Picking sides

Anyone else tired of all the political banter yet? The commercials are killing me. It's finger pointing, blaming, vilifying, scaring, etc. The candidates can't stop talking about each other, and it seems like many voters are boiling over as well - ready to explode on each other at the drop of a hat. I've recently been reading comments from a couple of friends as they go back and forth against one another, one even accusing the other of not being a Christian because of his political views. It's crazy isn't it?

I was thinking about this need to pick sides. Are you with us, or are you with them? Are you in, or are you out? We want to box people in, identify them, and either bring them into the fold or ostracize them. All the while, both sides are claiming that God is on their side. Have you noticed how God always agrees with us? Whichever side we are on, it's God's side. It's funny because in the New Testament there are often two competing groups as well. The Pharisees, and the Sadducees. Or sometimes it's the Pharisees and the Herodians. Each side is often coming to Jesus with some sort of issue - assuming that Jesus will be on their side. So it may be about taxes, or about resurrection, or about how to enforce the law, but each side assumes Jesus is on their side. And then Jesus does something cool. When faced with an "A or B" situation, he often comes up with C. Jesus refuses to take sides. He refuses to join in on these useless arguments that vilify each other. He's much more interested in hearts, in community, in unity, in grace. I heard someone say once that you know you've made God into your own image when He hates all the same people you do. If the way of Jesus isn't difficult for us, then I wonder if we've missed it altogether. It's difficult to love people that don't agree with us. It's difficult to respect and obey authorities that we didn't vote for. And yet, it seems to me that the Bible calls us to those very things.

It makes me wonder, what if Jesus were to be interviewed here in our political climate. What if he were part of the Saddleback forum, right between Obama and McCain. Many of us assume he would join forces with one of these candidates. But I wonder if He wouldn't surprise us. Maybe Jesus would take the discussion in a totally different direction. Maybe he would address our hate for each other, or our pride in being so righteously moral, or our arrogance. Maybe He would remind us that it doesn't matter who is the next President, but that He's still in control. One of my favorite passages of Scripture is Isaiah 6. It starts out like this "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on the throne." King Uzziah is this long standing great ruler in Israel. And suddenly he's dead. You can imagine the sense of panic, the feeling that things are out of control. There must be questions about who the next king will be, what kinds of things might change, what new laws might be coming. And here is this subtle reminder that amidst it all, even when the earthly king is dead, the real King is still sitting on His throne.

So how do we forge a different path? What does path "C" look like for you?

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Don Miller

I got to meet Don Miller today. He's a guy I look up to quite a bit. His books have meant a great deal to me and my own spiritual growth. He's a guy who doesn't just talk about faith, but is seeking to live out the way of Jesus in every way. He recently completed a bike trip across America in which he and a team raised tons of money for Blood:Water Mission - an organization that builds well in Africa. He is also the founder of the Belmont Foundation, which is an organization that seeks to partner with the church in mentoring kids that grow up without fathers.

Anyway, he was in Chapel Hill at UNC as part of the Obama campaign. He led a forum where he simply spoke about his own journey of faith, the issues that are important to him as a believer, and why he feels Obama is the candidate that best matches his values as a Christian. It was a pretty interesting hour or so as he not only spoke but answered questions. You can visit his blog if you want to read some of the things he was speaking about today.

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UnChristian - Part 5

Here's the next perception that Kinnaman deals with: Christians are primarily motivated by a political agenda and promote right-wing politics.

In this election year, I've personally really struggled with the level of involvement a Christian should have in politics. I've had conversations with other pastors about how much the church ought to get involved in politics and/or patriotism. Should we celebrate the 4th of July in the church for example? I'm looking forward to reading Shane Claiborne's newest book that deals with this topic. But anyway, back to UnChristian.

Where does this perception come from? Statistically, Kinnaman shows that people outside of Christianity "recognize Christians in politics more readily than in any other sector, including music, movies, sports, or business" (154). The reality is, there is no other sector of life that Christians jump into more than politics. It's where we make the most noise. And I think that's because there is an underlying belief that says that politics and legislation are the way that you change the world, and/or it's the way to protect and uphold our Christian freedoms and worldview. Some would say that the way to make the world a better place is to legislate and enforce a Christian morality. But is that really the case? Because it sure doesn't seem like Jesus believed that. It seems to me that Jesus believed in a kingdom that was subversive in a whole different kind of way. In the garden just before his crucifixion Peter cuts a guys ear off in what was no doubt a struggle for power. What does Jesus tell him? "Put your sword away!" And Jesus heals the guy. In fact, he basically tells Peter, "If I wanted to play the power game, don't you realize that I could call millions of angels right now and these guys would be toast!?" Instead, Jesus realizes that you can't change the world by playing by its rules. It's done through love, service, sacrifice, generosity, grace. The old saying is true, that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. We can legislate behavior, but it's no way to change the heart. And isn't that what God is really after anyway?

So what do we do with this perception? Do we bail on political involvement? No! In fact, I think we embrace it, but we do so in a different way. A more holistic way. For one thing, as Christians we're basically known as speaking and voting on two particular issues -abortion and gay rights (marriage, etc.). Certainly those are important issues. But when was the last time the church was passing petitions around for the sake of the poor? The single mom? The HIV infected? The homeless? Isn't all life sacred? I think this is why this year we are seeing way more evangelicals singing the praises of Obama. Many are tired of being in the pocket of the Republican party, simply because they throw evangelicals a bone or two with the abortion or gay marriage issue. For one thing, let's let our candidates know that we care about the poor, the outcast, the orphan and the widow. Let's be known for coming to the defense of the defenseless. Let's stop promoting one particular party as if it is somehow the party of Jesus. Let's be clear on this - Jesus is not a Republican. He's not a Democrat. He cannot and will not be co-opted by any political party. And let's be known for how much we support our government officials, whether we agree with them or not. That's still biblical right?

But mostly, let's live in such a way that says regardless of any election, or any law that does or doesn't get passed, or who is sitting in the oval office, we will love people, serve them, and stand up for those who suffer injustice because that is the heart of God.

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You throw a baseball like a girl!

I don't usually venture into politics or discussions about politics. But I have been really blown away by what is going on in our country over the last couple of weeks. Regardless of what your specific political views are, this last week has been a history making week for us as a country. One party has nominated an African-American man to be their presidential candidate, and the other party has nominated a woman as part of the presidential ticket, meaning she could be president if McCain keeled over, or potentially after his terms are up. Wow. How far have we come?

But as someone who works in the church, I am quite intrigued by the incredible support for Palin coming out of the conservative Christian ranks. I don't think it's a bad thing at all, she is pretty impressive. But it is interesting that in many of the churches from which Mrs. Palin is gaining such support - she would not be allowed to lead. In other words, she can lead our country, make decisions that affect millions of people, but she couldn't take on any kind of leadership role in those churches. A blog I read regularly is that of Dan Kimball, and he raised this issue today on his blog. You can find it here. What do you make of this?

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