The need to be politically neutral.

[DancesWithWife]

Are we not glad to be politically neutral? It's difficult to be so, especially in the highly charged arena of politics, not just in the United States.

I was watching a news video on YouTube last night. They showed an interesting poll about who people trust based on a certain person running for office. At one point they talked about a preacher who in his sermon quoted Jesus' "Turn the other cheek" quote and the members of his church felt it was out of date. I feel the upcoming year is going to challenge our neutrality stance more than ever. We need to be ready to make a defense for what we believe. 

I encourage you to watch the video. Here is the link https://youtu.be/PuQ8gGm1pmg?si=h4k9CJaSxobmg6os

[Doug]

I was looking for something in the What Is God's Kingdom? magazine to grab peoples attention and hopefully they would want to know more.

 

On page 4 it says "The world needs better rulers and a better form of government".  And the quote from the UN says that bad rulership is increasingly being viewed as "one of the root causes of all evil within our societies."

 

We can make such statements and endorse the UN comment and be neutral at the same time.

[Qapla]

Here is an interesting article that could work as a conversation starter yet allow us to promote neutrality as the answer instead of the political systems

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/09/majority-of-americans-dont-want-biden-or-trump-to-run-again-in-2024-cnbc-survey-shows.html

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by Qapla

[IcemanEli]

Hard to be neutral these days. Anything and everything gets turned into a political discussion. You can't hardly get away from it. That's why I limit my intake of news, half of it is all politics.

Sent from my Power Armor 13 using Tapatalk

[DancesWithWife]

2 hours ago, IcemanEli said:

Hard to be neutral these days

The May 2022 Watchtower confirms your statement. Paragraph 13: 

"13. What challenge confronts Christians because of the world’s governments?

¹³ What does this mean for us? As Christians, we must be loyal to God and his Kingdom. (John 18:36) To do so, we need to remain neutral with regard to this world’s political affairs. Such neutrality can be extremely difficult, though, because the world’s governments demand our full support, both in word and in deed. Those who succumb to their pressure receive the mark of the wild beast. (Rev. 13:16, 17) Any who receive that mark, however, will incur Jehovah’s disapproval and lose out on everlasting life. (Rev. 14:9, 10; 20:4) How important it is, then, for each one of us to maintain strict neutrality, no matter what pressure is put on us to do otherwise!"

 

I think it's wise to limit what we watch too as you stated. But besides the news, YouTube is littered with politics, late night comedy opening monologues are usually political in nature. 

 

From lesson 45 in the Enjoy Life Forever:

"2. How can we show that we are neutral?

Like Jesus, we do not get involved in politics. When the people saw one of Jesus’ miracles and tried to make him their king on earth, he did not let them. (John 6:15) Why not? Because, as he later said, “my Kingdom is no part of this world.” (John 18:36) As Jesus’ disciples, we show our neutrality in a number of ways. For example, we do not go to war. (Read Micah 4:3.) We respect national symbols—such as flags—but we do not worship them. (1 John 5:21) And we do not take sides for or against any political party or candidate. In these ways and others, we show that we are completely loyal to God’s government—his Kingdom."

 

I agree it's hard as we are bombarded. 

[Qapla]

If you have ever driven a standard transmission, you know there are two ways to take a vehicle out of gear:

1. Push down the clutch
2. Put the shifter in neutral

Both of these will disengage the engine from being able to propel the vehicle. However, if you use the first method and your foot were to slip off the clutch, that vehicle would suddenly lurch in whatever direction the transmission is set to. If the vehicle shifter is in neutral, it doesn't matter if the clutch is pressed or not, the vehicle will not suddenly drop in gear.

 

We need to make sure that, as pertains to politics, social issues, conspiracy theories and a plethora of other aspects of this system, we do not just have our foot on the clutch - we need to actually be neutral.

 

[Hope]

@Qapla I will use that illustration for a comment or something one day... That is very good, thank you!

 

[chuck83]

I get what you mean totally but hear me out a second.

 

I'm not going to remain politically neutral. Democracy doesn't work. Dictators don't work. Monarchies don't work. Religious dictators that run their own sovereign states don't work! Luke 4:6 does not work and it's on public display and it's very apparent.

 

I'm talking about Matthew 6:9,10 and I'm highlighting it's plan of action. Some of it has happened on a small temporary scale when the King was down here and what's to come on a large scale permanent scale later. Some people are truly listening too and totally feel mislead about what they were told about the King and truly get what that government is now.

 

So I will say, I voted/pledged/saluted on 10/10/1998 at Norco Assembly Hall. Jesus as King of God's Kingdom or Government.

 

[Qapla]

I understand what you are saying ... however, when talking about remaining neutral, it is understood by the context, we are not talking about Jehovah's Kingdom vs this system ... we are talking about taking sides as pertains to aspects of this system being better or worse than other aspects of this system.

 

Let's not lose sight of what the admonition we have gotten from the FDS, as pertains to Christian Neutrality, is about - we don't want to miss the point.

[chuck83]

1 hour ago, Qapla said:

I understand what you are saying ... however, when talking about remaining neutral, it is understood by the context, we are not talking about Jehovah's Kingdom vs this system ... we are talking about taking sides as pertains to aspects of this system being better or worse than other aspects of this system.

 

Let's not lose sight of what the admonition we have gotten from the FDS, as pertains to Christian Neutrality, is about - we don't want to miss the point.

No I get it totally.

 

I’m just getting more and more householders saying I’m mixing religion and politics with saying Kingdom or government. The closer the election gets it seems to be getting worse. It’s getting hard to explain at times because 9/10 I’m getting shoed off their property. 
 

And don’t think I go telling people that. I’m not silly but it’s getting weird. That’s all.

Edited January 27 by chuck83

[chuck83]

I should’ve prefaced that first.

Brother again, I cannot understate like no joke the closer the election is getting the more I’m getting householders especially Catholics that are saying how dare I. You cannot mix religion and politics. It’s never been like that. But it’s just getting weird in my area that’s all. Just some observations.

 

I don’t know what’s next with my area being so diverse.

[Andrey]

https://sudreporter.org/sud-vyznav-pravo-svidka-yegovy-ne-prohodyty-vijskovu-sluzhbu-pid-chas-voyennogo-stanu/

 

Use an online translator from Ukrainian

Edited January 27 by Andrey

[Dages]

2 hours ago, Andrey said:

https://sudreporter.org/sud-vyznav-pravo-svidka-yegovy-ne-prohodyty-vijskovu-sluzhbu-pid-chas-voyennogo-stanu/

Use an online translator from Ukrainian

 

If the translation was correct, that's an excellent news ! Jehovah is protecting our brothers in Ukraine !

[Katty]

Yes, It is heinous the way a lot of Christians have aligned themselves with politicians, including Trump. Churches should definitely not be involved in politics. I think of how blessed we are to be neutral, also, when I see pro-life protesters being arrested for their protests against abortion, based on their personal values, or parents being put on a watchlist for protesting at schoolboard events. I will add that it's equally heinous how many churches have supported Pride events and BLM protests as well. The Church of England's stance is to "smash the patriarchy" and is calling for "anti-whiteness", all aspects of left wing rhetoric.

I'll be brutally honest, the bigger threats to my neutrality are when conservative leaders pass legislation to protect the rights of parents. I do have a weakness for rooting for that kind of thing as a mom, or really just someone who cares about children. I do remind myself that they are a major part of Satan's world, and no one because a world leader without showing their support of Satan. I know my bias and work to continually suppress it.

The bias that is harder to be consciously aware of, however, is a leftist bias, and I'm convinced that this is the case, because Critical Theory is so deeply interwoven into modern culture and media, we've stopped noticing its prevalence. There's a saying: "Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth". Critical Theory is that lie, today. It has become a kind of truth, to the point that I have even seen Witnesses calling out or fact checking their brothers for not believing in these ideas. I will post a link to show what Critical Theory encompasses, to show what I'm talking about. 

https://www.simplypsychology.org/critical-theory.html

I'm not saying this to make anyone feel called out, so I want to share my own personal experience with my own past struggles with neutrality:
When I was in my late 20's I was struggling a lot with being single and working in jobs that were not far above minimum wage. I would often grumble that I couldn't be given a living wage for my hard work. I used to be outright offended when I saw images of women with signs that read "I don't need feminism because...", and would roll my eyes thinking "easy for you to say. You have a husband. Some of us have to work for a living." I used to read feminist literature, including Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay. I used to read asexual literature, because I thought I was asexual and thought it was cool that asexual was about to be considered to be a part of the LGBTQ community, because I used to believe the LGBT were the cool people. I used to liken Trump to Hitler, or, at least, Napoleon, and found him absolutely odious. I used to believe in and complain about the wage gap. I used the think there should be legislation that didn't marginalise single people so much, and even went so far as to be angry at the stance on same-sex marriage, not because of the homosexuality element, but because I believed that not elevating civil unions or allowing unmarried people to, more easily, share resources would lead to further marginalization of single people. I used to think Clinton was a great president, that George W Bush was the devil and that Hilary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi (both very leftist Democrat politicians) were great role models.
I'm mentioning all this, because I don't recall a single time, I felt guilty for  not having a neutral stance on things, but, when the Women's march took place when Trump was elected, there was a lot of stuff happening that didn't make a lot of sense to me, so, looking into things, I started getting into Conservative media, and, it wasn't until I started watching a lot of Youtube channels and reading journals with a strong conservative bias that I began to feel guilty that I wasn't being neutral on a lot of points. Since then, I've learned to be more balanced with my views, and the media that I take in. I wanted to share this experience to illustrate how easy it is to fall into the rabbit hole of taking on a viewpoint that is more consistent with leftists not, considering for a moment that my ideas were being shaped by a political ideology, but how hyper-aware I became once it was coming from the conservative side. 

Edited March 30 by Katty