If you knew me four years ago, you knew how obnoxiously political I was, spouting off my views and opinions as if they were absolute truth. Self-righteous does not even begin to describe my arrogance.

During this election year, I kept my opinions to myself…mainly because I had very few.

Sunday, as I was walking through the halls of the church building, I overheard a snippet of a conversation between two people I don’t know. I admit I may have taken it completely out of context, but the question I overheard was enough to make me want to stop in my tracks. One person asked another, Can a Christian be a Democrat? I wanted to stop and say, What kind of question is that?! Wait…that’s not quite true…I really wanted to stop and say, #%*!, yes!!

But if I’m completely honest about it, I have to admit I had the same question four years ago. Ugh…

How dare we bring into question someone’s Christianity based upon their affiliation with one political party or another? How dare we question someone’s affiliation with a political party based upon their Christianity, or lack of? The last time I checked, Jesus didn’t base His relationship with us on a political party.

Over the past week, I’ve seen doom and gloom all over social media…Christians apparently convinced that one man is single-handedly going to destroy America, and thus, the world. Are we so disillusioned that we believe one man from an opposing political party could actually single-handedly save America, and thus, the world?

What if Christians focused more on loving people than on loving a political party? What if each us believed it to be our responsibility to love others as we love ourselves? To love others as Christ loves us? Maybe we’d actually make a difference every day instead of trying to make one every four years with worn-out, belligerent rhetoric while hiding behind religious masks.