Red, white, and blue in the church

In Sojourners Sandra Dufield offers thoughts for "communicating across the red-blue divide." Her article, "Language That Unites," addresses a primarily "blue" audience. All Christians, however, should be paying attention:

We need to acknowledge the Religious Right’s morality staples and link these with biblical peace and justice concerns, remembering to constantly point back to scripture. Obedience and righteousness are motivators behind the Right’s dedication to the unborn and sexual integrity. Using this same language, we can make the case that peace and social justice are also obedience and righteousness issues. We need to make clear that Christ not only died on the cross for sins, he also left us an image and a life to follow. Christ exemplified how to live in this life with each other, how to respond to "the least of these."

Dufield goes on to make some valid criticisms:

Using conservative language, we can point out how some conservative worldviews are ultimately more "secular humanist" than "Christian." For example, a "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" approach to the poor is unbiblical because it’s rooted in a worldly survival-of-the-fittest mentality. We can show how supply-side economics ignores Christ’s call to place the poor at the forefront of our endeavors.

More than simply making sure our language communicate across the blue-red divide, all Christians need to submit ourselves to Jesus Christ. If we do, he will overturn the idols in our lives and transform us into his own image, fit for service in the Kingdom. Then, we won't be red or blue--but whiter than snow.