Others exhibit another kind. Still others enlist in the cause of evangelism or social justice, as if they could be separated one from the other in the Gospel. In the heat of such battle, rhetoric inflates to the bursting point. Those who take a position and advocate it are branded by their opponents by labels such as conservative or liberal, not to be descriptive, but to be dismissive. Threats and challenges are hurled at those with whom we disagree.
Opponents gradually become enemies.
In such struggles the first victim, as in any war, is truth. People bear false witness against their neighbors, stereotyping them and invoking half truths and innuendo. Simplistic slogans replace careful analysis. Civility is exiled. Truth is crucified.