US President Joe Biden has led calls for a reset in political rhetoric in the US after Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt on Saturday.
Biden said it was "time to cool it down" after the shooting that left a spectator dead at the former president's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
"There is no place in America [for] this kind of violence, for any violence ever, period. No exceptions," said Biden, adding "we can't allow this violence to be normalized."
"The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that," he said.
"Yes, we have deeply felt, strong disagreements. The stakes in this election are enormously high. I've said it many times that the choice ... we make this election is going to shape the future of America and the world for decades to come. I believe that with all my soul. I know that millions of my fellow Americans believe it as well."
Evangelical commentator Dr Michael Brown wrote on his blog that "it really is a time for reflection" and that all people need to think carefully about their language.
"Are we contributing to this atmosphere of hatred and violence? What kind of emotions do we stir up with the words we speak and the memes we post? What are we fomenting? To what end?" he said.
He continued, "I do not minimize the depth of the political divide in our country today, nor is there an easy path forward toward national unity. Not by a country mile.
"But all of us are responsible for the words we speak, for the posts we share, for the memes we create, for the environments we shape. And all of us would do well to look in the mirror and ask ourselves some honest questions: Am I fostering godly conviction or breeding vile hatred? Am I helping to produce courage and fortitude or do my words lead to hostility and disdain?"
Other evangelical leaders have appealed for prayer.
Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler said, "This kind of attack is an attack upon our entire political system and our commitment to ordered liberty. Let's pray for our nation."
The assassination attempt has sparked some soul-searching in Britain as well, with former Downing Street Chief of Staff, Nick Timothy, recalling the 2021 murder of Catholic MP David Amess and more recently the intimidation experienced by parliamentary candidates in the run-up to the General Election.
"Following the shooting at the Trump rally this weekend, the Prime Minister rightly declared that 'political violence in any form has no places in our societies'. Yet even as he spoke, his own MPs and candidates were describing their experience of political violence and intimidation from our own general election," he said in The Telegraph.
"What does Starmer have to say about this threat, and what does he plan to do about the motives and actions of those behaving in this way?
"Too often, the response has been to avoid facing reality, to appease those we should confront, and sometimes even to co-opt and play up to those who want to bully others until they get their way. We need to be more honest about the society and democracy we have become."
