This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program originally aired on 3/28/22. To listen to the program, please click HERE.
Sam Rohrer: Well, hello and welcome to a new week of programming here on Stand in the Gap Today. And as normal, this will be a week packed with relevant programming, featuring an expose of issues that we believe to be some of the most compelling and impactful to all people who want to know the truth and have chosen to fear God and keep his commandments. I would certainly think that most of you listening to the program right now would be in that category.
Here, with God’s help on this program, your prayers and your financial partnering essential as we commit to doing our best before God to bring the truth of a biblical worldview to bear on the most important issues of the day. I ask right now for your prayers and financial partnering today and this week, it is just that important. Thank you for those who have been and are partnering with us in prayer. For those of you who have not yet joined with us, this week perhaps would be the week that would be done.
With the incessant narrative of the Russia-Ukraine war dominating headline news, the reality of the strategic nature of this war eclipses the pain of suffering of individual Ukrainians, who, in the end, are sadly dispensable in the bigger power play between the globalist-led West and the Eastern Bloc of nations, including Russia, China, Iran, and increasingly, India.
Now, in the end, the Russia-Ukraine war is far more of an East-West ideological war with the globalist West dominated by, yes, the United States under our leadership here now, not us, but in Washington. The European Union and NATO all fueling the fires of war by blaming all of the consequences of inflation and looming food shortages and increasing energy prices on Vladimir Putin. As together, East and West are together forging ahead with their own view of totalitarian world government, and with it, the end of civil freedom as we know it. Understand, it’s happening on both sides. We’re going to address some of those component pieces in later programs this week, so you don’t want to miss a single program.
However, in the middle of all this, in our nation, we’re now in the midst of a very important midterm election in which good people all across this country are involved both in the capacity of candidates for office or those in office rerunning for office, as well as hundreds of thousands of people as citizens who are trying their very best to determine who to support. Broadly speaking, confusion reigns as to who deserves our vote and who is really telling the truth, if anyone?
In addition, in the midst, there are some candidates who cite the name of God or claim to be the embodiment of moral truth, yet their actions, attitudes, and conduct raises the question of authenticity. In the end, we all desire strong moral leadership, but instead find a lot more pragmatic and secular standards driving the process with credible righteous leadership in very short supply.
So today, I’d thought I’d actually engage a discussion with a friend of mine, with whom I served for years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. I’ll say, in full transparency, he was my campaign manager when I ran for statewide governorship in the primary of 2010 here in Pennsylvania, but who is now himself an official candidate for lieutenant governor here in Pennsylvania. His name is Jeff Coleman, and I’m going to talk to him in just a moment.
Now, many of our Pennsylvania listeners will hopefully find today’s program helpful, but I do believe that due to the nature of our discussion, no matter which state in which you reside, you’ll find today’s discussion practical and very applicable. The title I’ve chosen is this, Running the Righteous Race Equals Glorifying God, Not Winning At All Cost. Today, we’re going to get a real-time overview of the culture on today’s campaign trail and one man’s, this man’s, Jeff’s response to these findings.
Segment three, we’re going to identify certain core biblical principles that should govern the conduct of candidates who identify with God or the Bible. And then we’re going to conclude with some basic principles of how we, as God-fearing citizens, should think and engage as individuals in response to the biblical principles, which should govern our thinking and interaction with candidates, whether they claim to be righteous or not. And with that, I want to welcome in right now to the program, Jeff Coleman. Jeff, thanks for being with me today.
Jeff Coleman: Sam, it is always an honor.
Sam Rohrer: Jeff, we’ve got a lot to cover, so I want to get right into it. You’re crisscrossing the state now here to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I’d like to ask you to give a summary in two parts. First, if you could this, number one, the attitudes and the expectations of the activist and concerned citizens who are looking for conservative, and yes, Christian candidates, what you’re finding as you cross the state here in Pennsylvania? Then number two, the attitudes and the actions of the candidates to the perceived expectations of the citizens. Does that make sense?
Jeff Coleman: Yeah. Yeah, well, Sam, I think the first part of this is what am I finding? What I think I am finding almost at every event, and I’ve been to dozens of events now in virtually every part of the state of Pennsylvania, and it’s a big state, there’s a lot of anxiety, a lot of fear, a lot of concern that the country is in a direction that is irreparable. There is a great deal of concern that the decision making on behalf of people who identify as conservative or Christian or Republican doesn’t match the outcome, so there’s a real disconnect. And there’s just frustration and anger, but above all, there’s a spirit, I’d say a fear, among people that I meet.
The response to that, and I think this is a response that the candidates have to decide, is they can either take those fears and those anxieties and ride them all the way to the polls by saying, “I am the solution. I am the answer.” Or they can direct them back to some first principles, which I know we’ll talk about a little later, which is that there are some permanent things that are a part of a Christian, no matter what sphere they’re engaged in, but particularly politics, that should mark and define a Christian in the public square.
And increasingly what I’m seeing is that candidates are taking the fears and instead of directing them, they’re just affirming that there are fears. And the only answer seems to be, “Give money to me, put one of my signs in your yard, or support my campaign, because together, we will push back all the forces of evil and the forces of darkness.” And that is, to me, a very concerning narrative.
Sam Rohrer: Well, Jeff, I tell you, I mean, you laid it out there pretty well. So you’re taking us right up to the break. Ladies and gentlemen, our theme today is this, Running the Race Equals Glorifying God, Not Winning At All Cost. We’re looking at the lay of the land right now across the country, taking a shot here in Pennsylvania, but I’m submitting that it is common across the country because people are common.
And Jeff just described that a lot of what the citizens are feeling are exasperation, anxiety, concern, and a great deal of fear. The question is, what are those who are running for office or those who are re-running for their positions, how are they responding to it? Catering to the fears or offering, in fact, proven solutions? We’ll talk about that when we come back in just a moment.
Well, welcome back to Stand in the Gap Today. I’m Sam Rohrer and my special guest today is the Honorable Jeff Coleman. He’s the president of Churchill Communications at the moment. He and I served together a number of years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and he is currently a candidate for lieutenant governor here in Pennsylvania. Now, this program is not so much at all a focus on his race as much as getting his perspective as someone who I’ve worked with for a long time, who is a believer in Jesus Christ, to give a perspective of what he’s seeing on the ground as he’s involved in a statewide race, which is totally different than a local race. You just see things from a much, much bigger perspective. And so the title of the program today is Running the Righteous Race.
Now, Jeff, let’s go back into it. I asked you in that first segment to identify what you felt was the primary mood or the culture or the attitude of the concerned citizens, those who have enough motivation to actually get out and get involved in a race with some candidate and so forth. And you kind of summarized it by saying, lots of anxiety, concern, a disconnect that people are feeling between those who are in office who say they’re conservative or Christian, but then have not necessarily following through on that or some of that.
And then I asked you this question, which is where I want to go here right now because I want to know your response to it. The other was, how are those who are candidates for office, some gunning for the first time… In your case, you’ve been in office before. Now, you’re seeking a statewide office… And how they are responding to the expectation, this culture, this attitude that they’re finding on the ground? So, I want to go to you at this point and say, you said something about either the primary, which I would agree with you, a primary response of a politician if they’re… not a statesman, but a politician, is to cater to the fears of the people. Just kind of report back to them and retort back to them what they’re hearing, but not giving a whole lot of solutions to it.
So in your case, how are you responding? In the end, how are you seeking to respond to that attitude by majority, I would say, you’re saying of those candidates who you’re finding running for office now?
Jeff Coleman: Well, the first thing that I try to do and I encourage all candidates to do this, is not to just curse the other side. And I’m using that in a general sense, of not just repeating all of the mistakes, policy mistakes or outright lies or distortions. When you burn calories on talking about other people, you rarely get to the solutions that you want to be. If you were given the privilege of serving in this case for 1,460 days, which is the length of a governorship or in my case, lieutenant governorship, what do you want to do? What do you want to accomplish? Where do you want to take those fears? And what are the solutions that are at the end of it?
The challenge is, when you have people who are framing it up as a battle, a war between good and evil, it makes it very difficult in the end to govern because you’re not viewing the constituents in terms of being people that you are charged with serving no matter what party they subscribe to, which is the way the founders, the framers set it up, that once the election is passed, you have an obligation to give them, render to them a good, honest, decent, moral, ethical public service.
What we’re doing now with almost every political speech saying, “Here’s what the other side has done. Here’s why they are violating everything that you and I agree with. They need to be defeated forever.” And essentially, what you hear people talking about is almost a one party or a rule that essentially says, “When we gain the power, we’re going to get everything back and we’re going to right the ship and turn the country around.” It almost sounds like a different form of government than a representative republic, which we have, which really relies on having two sides to debate, to persuade, to win over.
So what I’ve tried to do in our campaign is encourage, number one, encourage all of the candidates to avoid something that I think is all too prevalent, which is sarcasm. Because sarcasm… And you’d have to listen to a speech very carefully, but often candidates, even Christian candidates, turn to mocking and sarcasm as a way to make a point. And the name-calling trend in politics is a way to dehumanize a person who we believe isn’t made in God’s image.
Sam Rohrer: Okay. Jeff, let me-
Jeff Coleman: Take away-
Sam Rohrer: … let me insert in here at this point, because you’re going in a direction that I did want to go with you. There are some very well-known, frankly, individuals nationally that have made the sarcasm rather entertaining, rather… It’s almost like a brand. Little titles like, “little Jimmy over there” or, “Sad Sack Susie” or something of that point, which gets you in the direction of what you’re talking about there, diminishing that person, going after their character. Some would call it character assassination is something… You can be actually kind of slick in the way you do it. You can crack a joke and whatever.
But whenever that takes place, it seems to me that there is a complete missing of the entire point. What’s the issue that we’re talking about? Instead, we make it the person to diminish them. And you were starting to go that way about being made in the image of God, but build that out a little bit. Again, from the response of, how are you not getting caught up in that trap? And how are you, when you are responding to people, not going down that same path, which has really been made frankly pretty popular?
Jeff Coleman: Right. It’s almost always the norm now. And I think it’s often because the consultants to political candidates say… And it’s almost that you’re sitting around a table saying, “Oh, this would be a good name for them. Why don’t you try that one on?” And it’s what we call the meme culture. It’s, instead of attacking President Biden’s policies, we find a slogan. In this case, and you’re familiar with one that is a euphemism for a very vulgar term.
And Christians, I was behind a car the other day, had a sticker from my alma mater, Liberty University. And on the license plate, it said, “My boss is a Jewish carpenter,” and then had a vulgar term related to the president of the United States, which we wouldn’t tolerate for our children saying, but it’s, “Well, it’s just a euphemism.” Here’s what that does. Number one, it ruins our Christian witness. It makes us essentially say, “We tried doing it Jesus’s way with meekness, with kindness, with love, loving our enemies, blessing those who curse us, doing good to those who spitefully use us.”
And it allows us to then to say, “They’re no longer a human being made in God’s image because they’re trying to destroy the Republic. They’re trying to take away our freedoms. If we gave them the reigns of power, they would take away our freedom to pray. They would take away our freedom to defend our homes. They would do everything that’s against Scripture.” So now, we’re justified in the attacks. Here’s the challenge, Sam, is that Jesus promised that, “In this world you will have trouble, but fear not. I have overcome the world.”
So when we begin acting like the world and putting on a very worldly, coarse, jesting, mocking culture, and embrace that, what we’re doing essentially is saying, “Let’s erase these parts of Scripture and only find the Sampson moments, where Sampson collapses the temple, or when Jesus turns over the tables in his Father’s house.” And say, “Because he did that, I don’t have to listen to what Jesus said about how I am supposed to treat those with whom I disagree or worse, those who are my enemies.” That is the radical call to be a Christian in this environment that we are ignoring.
And some say, Sam, “But it works. We can’t play games anymore with the other side. It works. So if we have to use some tactics that are a little underhanded, if we have to be creative with our words and our methods, as long as it works.” And my argument is, Sam, that that is a short-term victory. Because when we win the wrong way, we’re at risk of losing our Christian witness, which is far, far more significant than losing the election.
Sam Rohrer: Jeff, I think in that regard, you’re raising a couple of points, but for a person who says… Now, we’re talking to a mostly Christian audience. You are a believer, you’ve made that clear. I am, people know that. There is a difference. There’s a disconnect you’re talking about when people actually say, “I’m of God,” or, “I believe the Bible,” or, “Amen.” They’ll say it at the end. And I’ve said this many times, people like to close their speeches with, “God bless America,” but their presentation was filled full of everything that was unlike who God is or Jesus said. There’s got to be a level of authenticity here. And if it’s not like you’re talking about, you say one thing, but you do something else, there’s a problem. Isn’t it?
Jeff Coleman: Yeah. It’s the fruit of the spirit that we’re looking for. And it’s not always evident in my life and to measure me against the ideal, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, self-control, I think that is… The self-control piece is probably the one that is most missing with Christians who are involved in politics.
You look at somebody’s Facebook profile and they have a Scripture verse or, “He has risen” or, “Praise the Lord.” And then you look down, and they are repeating… say they have a meme attacking, say Nancy Pelosi on one side, or attacking Donald Trump on the other side. And you say, “Well, how can this be?” And the arguments are not using Scripture. The arguments are often more convenient. It was much easier to drive by-
Sam Rohrer: Okay. Hold that, Jeff, right there. We’re out of time. Ladies and gentlemen, stay with us. When we come back, we’re going to give some, what we call, rules of the race. Biblical principles that apply that we should see, that should be put in effect.
In this segment, I’d like to take and identify a couple of things. One, when it comes to a political campaign, when it comes to a race, most listening to me right now have probably never been in office, but you’ve all voted for somebody because you wanted them to be in office. Or you maybe wanted to get somebody out of office, but we’ve all, because of the nature of a representative republic, we are all engaged.
Now, as believers in Jesus Christ, we operate according to different standards. Clearly, we know that, but what are those standards? And can we identify some that should be there in the forefront of that person who is already in office or for someone running for office and for all of us who are not in office, but are looking for people to whom to support? Are there some principles that we can actually use as a filter in our mind’s eye in order to help to evaluate those that are there? It’s very tough in these days.
But with that, let me go here. This is a fact, the elections and campaigns have historically been contentious. They have sometimes been very barefisted, often, very unfair and very costly in terms of personal and family sacrifice. Now, for those of us who have been there, we can attest to this reality. Frankly, running for office or serving in office is never for the faint of heart. Yet I can submit that neither is living life as a committed Christian citizen or a father or a mother or a pastor in the pulpit or a Christian businessman or a teacher in the classroom. It’s not easy for them either if they’re committed to living a Christian life.
So particularly, in an anti-God culture like we have now, a pragmatic culture where might makes right and the ends justify the means, what are some core biblical principles which must be the standard and the guide for both the person in office or the candidate for office who claims to be religious and can act as qualifiers for concerned citizens who wish to support or encourage, frankly, all candidates when they are running?
So with that, Jeff, let’s go back into that. I want to ask you a question. I want to ask you two in this segment. Here’s this one, from the perspective of a Christian candidate or an office holder, as we have both been in the past… We’ve both been there, so we’re speaking commonality there. You’re now running again for office… But if there was one most important obligation of a standard for a person who claims to know who God is or claims to be a Christian or claims to be moral or claims to be religious, a lot of different terms used here, what would that be? And then, how is that actually carried out? Could you cite a principle or two here that would help to get us in this track here?
Jeff Coleman: Well, that’s a great question. And I think this comes down to… Let me speak first as a candidate, because I think sometimes, we confuse the calling into public service or politics as the call to hold the office. And we often will use Old Testament terms to talk about the anointing of King David or the selection of prophets and how God brought people from obscurity and anonymity to positions of power. That claim is a dangerous claim to make because it says that if somebody loses the election, somehow that is a lesser call. I think God actually calls people just to be faithful.
And if you look at the Old Testament example of the Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace, and it is the, “But if not. If God does not deliver us, we will not bow down and worship your idols.” And we’re not going to do the dance for you, but we’re going to go with calm and serenity and trust, knowing that God has the ability to give us an election or He has a spectacular purpose to show and make Himself great and to bring Himself glory in a loss. And it is often in the loss where you know the difference between a true follower of Christ and someone who is just there for the office. How they act when the same object of affection that the world has, the same political office is taken away. If the Christian can say, “Praise the Lord, I was able to love, serve and for one year, able to get my views out and engage the public. It was all worth it.” I think that is the measurement, to let it go.
But secondly, and this is both for candidates and office holders, the obligation to love is a really significant one. Because if you’re not in it just to do whatever you have to do to win, you’re not treating people as opponents. You’re treating people as, yes, people who are in the race with you, but you’re trying for their families. You’re getting to know personally. You’re finding out that even though you disagree with them on the most important issues of our time, you begin to love and treat them as people just like you would in any other walk of life, and not as enemies. That changes the words you use. You’re not so guarded. You’re not so jaded. You’re always willing to compliment, if there’s something to compliment, or you’re willing to not be as braggadocious in a setting where you’re all competing for the same office.
The love of Christ really does restrain the kinds of things that you do and say in order to hold a public office. If the object of the campaign and serving is to glorify God, the whole nature of that campaign changes. And you can say, “Live or die, win or lose, if no money comes in tomorrow for this campaign, I’m going to trust Him. I’m going to go down this route with Him. And at the end of it, I’ll have grown closer to Him and closer in dependency and trust in my relationship to Him.” That’s what it has to be for a believer.
Sam Rohrer: All right, glorifying God. Basically, that’s what you said. The primary objective is not winning, although we do want to win, but it’s glorifying God. Because His will may not be for us to win, but to be a testimony in the process, which is what you’re saying. That is a most distinctive view, Jeff, but it’s very important, ladies and gentlemen, to be aware of that. Because you can see this in a person’s demeanor, you can see it in the person’s speech and you can see it in their actions. It’s one of those marks that you can see. Now, Jeff, you cited that as a most important objective, really to glorify God and to be faithful. That was the other term you used.
Now, here’s another part of the question. What do you believe are the most important things not to do? So we talked about the positive, what to do. But what must the person who is constrained by his faith in the Scripture, relationship with the Lord, says he is a Christian, says he is different than the others, what are a couple of things that have come forward in your mind that are most critical not to do?
Jeff Coleman: [inaudible 00:26:27] them earlier. I think, number one, the politician and their campaigns, because the politician sets the tone for the campaign. You have to have a zero tolerance policy for gossip, innuendo, rumor. When somebody comes to you and says, “You know what? I learned this thing about them.” And it comes in an envelope. Or someone says, “I’ve got these pictures, or I’ve got this text message, or I’ve got this piece of information about another person,” the immediate answer has to be, “That’s not relevant to me. If God wants to reveal something about someone to help them make the decision, that’s between them and God. But I will not and you cannot be a part of that.”
Secondly, the tone has to be serious and sincere, not sarcastic and not mocking. That’s a very fine line, but I would encourage people to listen to a political speech and kind of almost with all of the signs and the pageantry gone, just the transcript of a speech, and say, “Did that saying, phrase, name, bring dignity and honor and respect to someone?” And you say, “Well, they don’t deserve that.” No, that’s not for us to decide. Or did it undercut and undermine or destroy, or was it meant to harm or impugn motives?
Thirdly, something that the framers thought was very important because they were guided by wonderful principles, biblical principles, this idea of not impugning people’s motives and character. You can debate somebody on the merits of what they believe, but you may never, ever say that they’re doing it because they are controlled by special interest or because the establishment has… they’re puppets on the string or all these things. They sound good, they okay, but what you’re actually doing is questioning someone’s motives. Which in all of the laws and the rules that govern our legislative bodies, our constitutional bodies, is prohibited.
We can’t even use in the floor, House floor or Senate floor debate, someone else’s name, because we’re supposed to be debating measures, not men. So I think those three things, not getting into gossip and innuendo, avoiding sarcasm and name calling, and then really avoiding impugning the character and motives of other people and staying on the issues. People would have so much more respect for Christians in the public square if we were straightforward.
Sam Rohrer: Jeff, you laid that out there perfectly. And ladies and gentlemen, think about this. What does God through King Solomon say in Ecclesiastes? The two most important objectives of all mankind, all mankind, fear God and keep God’s word, His commandments. That means for a Christian, it means acting like Christ in all of the other higher standards that come in the Scripture. When we come back, we’re going to make some practical, individual application.
Well, the program today’s been a little different, no doubt. Not so much a headline news, except for the fact that the midterms election that we’re all looking forward to and all trying to wade through being caught in the midst of Russia, Ukraine narrative, and so many other big issues that are, for many cases, confusing. It does not lessen the significance of our election here. And I’m responding to this issue today and my special guest has been the Honorable Jeff Coleman. He and I served together for a number of years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. And he is now a candidate for lieutenant governor statewide here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
So we’ve been discussing what he’s actually seeing on the ground. Because I can attest to this, ladies and gentlemen, if any of you have ever run for office before, you know exactly what we’re talking about is true. And if you are there, whether you’re in Pennsylvania or any state across the Union here, you’re having the same kind of difficulty with trying to make sense and figure out who’s telling the truth? And is this person… Do they really know what morality is? Do they really know who God is? They say God often, but their actions don’t follow that up. What should we make of all of this? I know that’s where people are, because I’m talking with them all the time.
So that’s why we went on this issue here today. And we’re trying to bring it into some resolve here, because in the end, running a righteous race, as we’ve termed this program, the Righteous Race, is something that we should desire of all candidates. It’s not wrong to hope for the righteous person, a Christian, to run like, act like, think like, and be like once they get in office. But once in office, ruling righteously is also what we should pray for, because we know that there is a direct benefit, consequence when righteous people are in office and actually make righteous decisions.
Proverbs 29:2 says this, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.” It’s not accidental. It’s a byproduct of the righteous acting righteously in positions of authority. But it also says, “When the wicked or the evil bear rule, the people mourn.” That’s what we’re seeing more today around the world, isn’t it? But we’re also told that as Christians, all of us who love freedom, and it’s not just Christians who love for freedom, most people love freedom.
And if we want God’s blessings, we should do what the Apostle Paul instructed in 1 Timothy 2:1-4. Let me just read this briefly. It says this, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications and prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings,” yes, thanksgivings, “be made for all of people,” all people. “For kings and all who are in high positions.” Not some, all. Why? “That we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good,” the Apostle Paul said, “And it’s pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who,” what’s His purpose? “He desires that all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
So why do we focus on truth, ladies and gentlemen, here? Because we desire as God does, that all people be confronted with the truth of the Gospel and come to the knowledge of the truth. Jeff, in practical application here for our listeners today, given these two core biblical principles, one in reality, it does make a difference who’s in office. It’s just why we should support and vote for the righteous person. The other is to pray for all of those, both running for office and those in office, despite their political party or their policies, because ultimately, we want them and their choices to lead them to Christ. And so the laws that are made can permit God’s people to live a quiet life, a godly and dignified life in every way.
So, what practical advice can you give us in the closing moments here? Give to our listeners and citizens across the country who want God’s blessing in this time of campaigns and want to seek clarity as to which candidate perhaps to support who’s now out there promising everything under the sun for their vote?
Jeff Coleman: Well, a couple things. First, I’d say that, when you hear a politician who identifies as a Christian or identifies as a conservative and they’ve whipped the crowd up into a frenzy and you yourself get kind of carried away. When your conscience tells you, “Boy, I wish he hadn’t said, or she hadn’t said that,” or, “I think I see what they’re doing there. They just led me down a path where I started to hate the political opponent instead of just disagreeing with them,” that’s when you probably… that little ping of your conscience should indicate that that is probably not a candidate who you should be supporting.
Secondly, I think that you have an obligation to call out in a gentle way, in a text, in a phone call, in an email, say, “I heard you speak in front of that church, in front of that audience. And I heard you refer to your opponent as a,” fill in the blank. “Do you think next time you could avoid saying that term, because I think your point would be much more well-received if you just left it out.”
But thirdly, when you pray for political candidates, don’t just pray for their victory. I hear people saying, “I manifest this victory on your behalf,” or, “I pray against the others that they would be defeated and that you would win.” Let God make the determination on who wins and loses. You can pray for victory and then resign the consequences to Him. But also, pray for people to come to know Christ and the peace that defies understanding. When you begin to pray for your political opponents to come to know the peace of Christ, you’re not going to call them a name. You’re not going to call them… belittle them or mock them.
And I’ll give you one very quick example. In the transgender debate, for example, which is kind of the most… where all of our passions come together. And there are politicians or athletes who are transgendered or identify a particular way and we’re offended at certain terms or the way that the debate was treated. What I’m hearing sometimes now, Christians or their willingness in social media to repeat something that’s slanderous or something that is dehumanizing to that person. Instead of saying, “We pray for that person, for their family.” Yes, we want righteous laws, good laws to be upheld or we wouldn’t make that. But we’ve got to separate sometimes our emotions and our passions so that we don’t lose the joy and the winsomeness and the persuasive power of the good news of the Gospel, which is often lost when we are so shrill and mocking in public policy debates.
Sam Rohrer: Jeff, that is excellent. We only have a minute left. I’m going to do this. You and I have prayed many times together. I’m going to ask you, close this program in prayer. Somebody who’s been in office and somebody who’s now running again, as we’ve talked about these most important principles today, would you do that, please?
Jeff Coleman: I’d be happy to. Heavenly Father, we submit to you that all of our words, all of our thoughts, our actions mean nothing if they do not exude the love of Christ, the grace that you have given us, the mercy, the peace, the forgiveness that we have found. We want our political opponents, we want those who disagree with us, not just to be defeated on the policy, but that they themselves would come to find the piece that defies human understanding and come to know you personally.
We pray that in all of our interactions, as small as a tweet, as small as a Facebook post, as small as an interaction with a candidate who we run into at the grocery store, someone who knocks on the door, would you allow Christ to be what people see in us? Not our agenda, not our political party, not what’s on the back of our bumper sticker or on our T-shirt, but may they see Christ in us and feel His love and compassion. And we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Sam Rohrer: Amen. Thank you, Jeff Coleman, for being with us today. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for being with us as well. We’re at the end of the program, hopefully, it’s been helpful to you. Go to our website, standinthegapradio.com, listen to the program again, share it with your friends, please. It’ll be helpful to them. The Lord willing, we’ll see you back here tomorrow, 23 hours from now.
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