Christian Civility and Kindness

I’m going to take a little departure from the theme of my last post and shift my focus to civility—Christian civility.  I “tweeted” on Twitter and on Facebook the question of what is Christian civility and what does it look like.  Unfortunately the response was grossly underwhelming; I had only one substantive response.  The reason could simply be no one saw my post; or, the reason could also be that we just don’t know the answer to that question. 

The question of civility is now in the headlines due to inappropriate responses to a tragic shooting in Arizona.  In fact, the New York Times ran this headline on January 12, 2011:  “Obama Calls for a New Era of Civility in U.S. Politics.”  Regardless of our political affiliation, I’m sure we can all agree that American political rhetoric is vitriolic at its most typical and downright hostile at its extremes.  We seem to accept this as the norm and slough it off as just political banter and blather.

But does this banter and blather belie a deeper and darker truth about our culture, that our communication in general is becoming more vitriolic?  This question leads to a larger question:  Does culture follow politics or does politics follow culture?  I think it’s the latter, that’s why politicians are doing what they can to get our attention; and it seems that the only communication we pay attention to is either flashy and shallow or hostile and accusative.  Such an environment has no room for civility or politeness.  This is the environment that Christ-followers are trying to be heard in as well. 

What’s more, we see so-called pastors calling to picket funerals or burn religious texts from other religions.  We also see and hear a lot of judgmental comments about lifestyles.  While I am well aware that sin is sin, does Christian civility call for us to pound people over the head about their sin?  If we are to extol the virtues of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, wouldn’t we instead focus on more positive messages such as salvation?  Have we not read Romans 2:3-4:  “So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” 

This passage isn’t calling for a blind eye toward sin, but it is inviting us to realize that we are all sinners in need of a loving Savior Who forgives and then works on delivering us from our sins.

So while there is no hard and fast answer to what Christian civility is, we now know that it entails in part, kindness. So if we are about to communicate in a way that is not kind, then we can be pretty sure it won’t meet the test of Christian civility.