Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk: How Faith Can Shape Politics Without Making Us Jerks - w/ Eugene Cho

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2020

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Discover how perfect love, humble conviction, and courageous listening can help Christians engage politics without being divisive. Mike, Tim, and Bonnie welcome author, pastor, and activist Eugene Cho to talk about his new book, Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk: A Christian's Guide to Engaging Politics. They dig into what it looks like to bring thoughtful, compassionate discipleship into political engagement in an era of fear, outrage, and division.

The group explores what it means to love our neighbors on both sides of the political aisle, how fear-based ideologies distort faith, and why being faithful to the gospel is inherently political—but never partisan. Eugene shares his own story as a Korean immigrant and pastor navigating the often fraught intersections of justice, theology, and civic responsibility.

Whether you're tired of political shouting matches or seeking to live a more grounded Christian witness in divisive times, this conversation provides wisdom, challenge, and hope for reclaiming a better way.

Key Takeaways: • Faith Before Politics – Why theology must inform political values—not the other way around—and how political idolatries distort the witness of the church. • Rejecting Fear & Embracing Love – Examining how fear hinders faithful action and how perfect love casts it out, especially in divisive election seasons. • Whole-Life Ethic – Understanding what it means to be pro-life from "womb to tomb" and how voting with the marginalized in mind shapes Christ-like action beyond the ballot box. • The Creativity of Table Fellowship – Exploring how shared meals, listening, and humanizing conversations (like Make America Dinner Again) invite transformation in a polarized culture. • A Call to Humble Conviction – Why being grounded in Scripture, vulnerable to community, and open to being wrong are necessary postures for engaging political complexity as followers of Jesus.

Guest Highlight: Eugene Cho – Speaker, pastor, and author of Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk, Eugene is the founder of Quest Church in Seattle and One Day's Wages, a humanitarian org fighting global poverty. He offers a prophetic yet pastoral voice on Christian engagement in politics, identity, neighborliness, and gospel-based justice.

Resources Mentioned: • Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk by Eugene Cho – Find it here • One Day's Wages – onedayswages.org • Make America Dinner Again – makeamericadinneragain.com • 1 John 4:18 – "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…"

Let's commit to resisting fear, building bridges, and loving well in the public square. Subscribe to Voxology, leave a review, and share your thoughts on social—your input helps us shape a better conversation.

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to hello@voxpodcast.com, and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to hello@voxpodcast.com, and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	everybody,
0:16.4	everybody, welcome to the Vox podcast.
0:19.0	I'm tired of saying it that way.
0:20.6	They all start the same word.
0:22.1	It's almost like you're going to, if you tune in, it's just going to be, I don't want to, let's, hey, everybody, welcome to, you just put emphasis on different words.
0:29.3	On the different ones.
0:30.5	Whatever, Vox podcast.
0:32.0	Here we are.
0:32.6	Thanks for listening.
0:35.8	Tim and Bonnie are here.
0:37.9	We're hanging out.
0:38.8	We're doing an intro to today's guest.
0:41.3	But first, Bonnie's just been on a crazy luck streak lately.
0:45.6	And we're all trying to see if we can't, like, glean some of it off.
0:49.8	I don't know if luck is, like, contagious, like, osmosis.
0:52.9	If I can just, like like absorb it into my system.
0:57.9	But Bonnie has a quick story to tell about something that just happened.
1:02.3	Okay, so yes, I've been on a lucky streak.
1:04.7	And this week was a great week because, okay, so like lots of stuff, random things happen.
1:10.4	And then Tim Shell got sent out into the world.
1:13.3	That's right.
1:13.6	So people are opening it and loving it, and that is so exciting.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Voxology, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Voxology and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.