"My denomination split over politics and now lifelong friends won't speak to me over who I voted for."
How it sounds in your head: Seventy years in the same denomination. Same pew, same friends, same potlucks. Then 2016 happened and half the church left. Brothers I prayed with for decades now call me a heretic over an election. Politics destroyed what Christ supposedly built.
"Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all."
-- Colossians 3:11Enemy using political division to sever covenant relationships and make temporal kingdoms appear more powerful than the eternal Kingdom of God.
The church directory is half the size. His prayer partner of thirty years blocked his number. The elder board split down the middle and both sides claimed 'biblical values.' Friendships that survived wars didn't survive ballot boxes.
Paul and Barnabas had such a sharp disagreement over John Mark that they separated and went different directions. But BOTH continued preaching the gospel, BOTH were used by God, and they later reconciled. Temporary division didn't destroy eternal purpose.
I REFUSE the lie that political division proves the church is fake. IT IS WRITTEN that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free—and there is neither Republican nor Democrat. My citizenship is in HEAVEN, not Washington. I will not let temporal kingdoms steal eternal family. IT IS WRITTEN that there is no condemnation for those in Christ—and that includes no condemnation for how I voted. I am a son of the Kingdom of God, and that Kingdom has no political parties. The BARAK blessing protected a family that fought each other constantly, and it protects me through church splits. I am blessed, and no election changes my standing with the Father.
Father weeps over children who chose political tribes over spiritual family, but His house has room for red and blue and everything in between—and when you get Home, you'll realize how SMALL those divisions were compared to HIS LOVE that covers all.