Prather divisive

How unfortunate that Pastor Paul Prather in his recent column has chosen to split Christians into two sects of law and grace proponents and then postulate that the law-leaning and authoritarian people are in the Trump camp because that’s the way a political scientist sees it. Rather than create a straw man of “Christian authoritarians” and contrast them to his preferred “grace people,” I believe that there is a better explanation.

Christians, no matter how categorized, are all dependent on the grace of God, however many of them clearly discern that the roles of government and those of Christ followers are different.

Whereas the command to each Christian is to love your enemies, the role of government described in Romans 13:3 is to punish evil and condone good for those governed. Once foreigners are admitted to our country individual Christians are to love them; however, government’s role is protect its citizens’ welfare.

Some would believe that the best way for the government to do that is not allow certain non-citizens in the country to begin with. Grace people do not look too “grace filled” when aspersions are cast upon Trump and others who may hold this opinion.

This story was originally published February 12, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Prather divisive."