(Here’s an update on my new book, A Different Jesus: A Christian Theology Big Enough For An Interfaith World. At this early stage I have received some very encouraging responses from friends, clergy, and academics. I honestly believe this book can foster productive discussion about how Christians can be faithfully Christian in an interfaith world. I would be happy to have an internet question/answer time with any group studying it.)
Recently one of my sisters-in-law made the comment, “Politicians are people like the rest of us.”
In my last Blog I argued that not all politicians are alike. At the same time, I agree with my sister-in-law that they are all the same because they are people like the rest of us. Sound confusing? Not really. If we remember that politicians are people no better and no worse than any of us, we might start focusing on issues rather than the person, and that is when we will see that they are not all alike.
Let me share a story that graphically illustrates why this change is so needed, and how easy it is to fall into making personal attacks.
The day before my sister-in-law made her comment I received a Facebook post from a guy I grew up with who was responding to something positive I said about President Obama. “Jan,” he wrote, “you’re talking in circles. He’s a loser.”
This is exactly what is wrong with our politics today. Instead of focusing on the issue we started out discussing, he launched a personal attack on the President, and in the process ended up saying something that was ridiculous.
Calling President Obama a “loser” is like calling Vince Lombardi a loser. Barack Obama is as smart as they come, educated, attended the best universities in the nation, was elected to the state and federal Senate, and is serving his second term as President of the United States. Rather than being a “loser,” the President’s life is an American success story.
If this old neighbor had wanted to criticize President Obama’s decisions, policies, stands on issues, he had plenty of material to work with. Instead, he chose to attack him as a person.
People do it all the time. They called the President a loser, a socialist, a Communist, un-American, anti-Christian, a hater of white people, and worse things, ignoring the fact that he is a person with all the strengths and weaknesses they have. In my faith tradition there is something about the only way to qualify for “casting the first stone” is to have no faults yourself. Know anybody like that? Didn’t think so.
But people throw stones at the President anyway, without thinking about the effect their personal attacks can have. When you tear down the person who is President, you are contributing to the decline of respect for the office itself, and that is as destructive to our democracy as it gets.
I need to remember that, and I suspect you do, too.
It’s actually true across the board. All politicians are people, nothing more and nothing less. I may abhor things politicians do, say, and believe in, but as people they are just like me and I am just like them.
I have no doubt that if we as people remembered that, we would elect better people (as I argued in my previous Blog), and at the same time would raise the level of our political life.
So if you or I feel the urge to attack someone as a person, we should begin with the one we see in the mirror every day. That would likely be as far as we would get.
linnposts.com 
I remember you making lots of personal attacks toward “Republicans” awhile back…and me in particular….you said unkind things about me in your blog and you don’t know a thing about me….I just chose to disagree with you. So yes, we are all people, nothing more and nothing less….belief has never been changed by name calling.
oh my goodness Lisa, how coincidental, he did the same to me and instead of listening to my position, DE-FRIENDED me on Facebook. I reckon the heat got to hot in the kitchen and he had to get out. little o is a total loser, we are in the most vulnerable position as a country as we have ever been. just because a bunch of welfare recipients elected him, means nothing in terms of the status of the presidential office.
Lisa, I made no personal attack on you so get your facts straight. What I don’t understand is why you keep reading my a Blog.
Steve, I told you I would not listen any longer to your rants after your son-in-law joined in and called poor people “rats swimming away from a sinking ship,” so that is what I did. Even your comment here is similar to what you usually say. What you said about “welfare recipients” is disrespectful of people who work hard, some more than one job, but still need help. Besides that, you even suggest such people should not be allowed to vote. In addition, I am not on public assistance and I helped elect President Obama. Thankfully I am far from the only one. If I wanted to hear the kind of unfounded, mean-spirited statements you just wrote I would watch Fix News. If that is refusing to hear you out, so be it. I read many things with which I disagree that are focused on issues, but are not personal attacks on people. That is the only kind of discourse I think is worthwhile. Pissing contexts are not.
“FIX NEWS” ????? That is a derogatory way of saying “Fox News” — So there you go, name calling! The thing you purport to abhor! Forty seven percent (47%) of the people in United States do watch FOX NEWS, which is more than other channels combined! Don’t go pointing your finger–there are three (of your own) fingers pointing right back at you.
Your comment is just silly. To equate a television channel with people is ridiculous. Enough said.
Attitude, man, Attitude!! You don’t show respect for ANY opinion that doesn’t agree with you. How can you talk about the many religions of the world respecting the other religions when you can’t do the same in the simplest of forms? You definitely are not open-minded about much of anything. You are showing a “closed” (“case closed, I have spoken!”) attitude towards other peoples’ viewpoints.
There was nothing disrespectful about saying your last “opinion” was silly. Nor was it a personal attack. If you don’t want your views criticized, stop writing.
Likewise to you: ” If you don’t want your views criticized, stop writing!”
Write all the criticism you choose to. Just be prepared for a response even though you apparently believe when I do so it is being disrespectful. A course in discourse might be helpful to you.
Writing as a UK citizen, I can’t think of many politicians I dislike, but I believe that our problems on both sides of the pond aren’t so much the people at the top, but with our respective systems of government. Both creaking and very old, both slow to respond to the challenges of the 21st Century world, and both dominated by the vested interests who as good as own them. At least in the UK, we have a tradition of reforming our institutions as the times change. With your country, I don’t know…except for the New Deal under Roosevelt.
Nigel, I am not sure our system can be repaired. Our government is no longer able to function because reasonableness has been thrown away. Ideologues don’t want to govern, just rant and rave in order to line their pockets. Not sure how civility can be recovered once it has been lost, which leaves us in a very difficult situation as a nation.