Andy Stanley talks politics ahead of 2020 election; 4 interesting takeaways
Listen, learn, love
During the Jan. 19 sermon, Stanley discussed what he considered to be the three things that Christians should do to better interact with those who have different political views.
“This isn’t complicated and this isn’t new and this isn’t anything you haven’t heard before,” he said. “But sometimes you just got to say what everybody knows so everybody remembers to do it.”
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The first part was to listen, with Stanley imploring his congregation to “listen to people who don’t experience the world the way you do.”
“The Christians and the not-Christians, young and old, black and white, gay and straight, married and single, new citizens, old citizens, people who’ve been in the military, people who despise the military,” explained Stanley. “Begin to listen to people who have experienced the world differently than the way you have.”
The second part was “to learn something,” with Stanley stressing that they should think about what they hear, adding that as Christians “we don’t need to be afraid of new information.”
“Be curious,” he said and then quoted atheist intellectual and author Sam Harris: “Pay attention to the frontiers of your ignorance.”
The final part, according to Stanley, was love, with the pastor telling the congregation to “never, ever burn a relational bridge over a political view.”
“This goes back to Jesus’ commandment, this goes back to the cross, this goes back to the epicenter of what we believe as Christians,” he stressed.
“[The person] beside you is more precious to God than your potentially flawed view — a view that you changed 10 years ago, a view that you’re going to change five years from now.”
