I know there are folks out there who think it’s a bad look for a pastor (like me) to engage in partisan politics. If pastors have strong political opinions, how can we care for parishioners who might have different opinions?

That question reflects the times in which we live—when partisanship seems to require an ontological de-valuing of “the other.” I reject this assumption.

I am a Christian and a pastor—because I am those things, I can engage in politically partisan speech. My first and highest commitment is to love God and my neighbors. Though some of us struggle mightily with this, it means we MUST love people unlike ourselves.

When we begin with this foundation of love and deep respect for the being of the “other,” we can talk boldly about anything and everything. We speak the truth in love and listen with humility, especially about essential concerns like politics.

I pull few punches. I believe our president has shown himself to be a loathsome, deformed human being by Christian and humanist moral standards. I am working and praying that he not be re-elected.

That belief does not prevent me from loving you if you support the president and plan to vote for him. You are a beloved child of God, worthy of my love. This capacity to “love our enemy” and to treat the other with dignity is the core of Christian ethics.

Enemy love is possible because Jesus shows us a that our common humanity is grounded in imperfection, in the recognition that none of us are perfect, all of us are flawed, all of us need love. We are always more like our enemies than we are different.

So, yes, I even love the president. I pray for him. Mostly I pray that his soul be healed by love. Stupid, maybe. Foolish, too. But Christianity is certainly those things and also much more.