Today as I was scrolling down the newsfeed on my facebook homepage, I noticed a photograph of my father and an old friend of his who is also a pastor.  These two men have one thing in common aside from being Bible Baptists: they have type A personalities.  They are extroverts, very aggressive and quite vocal.  They have volatile tempers and they share a passion for the electoral process.

These two have been at it since I was a young girl.  I have watched them at the dinner table at our house argue and have heated arguments, I have watched them get angry with each other and then, reconcile.

So, for the nth time, they have fought and, just last week, they publicly reconciled once more.  It’s a good thing to be so honest with each other that they can be angry with each other and still find it in themselves to patch things up.  But, to us, their audience, it’s tiring.  Our heads are a-whirl and we really cannot keep up with you anymore….

I agree that we should love our neighbors as ourselves, that we should love our enemies,…be good to them that hate us and those who use us….yes.

But I have also grown up while you two were arguing and fighting…and I realize that your arguments are based not on any doctrinal or moral differences, your arguments are not about Biblical principles or faith…your arguments are personal differences, personality conflicts and that is why you two keep fighting and keep making up.

If your arguments and differences were based on questions of doctrine or morality, you would follow the principles of Biblical separation.  You would have nothing to do with each other because the other walks unruly, or because the other has strayed from the faith once delivered to the saints.

As matters stand, you two are acting like two big fish in a pond that has gotten too small for you both.  If I believed in Darwin’s theory of evolution (and I do not), you two are acting precisely Darwinian!  The limited resources(Baptist votes and Baptist support) ensure that there will be a struggle for those limited resources, and only the strongest and fittest survive.  Since the two of you are still standing, you seem to be the fittest….but instead of cooperating, you alternately tear each other apart and, in moments of lucidity, you make peace…

TIME OUT!

Should I say it? Dare I say it?  You two are like aso’t-pusa (cats and dogs), you are carrying on like three year olds battling for a toy…..enough already….grow up and quit you like men.

When we were children, we spoke as children and understood as children, but when we become men, we put away childish behavior.  Grow up, gentlemen.  Your wrangling over politics and your political ambitions are hurting the body of Christ.  You are offending those weaker in the faith and those who are babes in Christ.  Go on to maturity.

I hope that this reconciliation will pave the road for maturity on both your sides.  We are sick and tired of your bickering and whining against each other.  Agree to disagree if you have to. But put an end to this off again and on again state of affairs between you.

What’s more, we are so paranoid, I think.  You have made us paranoid.  I happen to think at the back of my mind that you two are just playing nice because there will be congressional and senatorial elections soon.  Your reconciliation is just another strategic step to gain as many votes as you possibly need to clinch a senatorial seat.  Enough already.  Your on-again-off-again relationship is eroding your credibility.

Grow up and then build up…..you’ve wasted your time and ours enough….grow up, gentlemen.  We are watching you.