Fruitful Politics: Kindness

“Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign." Joshua 2:12

I've always understood kindness as the active expression of the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. So how does kindness work itself out in the political season?

Kindness listens. The worst sort of conversation is the one where you can tell the other person is not really listening to you. They're half-listening while they're waiting to respond with their much-more-important contribution to the "discussion". This happens all too frequently in political discussions. No one is really interested in a substantive dialogue. They're just taking turns spouting off their cherished opinions.

Kindness listens attentively and actually considers not only the content of what's being said, but the value of the person talking.

Kindness prefers dialogue to monologue. This is closely related to the previous point. Some people, when they're talking about politics, are so invested - or obsessed - with the brilliance and superiority of their own political insights, they'll talk your ear off. There's no room to respond, to ask questions, or even to agree.

Kindness loves a dialogue, reveling more in the personal interaction, in getting to know one another better, than in letting the other person know how smart you are.

Kindness answers softly. It's easy to become so wrapped up in the "right vs. wrong" narrative when it comes to politics. Reasonable people can and do disagree on the detailed application of principle to politics. Approaching every political statement or Facebook share as the opening volley in a war will motivate you to respond with a blast of indignant certainty.

Kindness values the other's right to their opinion as much as your own, and responds with a soft answer. That doesn't mean you'll always agree, but you'll answer gently, perhaps putting your riposte into the form of a question.

Kindness hesitates to judge motives. In my experience, responding to a strong partisan statement with a soft answer often prompts the other person to quickly assume I'm for the opposite candidate or position. Along with that comes assumptions about my motives for such a contrary viewpoint. Often those assumptions are not true at all. It's just that my goal is to keep political conversations constructive and missional.

Jumping to conclusions about someone's motives for their political stance or their approach is never conducive to having a productive dialogue. Kindness assumes the best motives from others, until proven otherwise.

Kindness doesn't pass along gossip. If kindness is treating others like I'd like to be treated, then gossip is at the top of the list of things I don't like. Gossip is unkind and is more a sign of the works of the flesh (hatred, discord, ... selfish ambition, dissensions...) than the fruit of the Spirit.

Gossiping about politicians and candidates is equally unkind. If you heard a salacious but unproven rumor about me, would you rush to post the details on Facebook? Would you share it with as many friends and friends-of-friends as possible? Would you turn it into a meme, hoping it could go viral and embarrass me in front of the whole internet? I would hope not.

Why, then, are so many people - and so many Christian people - so gleeful about passing along the latest viral smear about political figures? Is it because we don't think of them as people? Gossip is unkind in any setting.

Kindness sees individuals.  It's so easy to see the phrase #BlackLivesMatter and respond to the political statement, rather than seeing the wounded souls of the people who have been marginalized by so many. It's easy to vehemently oppose policies about immigrants and refugees and fail to respond with empathy toward the plight of the aliens in our midst.

Kind, Spirit-fueled believers may hold definite opinions about the politics of a situation, but they will always fall back on their default mode of empathy and compassion for the individual children of God enmeshed in a political quagmire.

Kindness offers help. If I'm struggling with my weight, I hope my Christian friends will help me by keeping me on track with my diet and exercise program, rather than just shaking their heads at the "fat pig"in their midst. If someone in the church has anger issues, I would hope his fellow believers would help him with his problems rather than talking about him behind his back. These are just common sense expectations of how the community of believers conduct themselves.

Why, then, do so many Christians respond to the poor, the drug addict, the convicted criminal, the transgendered, and the young woman who just had abortion - why do so many believers see these sinners and have a quick, automatic reaction of censure and political outrage? Spirit-driven kindness produces an automatic response of "what can I do to help?" Kindness sees them as people first, not as opinions.

Kindness gets involved. Kindness sees the individuals enmeshed in the issues and immediately wants to know how to help. Kindness rolls up its sleeves and gets involved.

It's easy to get in the habit of  "helping" in ways that enable me to carefully keep my distance. I'll give money to a group that helps "those people", but I really don't want to get involved with "those people."

It took me years to learn this lesson: You'll never know the full blessings of the Christian life until you intentionally become messily involved in the messy lives of messy people. More than your money, more than your political opinions, people who are oppressed by the world or oppressed by sin need to know you're willing to walk along beside them.

Kindness gets involved.