In addition to recommended strategies for everyone, politicians are a unique class of people who have very visible platforms from which they can effectively confront Christian Nationalism or turn people to embrace it with inflammatory rhetoric. If they do the things that politicians should do, they may create social space in which they have freedom and authority to speak truth to Christian Nationalists. When they do things politicians should not do, they expand the division between themselves and Christian Nationalists and minimize their credibility as a non-judgmental truthteller.
| RECOMMENDED THINGS POLITICIANS SHOULD DO |
| Think of yourself and other members of your legislative body as sharing the common feature of being human. |
| In your mind, writing, speeches and conversations, avoid using labels that identify you according to your membership political subgroups. |
| In thoughts, words and behaviors, treat other politicians the way you would like to be considered and treated. |
| Think of yourself as being on the same moral and spiritual level as all politicians in the other party. |
| If possible, disassociate yourself from subgroups in your party that tend to do the RECOMMENDED THINGS POLITICIANS SHOULD AVOID DOING. |
| Share recommendations of things that should and should not be done with members of your party, the other party, your constituents, your family and your supporters. |
| After sharing these recommendations with someone, give them permission to correct you if they observe you violating these recommendations. |
| After sharing these recommendations with someone, ask if they will give you permission to correct them when they violate the recommendations. |
| Be especially mindful of these recommendations when talking to the press. |
| When speaking on or off the record with the press, share these recommendations publicly and encourage others to adopt them. |
| After telling members of the press about recommended things politician should and should not do, give the press permission to correct you if they observe you violating these recommendations. |
| Be mindful of the lies that members of your party and the other party repeat during policy debates, quote in the media, or include in speeches. Research the facts, and share the truth with those members privately. |
| Study character qualities of exemplary political leadership and consciously work to implement those qualities in your political life. |
| Whenever you recognize that a member of the other party has told a lie or misrepresented your policy positions, correct them in private at an appropriate time. |
| Whenever you speak in public, whether in person or through media, limit your comments to policy. |
| Always tell the truth. |
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| RECOMMENDED THINGS POLITICIANS SHOULD NOT DO |
| Do not publicly call out members of your party or the other party about lies they have told or misrepresented your policy positions. |
| Never publicly call anyone out for lying or distorting truth. Instead, research the facts and correct them privately. |
| Do not act like you are running for office until primary time. |
| Whenever you speak in public, whether in person or through media, do not call politicians names or otherwise denigrate their character, their policies or their political associations. |
| Whenever a member of the other party disagrees with your policy positions, do not defend yourself by denigrating their character. |
| Never lie. |
| Never distort the truth to make yourself look good or someone else look bad. |
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These are not definitive lists. Readers who have ideas about additions to either list are encouraged to send those ideas to paul.borene@thewaywesee.com. Ideas that fit with the concept of spiritual warfare will be included in these lists.
Readers who do not believe in God might be interested to know that lack of belief in God is not an obstacle to God working through you. Your beliefs are either gateways or obstacles to what God wants to do. Truth is truth — no matter who speaks it — and accomplishes what social/political strategies cannot do to change hearts and minds. What this means for atheists and agnostics is this:
Read If you think that religious extremists misrepresent God (if indeed God exists) and his ways because they interpret the bible literally, and, if you think that symbolic interpretations of the bible accurately represent God (if he exists) and his ways, and, if you actively share those correct, symbolic interpretations with others so that they might know the truth about how to interpret the bible, then, your actions are gateways for changes of hearts and minds. In other words, it is belief in how the bible should be interpreted (i.e. literally or symbolically) that matters to God. The overriding truth that God wants us to share, whether we believe in him or not, is that the truth about him and his ways exists in symbolic bible interpretations – not in literal interpretations.