minutes later, Ocasio-Cortez fired back. But, rather than embrace the senator’s cordial gesture of solidarity, Ocasio-Cortez, a Twitter aficionado in her own right, accused the Republican of “trying to get me killed.”

“I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered [three] weeks ago, so you can sit this one out,” she wrote to Cruz. “Happy to work [with] almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed. In the meantime, if you want to help, you can resign.”

There is, of course, no evidence to suggest Cruz ever tried to have the self-avowed socialist lawmaker killed.

While some media outlets seem to be obsessed with a particular House member from Georgia who is pro-life, and pro-2nd Amendment, but has, prior to her time in Congress, allegedly promoted strange ideas about historical events and even violence toward politicians, on the other side, there is a Congresswoman who is accusing a senator of attempted murder.  Texas Representative Chip Roy wasn't buying it, writing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a letter that appears on his website:

As a member of this body who disagreed with “objections” to the electors and who has expressed publicly my concerns about the events leading to January 6th, it is completely unacceptable behavior for a Member of Congress to make this kind of scurrilous charge against another member in the House or Senate for simply engaging in speech and debate regarding electors as they interpreted the Constitution. I ask you to call on her to immediately apologize and retract her comments.

Roy also said that if Ocasio-Cortez does not apologize, it would force "alternative means" to be used - not specified.  Meanwhile, the afore-mentioned Marjorie Taylor Greene got into a shouting match with another Representative, Cori Bush. Who instigated the conflict is a matter of debate, although there is a video shot by Greene sometime during the incident; Bush has requested a move to another office.

Is this the playground?  Or the "People's House?"  The Speaker isn't "lowering the temperature," either. The Blaze quotes Nancy Pelosi as saying, "I do believe, and I have said this all along, that we will probably need a supplemental for more security for members when the enemy is within the House of Representatives, a threat that members are concerned about in addition to what is happening outside." Former member of Congress Tulsi Gabbard said on Fox on Laura Ingraham's show: "This kind of broad, inflammatory rhetoric is like throwing a match into the tinderbox," adding, "If this is a criminal threat, let law enforcement deal with it...If there is no evidence of what she is talking about, and if it is not true, it is inciting further division and further harm potentially and further destroying the possibility of our country coming together."

I am uncomfortable with several elements of this story - elected members of Congress should not be making threats or accusing their fellow lawmakers of advocating or perpetrating violence.  And, the rhetoric of expelling elected leaders because of these types of allegations is concerning, as well. That's not to endorse Marjorie Greene's embracing of a wide variety of conspiracy theories or using heated rhetoric about taking out elected leaders, as have been alleged.  Nor, AOC's attempt to play the role of champion of the oppressed, excusing the actions of looters last year who were just trying to get supplies they needed, or using climate scare tactics in order to pass legislation.

What can we do?  Well, first of all, as the apostle Paul directs in 1st Timothy 2, we can pray for our leaders - pray for peace and understanding. Voters seem to want lawmakers to work together, which is why we have a narrowly divided Senate and House. And, the views of "We, the People" should be respected. But, the vitriol toward millions of voters who supported one particular candidate and to make them out to be threats to our democracy is unacceptable.

I came across two articles on the Axios website that described members of Congress as "The Mischief Makers" - one article dealt with the House, the other with the Senate.  Some of the names I've mentioned today are found on one of these lists, whether justified or not.  So, is our intent as the representatives of the living Lord in this earth to be "mischief makers" or "problem solvers?"  I encourage believers to stand strong and speak out without doing harm to the name of Christ, but we can cross a line when our words and actions become counterproductive.  We should be known for our convictions as well as our compassion.  We gain trust by acting on our convictions, we allow the Spirit to open hearts as we act with compassion.