Living Reconciled
Living Reconciled, hosted by Mission Mississippi, is a podcast dedicated to exploring reconciliation and the Gospel that enables us to live it out. Mission Mississippi has been leading the way in racial reconciliation in Mississippi for 31 years. Our model is to bring people together to build relationships across racial lines so they can work together to better their communities. Our mission is to encourage and demonstrate grace in the Body of Christ across racial lines so that communities throughout Mississippi can see practical evidence of the gospel message.
Living Reconciled
EP. 62: The Christian's Post Election Response
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How does faith shape the way we engage in a post election culture? On this episode of Living Reconciled, Austin, Neddie, and Brian unpack what it means for Christians to stay true to their identity in Christ while navigating the political sphere. Grounded in scripture like 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Peter 2:16-17, they explore how praying for leaders, embodying godliness, and living with ultimate commitment to love God and neighbor can transform our approach. Reflecting on God’s sovereignty, this episode challenges us to prioritize compassion over partisanship and to pursue a life of peaceful worship and neighborly love—regardless of electoral outcomes.
Special thanks to our sponsors:
Nissan, St. Dominic's Hospital, Atmos Energy, Regions Foundation, Mississippi College, Anderson United Methodist Church, Grace Temple Church, Mississippi State University, Real Christian Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms. Doris Powell, Mr. Robert Ward, and Ms. Ann Winters
This is Living Reconciled, a podcast dedicated to giving our communities practical evidence of the gospel message by helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured for us by living with grace across racial lines. Hey, thanks so much for joining us on this episode of Living Reconciled. I'm your host, brian Crawford, and I am with my good friends and co-hosts Austin Hoyle, nettie Winters. Gentlemen, how are you doing? Oh, I'm good.
Speaker 2:I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 1:doing, doing wonderful. How about you, nettie? I'm good. How are you doing? Doing wonderful. How about you, man? I'm doing great. Thank you, excellent, excellent.
Speaker 1:So we are going to dive into a very interesting subject, which is what do Christians do post-election? After all of the dust has settled, after all of the campaign speeches, after all the ballots have been cast, what now? What do Christians do? I'm really excited about this discussion that I'm having with my brothers, but before we dive too deeply into that, we want to give a quick shout out to some of our sponsors and friends, folks like Mississippi College and Anderson United Methodist Church, grace Temple Church, mississippi State Real Christian Foundation, nissan, st Dominic's Hospital, atmos Energy, regis Foundation, brown Missionary Baptist Christian Life Church, ms Doris Powell, mr Robert Ward, ms Ann Winters. Thank you so much for everything that you do. It's because of what you do that we're able to do exactly what we do, and today, what we are doing is talking about the Christian life post-election. Nettie, if I was to ask you one thing that the Christian needs to do post-election, what would you say?
Speaker 3:that one thing would be One thing would be to pray for our leadership.
Speaker 1:Why, why should we?
Speaker 3:pray for our leadership, because, as a Christian, I am commanded and directed by the Apostle Paul and by Jesus Christ to pray for those who have leadership authority over us. We should pray for them so that we can lead peaceful and tranquil lives. You'll find it in Timothy.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen. I appreciate you raising the call to pray for them, and I appreciate you raising not just the call to pray for them, but the why to pray for them. Pray for them so that we may lead peaceful and tranquil lives. I mean, ultimately, we should desire to live in spaces where we can worship God, we can love our neighbor and we can share the love of Christ and the good news of Jesus Christ. Where we live, work and play, where we live, work and play. And so, ultimately, what we're looking for is not the seed of power or the levers of power. What we're looking for is space and opportunity to glorify God with our whole being, and so I love that. I love that quote.
Speaker 3:I really would like to. Just to read that. Can I read that First? Timothy 2 says I urge you first of all to pray for all people. You know I could just stop there, but I won't. You know I can stop there and take a bit.
Speaker 3:Ask God to help them, intercede on their behalf and give thanks for them. Pray this way for king and all who are in authority, so that we can live a peaceful and quiet life marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God, our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. For there is one God, one mediator who can reconcile God and humanity the man, Jesus Christ. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave the world at just the right time, and I have been chosen as a preacher and apostle to teach the Gentiles this message about faith and truth. I'm not exaggerating, I'm telling the truth. Faith and truth. I'm not exaggerating, I'm telling the truth. In every place of worship. I want men, human beings, boys and girls, men and women to pray with holy hand lifted to God, free from anger and controversy, Free from what Nettie, Free from anger and controversy.
Speaker 3:I can't be anger, I can't be controversy, free from that, free from that. So the first thing we ought to do is, you know, even as part of this podcast, brian, I would suggest that we, even now, the three of us, just pray for unity and for obedience, for Christians just to do just this, as well as for our leaders, that they can lead in the right way. So I believe, if the Christian community can live out the admonishments that God has given us in our lifestyle with one another, the leaders can get a picture of how they ought to live out their lives with one another in the House and Senate and the congressional delegate all of that. They can get an example from us how they ought to live. Since in many quarters, people are saying they're not living as they ought to live, then why don't we show them how that's done by doing that? And so I would suggest that we pray now as part of the podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, nettie.
Speaker 1:Father, we love you and we thank you for the hope that we have in Christ Jesus and Lord, we are not under any delusions.
Speaker 1:You rule, you reign over all things, including our politics, including the leaders in which are appointed in our country. And so, lord, we ask for your hand to be at work to lead, guide, steer and direct. But, lord, most importantly, we ask that your hand be at work in your local church, in your church, lord God, in the local churches that make and comprise your church. Lord, we pray and we ask that you would empower us by your spirit to live in godliness and live with dignity, so that the watching world may see us and give glory to you. And so, lord, we ask that you would do it for your glory and we ask that you would do it for the joy and good of your people, in Christ's name, amen, amen, amen. Austin, when we talk about one thing that we can do post-election as Christians, nettie highlighted, very importantly, the call to pray Right. Give me one thing that you think that we can do post-election as Christians.
Speaker 2:Well, I think the number one thing we can do is actually the entire purpose of Mission Mississippi, which is to have dialogue over debate. You know, in our current climate, conversations around race and politics it just often feels like battles to be won. We see that so much. But Mission Mississippi, we challenge this, but we create the space so that people can listen to one another without judgment, to have these conversations that prioritize understanding over agreement, authenticity over people all thinking the same way. I'm looking back at, for example I think that it is 1 Corinthians 1.10, where Paul, he's appealing to church to agree, to be united with the same mind and judgment. Now, this doesn't mean that we all think the same way, but it does mean that we are called to prioritize our shared faith over our differences. Not that we don't have differences, we will have differences. It's just that unity is not about uniformity. It's about a deep commitment to our love, to our humility, to our mutual respect with one another.
Speaker 2:Agree, especially when we disagree about worldly matters that we live into this unity, that we reflect the heart of Christ in this very, very, very divided world. So this approach reflects the heart of the gospel, in my opinion. It's why we as an organization started. It's the reason why we as a podcast started, because Christ is calling us to this ministry of reconciliation. He's calling all Christians to the ministry of reconciliation. He's calling all of us to amend the broken relationships to seek unity within his body. So we focus on relationships, we focus on active listening, we focus on our shared values. That demonstrates and that leads to transformative powers within people's lives. I mean, if the number one thing we as Christians can do besides praying for one another is that focus on dialogue over debate, you know, focusing on the work that we do to build bridges across all of the dividing line.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as you speak, austin, I'm reminded about James 119.
Speaker 1:We talked a little bit about it in our pre-conversation before the podcast, but James says that the couple of things that we should be committed to doing is being quick to listen or quick to hear.
Speaker 1:Able to do that, james says, as beloved brothers and sisters, and as beloved brothers and sisters, the way we do that is by being quick to listen, quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, and so that's the only way you get to a place where you could actually begin to build understanding and begin to build clarity is to have the kind of humility and the kind of posture that, um, that walks into a conversation saying, yeah, I might've cast my ballot this way, but it doesn't mean I know everything. And so let me open my heart and open my ears to, uh, a brother that I know loves Jesus, or a sister that I know loves Jesus as well, a brother that I know loves Jesus or a sister that I know loves Jesus as well, and allow them to speak and allow them to articulate their thoughts, their opinions and, like you said, maybe we don't come to agreement, but we certainly can come to deeper understanding.
Speaker 3:Nettie, you leaned in Talk to me about what you're thinking. I don't know. I think Austin is 100% on this thing of dialogue. You know, when we look at the script, you know these scriptures that we can refer to, whether we go to Romans 13 or you know 2 Corinthians 5, we go to these scriptures. In actuality, what we're saying is that what we should be doing ordinarily. Can I put it that way? Can I put it that way?
Speaker 3:I believe if we were hearing as Christians, if we were hearing to what we know to do from a biblical perspective, we probably wouldn't be in the divisive and detrimental position in these dilemmas we find ourselves in. It's the lack of our application and practice of obedience and doing those things we know to do. I think that to navigate through this, do what we know to do. Can I say that? Do what the Bible says to do, and I think the more we do that, the less likely we're going to have these contentious relationships and things that get us in these predicaments. To begin with, I'm going to give you an opportunity to jump in.
Speaker 2:I think one of the most significant things that I heard from you, what you were saying, was that our importance of our relationships are so significant, our reputation also. We're representing God in every sphere of our lives, particularly in the public sphere, and when Christians don't handle these conversations very well, when we're either sore losers or boastful, arrogant winners, that never works out in our favor, that never works out in us being able to offer a good, authentic testimony and witness of the power of the gospel. You know, I'm thinking one of the verses that we talked about in preparation for this podcast was Proverbs 22.1,. A good name over riches. You know it reads a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.
Speaker 2:You know, this really highlights the importance that we have with integrity, with our character, with our reputation as Christians, because, nettie, everything you're talking about it has. I mean, you're talking about the nuts and bolts of how relationships work, how dialogue works, but also I think it really ties into the mission that God is calling us to do, especially in the critical times in which we find ourselves, with the political tension you know, in an age where political allegiances can often overshadow any of our moral character. We need to remember that our witness is really tied to the way in which we conduct ourselves. So, after an incredibly divisive election, I mean no, that should not be controversial to say that this election was divisive you know it's really easy to want to go scorched earth.
Speaker 2:In fact, all of the media that we listen to, whether it's left wing, right wing, whether it's legacy media or the advent of the of these, of, I guess, the podcast media, which is now going to probably be the major player in political opinions in our, in our country, in our country, you know, in spite of all of that, you know they're telling us to go scorched earth on our relationships. They're telling us not to be in dialogue with one another. They're telling us it's okay to completely avoid the conversation because it might make us hurt, might make us feel bad. You know, and they're. You know they're demonized. You know the Thanksgiving's coming up, so you make us feel bad. You know, and they're they. You know they're demonized. You know the thanksgiving's coming up, so you can only imagine. You know that whole, the whole, the whole scheme, which I don't I don't know if you guys have heard it very much, but when you have your uh, you know your crazy uncle richard, you know stuff like that which I don't actually have an. Actually I do have an uncle richard, but never mind, he's crazy's crazy, but he's not the crazy one, that Uncle Richard. I just threw out a random name and I realized, oh, I do have an Uncle, richard. No, but I'm not talking about him.
Speaker 2:It's the hypothetical of how the media tells us to even look at our own family. I mean barring our Christian community. Yeah, media is telling us to tear each other apart in our Christian communities oftentimes, but it's also telling us asking us to tear apart our familial relationships as well. This is horrible for our Christian reputation, both individually and collectively as a church, when we adopt those particular practices. So what I think we should do is what Nettie's asking us to do act with integrity. Ensure that our actions, ensure that our words align with the gospel.
Speaker 2:Have an understanding that how we vote is another passage that we looked at. Romans 13, 1 through 5,. You know submission to the governing authorities. You know it reads to be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Speaker 2:So this is pretty much saying that there's two different realms that we as Christians occupy we're in the world but not of the world.
Speaker 2:That we as Christians occupy, we're in the world but not of the world. And part of being in the world is the political sphere is in the world, no matter how hard we try to or, you know, with our particular rhetoric at times we try to converge the two. So I think that, for the sake of our witness as Christians, we need to have that understanding that just because we choose at times to navigate certain complexities and certain controversies in the real world with how we vote, with the beliefs that we have, with the values that we have, we have to understand that various different people come to those values, come to those beliefs, come to those opinions through such a wide variety of means, such a wide variety of intentions, such a wide variety of past experiences, of past experiences, you know, to the point where no political party at all has monopoly on morality or ethics, and so that is significant, I think, to the reputation that we have as Christians and really just our capacity to be able to bind together, to be in communion with one another.
Speaker 1:One of the things that she said that really just has stuck with me since she spoke it was this idea that we cannot be either sore losers or gloating winners in terms of there's an example that we're supposed to set at all times. Nettie highlighted it, in fact, in 1 Timothy 2, talking about praying for our leaders and praying for our kings. And what's interesting about praying for those leaders and praying for those kings is that you pray for them so that you might have room to display godliness, which is such an interesting way to look at that right. So we're asking for the Lord to move amongst the leaders in our land, not so that we might have seats of power, positions of power, places of power, not so that we can gloat and say, you know, aha, we win, our group won, our side won, or not, so that we can weep with hopelessness and despair. But we are praying for the leaders of countries and nations so that we might have room to display godliness, to display love, to display compassion, to display mercy, to display unity, to display patience and calm even in the midst of fierce storms, because we recognize where our hope truly rests and where our hope truly lies. And so this is a season and an opportunity not for us to kind of, we fall on either side of where the political winds might want to take us, but this is a season and opportunity for us to rise up and to present a new aroma that smells distinctly different than anything that the, that partisanship might be trying to offer. Important point that we can lose in the midst of all of this, which is that the world has an opportunity to see something different in us. And are we going to offer that new aroma? Are we going to offer that new vision, that brighter vision, that more hopeful vision through Christ, by, as you mentioned, by reflecting dialogue in favor of debate, by reflecting love and compassion in favor of gloating or even sulking, right, what are we going to do in the face of this?
Speaker 1:And I want to be careful I don't want to undermine the reality that politics matter, right, that leadership matters and that these decisions that we, that we go to the ballot box to make, but at the same time, I do want to put it in proper perspective for the church, in the sense that this is not the end. Right, we've been holding scripture all morning since you, and since you, I and Eddie got on the call. But you know, even scripture, proverbs 21, the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns wherever he wills, and so the Lord is still in control. The Lord is still at work, even in the midst of decisions, political decisions and political appointments. Even in the midst of decisions, political decisions and political appointments, the Lord is still at work. You know, a couple of weeks ago, as we were preparing for the election, our church is working through the gospel of Luke, and so, and so we happen to be in Luke, chapter three. God's sovereignty, obviously at work here, but we happen to be walking through Luke, chapter three.
Speaker 3:And it really resonated with me Right at that right time right.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. Because the very beginning, before you get to John's passage about repent and baptism unto repentance and his call for people to come and repent and be baptized, and then his appeal that, hey, the baptism I baptize with is of water, but the one who's coming after me, he's going to baptize with the spirit of fire, before you get to all of that, you get to Luke grounding everything in this historical narrative. And what Luke says in the very beginning of Luke, chapter three. He says in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, herod being tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip, tetrarch of the region of Ateria and Trachonitis, and Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.
Speaker 1:And it blows me away when I read that, because Luke gives us all of these high powers, all of these political powers. He starts at the very top, with Rome, then he moves down from Rome to Herod and Judea, or Pontius Pilate in Judea, herod and Galilee. All of these different powers, even religious powers, because he gives us high priests. And then he says, after he says all of that, the word of God came to a guy in the wilderness eating locust and wild honey, and it blows me away. It's just like, hey, you want to see where God is.
Speaker 3:It just started at the White House. It just started at the Capitol. It didn't start at the White House, it didn't start at the.
Speaker 1:Right, right, not in the halls of Rome, the Roman forums. Right, not in the palace of Herod. It starts in the wilderness.
Speaker 3:Not even in the synagogue, man, not even in the temple. Indeed, indeed.
Speaker 1:Not even in the temple, but it starts with a guy in locusts and honey and wearing camel hair on his back. Exactly.
Speaker 3:You think some of our people might have missed it doing that Terrence, Because it started in the woods.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:People miss that incredibly, I mean but they had no reason to the.
Speaker 2:Old Testament tells us very clearly what they would have been expecting. They just didn't listen to what they were told. You know, and Brian, I have one follow-up idea, pretty much from what you're talking about. You're talking about how is the church going to respond and are we going to respond well? Well, I mean, yeah, there are going to be pockets of the church that are going to respond incredibly well. There are also going to be pockets of the church that are going to respond absolutely horrendously. They're going to respond horrendously regardless of they're going to respond absolutely horrendously. They're going to respond horrendously regardless of their coming from a left perspective or a right perspective, not right as in correct, but as in the political sphere.
Speaker 2:And one of the things I think that we as individual Christians should do is, if you're talking about being that good witness, we need to make sure that we ourselves, as individual Christians, are doing that, that we're encouraging the Christians that we're in deep connection with to do that, because we need to understand that there are going to be bad witnesses coming from sectors of the church, and I really think the only options that really the only power that we as individual Christians have in that is to influence the particular sector, the particular little division, little corner of the kingdom that we occupy, to make sure that, first and foremost, we ourselves as individuals, and if you're leaders, to work with the rest of the Christians in your sphere, to also have a correct response.
Speaker 2:Because the correct response isn't contingent upon who you voted for, it's not contingent on what your political values are. It's contingent upon whether or not you're authentically responding to the work of the Holy Spirit that is tugging upon your heart. Because if you are, then if you're a Trump voter, you're going to love a Harris voter. If you're a Harris voter, you're going to love a Trump voter.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:You have something that is far, far greater than that. I'm going to just close on the reading of the last kind of passage that we talked about in preparation. It was 1 Peter, 2, 16 and 17.
Speaker 2:It said, where Paul is urging or, I'm sorry, peter is urging Christians to live as a people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Right has given us, but it's a freedom that comes with responsibility to reflect God's character in all that we do, in every sphere that we occupy, especially the political.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen, nettie your final words.
Speaker 3:Share what you got, brother. I know I've been sitting here praying and muscling up all the energy and enthusiasm I can to remain sound and listen. What came to my mind was that passage of scripture you read in James 119, because you said something and Austin said something. I really wanted to jump in when Austin was talking about Romans 13 and you were talking about in the wilderness, I really wanted to jump in two cents worth, if I can say it that way. And so people can take notice, the audience, the Christian community can take notice.
Speaker 3:This is my capture of what we're doing. Is that they can take notice of what we're doing? Is that can take notice of what we're doing? We're methodically and purposely walking through this in a way that gives each one of us an opportunity to express some ideas, some thoughts, but also some of our emotions and some of our transparency and vulnerability here. The challenge for us as Christians to navigate through this. Okay, god being sovereign. Then the election results didn't catch him off guard or by surprise. Either he did it or allowed it.
Speaker 3:Whatever the case, this is Nettie Winters' final capture on this thing. Whatever, not final, but for this segment. Whatever the case, it's for my good and for God's glory. The best I can do, and we can do as the body of Christ, is join God in what he's doing in this. How can I become an instrument to God in all of this so he can use me that we all win in this situation and not be adversarial in this situation?
Speaker 3:Doesn't matter what you voted for. You've exercised your right under the Constitution. You've exercised your right as a Christian, a free will to do. I am supposed to love you in spite of all of that, which really I'm not even supposed to know. How you exercise your rights and your free will.
Speaker 3:And so, with that being said, sometimes we talk too much about where we stand when we ought to be standing with God in unity with one another. And if we're standing with God in unity with one another I didn't see you know you talk about Luke and we read the whole book of Acts I don't see him giving a litmus test anywhere to become part of standing together in unity. If there is a litmus test, the litmus test is that, since we have been called one in Christ and we have been we now are brothers and sisters in Christ, the limited. Am I going to love you as a brother. And it's not about the race, ethnicity, it's not about your political stand. It's not even about how you wear your grab, you know, or what football team you support, or what candidate you support, or what kind of car you drive, or what kind of church you attend, what your denomination is. All of those things are secondary to us walking together as one with Christ Jesus, amen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I appreciate all the thoughts you guys have articulated. It's been an incredible time I'll put a bowl of my thoughts in this way. I'm reminded of a couple of things as we've been talking about this the whole time. One is Joshua 5, where the servant of the Lord appears and they're like hey, this is great. Whose side are you on right? Are you on our side or on the enemy's side? And he said I'm on neither, I'm on the enemy's side, and it's an invitation. It's an invitation to hey, if you are really serious about the Lord, then come join the Lord's side, not being concerned about whether or not the Lord is on your side. Come and join his side right.
Speaker 1:And I think about that often when we're in the political sphere, how everybody wants to claim, you know, the Lord as their own. And so everybody, whether they're left or right, they want to claim the Lord as their own. And the Lord is his own. And we have the opportunity, as as ambassadors of of of his, to actually join him in his work. And sometimes his work transcends these partisan lines and sometimes his work does not land neatly in left and right boxes, but we have an opportunity to join him in that work, and so that that that is a that's something that's been on my mind as I've been thinking about this political process and this cycle. But then the other thing that's been really on my mind as I've been thinking about this political process and this cycle is the call of Jesus in Matthew 22 to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and render unto God's what is God's, and render unto gods, what is God's and?
Speaker 1:I think there are times Nettie and Austin where we render unto Caesar that which is God's. We render our allegiance, we render our worship, we render our hearts and our hope and we render them to Caesar so that when the political winds blow and they blow either in our favor or out of our favor, it shows up in our countenance, it shows up in our behavior and our conduct and our affect, it shows up in our address and our and our our treatment of one another, because we have given to Caesar what belongs to the Lord. And so my challenge to myself, and really genuinely to myself, and my challenge to our listeners, our brothers and sisters, is to render unto Caesar what is Caesar, which is a vote, a ballot Sure cast it, and it's an important thing to do. It's a necessary act that we've been granted and it's important that we should treat it with importance, but never let it rise to the importance where it takes from God what is God's, which is our heart, which is our allegiance, which is our worship and which is our hope. Make sure that that is always grounded with the Lord, with the King and his King.
Speaker 1:It's been a great podcast, guys. We've enjoyed the conversation. Please feel free to subscribe Living Reconciled. You can search on any podcast app and you can not only listen to these great episodes and these great conversations, but you can also share them with friends. So please like, share and subscribe Living Reconciled Mission, mississippi. Again, brian Crawford, austin Hoyle, nettie Winters, signing off saying God bless, god bless. Thanks for joining Living Reconciled. If you would like more information on how you can be a part of the ongoing work of helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured, please visit us online at missionmississippiorg or call us at 601-353-6477. Thanks again for listening.
