I need to premise this with two statements.
1. I am so broken. If you know me at all, you know that I have always talked so much about not being a liberal or conservative, and instead being a follower of Jesus that aligns his political views based on Jesus’ teachings, but there are so many lies within my own words. My heart is weak and it has been so corrupted by the political discourse that plagues our society. I am prideful, arrogant, individualistic, and spiritually frail. I am so deeply broken enough to the point that being right sounds better than trying to align my heart with Jesus. How messed up is that? I’ve missed the point. If this was an archery contest I probably would have accidently shot the judge that sits in the exact opposite direction from the target at least 5 times by now.
2. Now that you understand my heart a little better, please stop for a second and lay aside every bit of political agenda you may have when reading this (I guess that's impossible, but at least try). Set aside your hatred, set aside your fears and discomforts, all the biases you may have, and lovingly pray for both presidential candidates in an equal way - desiring for both of them to fully know the love and peace of Jesus. Pray out of love for both of them equally. Please, right now, close your eyes, breathe, and pray.
Sweet. I’m going to ask you to that a few times because I know how heated we can get about these things.
Now. Onto the good stuff:
We live in a polarized society. Within this political context we are divided between the Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, socialists and capitalists, advocates for big government and small government. Within the context of faith, the entire church has been disconnected. A culture of disunity pervades the relationship between the evangelicals and social justice activists, fundamentalists and progressives, individualists and collectivists, and so on and so forth. And because we have interwoven American electoral politics with our faith, the gap between the two sides is only perpetuated. Because our religious identities have become lost in our fundamentally flawed political identities, our church has become divided and our vision for the Kingdom of God is corrupted. I am writing this because I was recently bashed in head by my own pride within the political discourse of America, and because I’m finally starting to somewhat scratch the surface, starting to understand what it means to combine the love of Jesus with the chaos of American politics and I’m finally starting to really discover that there is another choice in this polarized world, a choice that can’t be contained by the oppressive box of American political ideology and the polarizing vernacular that comes with it. There is something deeper to this discussion, and it starts at a fundamental level - with our own personal crap.
Honestly, I really dislike the discourse of American politics, especially within faith communities. Well, not in theory, just the form that the practice of this discussion has taken. From the within the church, to the academic world, to the chaotic realm of social media, I disdain political discussion between people of faith. There is a depth that is missing in these discussions of policy and ideology. I seldom hear a person arguing politically out of a pure, unadulterated love for the people whom they are speaking to - whether for or against. Think about the discussions that you have had, the jokes you have made, the one-sided articles and Facebook statuses you have read, what is the heart behind these words? When Obama is speaking against Romney’s policies, no matter what they may be, I don’t hear words that are spoken from a heart that seeks to love and serve broken people and broken situations. I don’t hear a humble heart that wants the best for Romney and for those who support him. And the same goes with Romney when he speaks against Obama. And same holds true with the supporters of either candidate. In snide facebook remarks against either party, I don’t hear open minds and open hearts that desire to love the widows and the orphans of our time. I don’t hear broken, humble hearts that understand the depth of God’s love for His people and His desire for them to know the hope that the Kingdom can bring. That’s the point, right? For people of faith, that’s the only point of this entire political discussion - to make God’s love known and to make manifest that love through public policy.
This has hit me hard in the last week, because I know that I too get so easily entangled in my own pride and corrupted biases. Every time a Romney supporter makes a comment on Facebook that bashes Obama and his supporters or lifts Romney up to be the savior of America I get so frustrated and annoyed. I scoff at their arrogance and blame them for any degrading stereotypes that other nations have about America, but every time an Obama supporter makes fun of Romney I laugh obnoxiously and fully support it. In every discussion I have with a Romney supporter I immediately jump to the side against him not out of love for the individual, Romney, and the people of America, but out of pride, and because for whatever reason, I aligned my heart with the liberal agenda years ago and it is now unfortunately the lens that I look through. The political glasses that I wear have been made by liberals and they only blind me from my own pride. They shove love to the peripheral and install my pride, masquerading liberalism, at the center. Conservative glasses are not different. Any glasses that are not intricately and specifically constructed by Jesus and that are not made for the purpose of seeing His Kingdom transcend all Earthly things need to be snapped in half and thrown in the trash.
I’m going to use the example of the never ending debate between big government and small government. First off, stop again. Breathe for a second. Pray. And meditate on the heart of Jesus for a couple minutes... Now, do you really think Jesus cares how big or how small our government is? Did His rhetoric ever include how big or how small our government ought to be? Or is this all just another lens? On Palm Sunday the Jews thought him to be the one that would release them from Roman captivity, but instead, he wept for them, because they didn’t get it. Because that’s not how they could know peace. Peace is not dependent on how big or how small our government is. A smaller government will mean larger corporations that control the so called “free market,” which means more power for a fundamentally broken system, a bigger government means more power in another fundamentally broken system. Both systems are so broken, and so I truly, genuinely, with all my heart believe that if our faith is so heavily weighed upon either of these two choices, then we entirely miss the point - which is to make sure that people know the love of God and the beauty is a relationship with him. The point is to bring His Kingdom to Earth.
Answer me this, when you talk about getting our country out of 16 trillion in debt, what are your main priorities? When you speak for or against homosexual marriage, abortion, big/small government, military budgets, etc is your primary focus to ensure that people experience and know the profound, crazy stinkin’ awesome love of Jesus, or is it based on your personal culture that has been shaped by your upbringing, surroundings, and past/current relationships. Is it based on a desire to see His Kingdom on Earth, or is it based on a discomfort for specific terminology such as “hand outs,” socialism, capitalism, big corporations, freedom, military, Iraq, global warming, etc? Just stop for a second and search through the past to see if your opinions have in any way, shape, or form been talked about out of pride, arrogance, your internal/external culture, personal discomforts, or anything else that is not intrinsically woven by Jesus. Because as faith-oriented as my arguments can sound sometimes, I sure as hell know that well over half of the political words that come out of my mouth are made because I have very little understanding of humility.
Here’s my incredibly cheesy analogy: I have this image of one of those cool plastic playdo (the gooshy cool stuff) shapes that you can put plato into so that it will mold into a specific shape, like a jedi warrior or something rad like that. In this analogy our experiences, culture, influences, etc manufacture the plastic shape which is our political idendity, and the world hands us a bunch awesome, new playdo which are the issues of the world that are being discussed. I think that for most of us, prior to/during college, our political identities are manufactured into a little plastic elephant or donkey. Our opinions on policy is the playdo animal that comes out after being pressed into the shape. We talk a lot about a lesser of two evils, but bottom line is that we don’t really care which is one less evil. How can a playdo donkey or elephant be evil? We just want our playdo to look more like an elephant or donkey. Sure, because we’re children we have the capability to use dainty scissors to cut away certain angles and edges to make it look a little more like we want it to, but ultimately it’s still an elephant or a donkey. I truly believe that Jesus wants to melt our little immature plastic toys that are our political identities and manufacture something entirely more awesome... like a jedi... but better. He wants to make something entirely new, more beautiful, more conducive to His love, and more constructive for His Kingdom.
Anyways, There is something way different to choose from in this political debate, and it has way less to do with who controls our government than we think, because in the wise words of my dear friend, Ryan Hamill, Jesus has total control over it anyways. How awesome is that?
Please, if you have any questions, comments, additions, problems, or if you just want a good conversation about anything I just talked about, or about anything at all really, feel free to call me
704-280-9840. I would love to hear your perspectives.
Grace and Peace,
Phillip
Phil your passion is bursting out of every letter of this. You are super smart, but way more importantly, I can tell you're really in love with Jesus.
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