Tim Keller has pleaded with Americans to stop demonizing each other as the fight for the White House heats up.
In just over 40 days, Americans will head to the ballot box to cast their votes for the next US President.
With fierce differences over everything from Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter, to the economy and abortion, the 2020 presidential election season is proving especially rancorous.
The respected author, who is battling cancer, has waded into the public debate with a call for more grace, especially from Christians.
In a thread on Twitter, he said: "The demonization and dehumanization of the other side must stop."
But Keller was particularly frustrated with Christians who fail to temper their speech.
"When professing Christians do it, it is triply wrong," he said.
Keller said everyone fell short of the standards of God and that a central tenet of the Christian faith was being saved by grace.
He cited 2 Timothy 2:24-26, in which Paul writes that the servants of the Lord "must not be quarrelsome" but instead "be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful", while "opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth."
Keller continued: "So Christians can never feel morally superior to any one else at all.
"That means (MAIN POINT) when we call out evildoing in others, as vital as that is, we can never imply by our attitude or language that they deserve God's condemnation, but we do not.
"Right now our very social fabric is tearing apart because of, among other things, increasing, mutual demonizations ON BOTH SIDES. Christians must not contribute to this in any way."
