Published 8:45 pm Friday, November 1, 2024 By Submitted Across the Pastor’s Desk by Charles Teixeira This is my third year living in Minnesota, and autumn is my favorite season, hands down. There’s something about watching the golden corn fields return to black soil and green trees slowly turning into a kaleidoscope of brilliant yellow, red and bronze. Charles Teixeira But every four years, there are two other colors which pop up among all this natural beauty: red and blue.
Of course, this coming Tuesday is Election Day, and just about every person I know just wants for it to be over. All the endless slandering of party against party and candidate against candidate has become a wedge that’s dividing friendships, families and communities. We take a quick glance at our neighbor’s lawns, assess their yard signs and are tempted to file them away as either “friend” or “foe.
” How did we get here? At the root of our country’s critically high political tensions, all the feverish angst, is a spiritual crisis: We’ve prioritized political victories over God’s image. One of the primary doctrines of my Christian faith is that each of my neighbors, no matter their political leanings, (or any other factor) was created by a Creator in his image (Genesis 1:27). This is the foundation of what’s called theological anthropology, or the worldview that sees each person as made in the image of God and therefore, having infinite worth and dignity.
It’s that divinely-bestowe.
