Opinion: Learn to engage those you disagree with respectfully

A photograph of Ellen Degeneres and President George W. Bush caused an internet uproar.

When Ellen Degeneres addressed the internet storm, she explained that she and Bush were friends, though they disagree with each other on issues like politics. 

“When I say be kind to one another, I don’t mean only the people that think the same way that you do,” explains Degeneres. “I mean be kind to everyone.”

The respect shared between the two has since sparked a conversation between others, receiving praise from the likes of Elton John, Piers Morgan, Blake Shelton, and a multitude of other influential people. Ellen simply stating that she refused to hate someone or be disrespectful to them made others look up a bit and realize that kindness and dignity is absolutely possible.

This kind of respect between opposing sides is almost nonexistant. It is a respect that needs to be re-learned. 

This was seen most evidently in the 2016 election between presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The race lacked kindness and decency from the beginning. As pointed out by U.S. News, debates between the two candidates at the time seemed to focus more on character attacks than policy. This began vicious attacks between their supporters, with Clinton supporters in 2016— according to the Washington Post — vandalizing and harming their opposers by burning their belongings and physically harming them, and Trump supporters retaliating with racist and hate-fueled physical and verbal attacks outlined in the Guardian. 

Through the midst of the hatred and violence, no one takes a deep breath and talks about their disagreements. They shout in each others’ faces and treat those that disagree with them as dirt, but they never have a conversation to figure out why they disagree with each other. Why do the liberals think the way they do? Why do the conservatives think another way? They don’t have answers to those questions because they no longer view the other as someone to be honored and understood, but rather as an enemy to defeat. 

In today’s culture, it seems almost frowned upon to be kind or respectful to those we disagree with. It’s deemed as almost a lack of integrity or a weakness to question your own opinion and seek the views of another. Without the other side of the story though, we can never fully understand the issue or the moving pieces associated with it.  

When we sit down with the people whom we disagree, we are able to form our opinions and arguments. We are able to empathize when the issue is no longer on paper, but is coming from someone’s heart laid out in front of us. It becomes something real, something that makes us think twice and do the research to form an opinion that is respectful and biblical. 

We should be open and willing to sit down and talk about other people’s opinions and viewpoints. As Christians, we should follow Christ’s example of listening to those who disagreed with him and treating them with respect where it was valid. Similar to how Christ sat down with tax collectors and prostitutes to hear their ailments, we learn more and more through each conversation we have and each disagreement we talk through.

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