Thats not all it is about… I have a really busy week, but I thought I would give a few quick links/comments to think about for the remainder of election day and the following days.
First, you should check out my beautiful wife’s most recent post about the necessity of community. She also includes a few nuggets of wisdom about the purpose/misuse of blogging:
I also refuse to use this blog as a daily journal or face book status/twitter “today I ran a marathon”, “I am eating pie” or”my life is completely focused on my political affiliation”
I wish I were eating pie right now.
Also, check out a few thoughts on the election from John Piper.
Also, Andrew Lewis offers a few passages of scripture that should be kept in mind through this election.
Finally, Derek Webb, as usual, has some good things to say in his column in Patrol Mag.
Real and lasting change comes from knowing and loving the folks who live in the houses that sit next to ours rather than saving all of our longing and hope for the voting booth.
And this:
These matters of conscience are serious and should be considered at great length. I have many friends who have considered the issues of this current election in all their nuances and have chosen to vote for either Obama, McCain, or a 3rd party candidate, and I support them in doing so. Again, we are diverse members of one body in our following of Jesus. It would be suspicious if we all reached identical conclusions to such complex problems. So again, maybe there is no conflict of conscience for you in this election. By all means vote. But if there is, be at liberty not to vote.
Our ultimate hope is not in politicians or powers or governments, but in a day coming when all things will be made right. And our ultimate concern isn’t success but faithfulness. So if you find it necessary to abstain from voting in this election because to do so would be a violation of your conscience, be at liberty to remain faithful and leave the worry of success or outcome to God. He, after all, created governments in the first place.
I responded to another blogger’s post a moment ago, and thought I would say the same thing on my own blog. Jim Thompson had a great post about politics and world government. Unfortunately, though we were at North Greenville at approximately the same time, I never took the chance to even speak to him, much less make friends; however, his blog always has some good things to say and the best part is that he is brief and to the point. So you should take time to check his blog out, if you don’t already.
God works THROUGH and AGAINST world politics. That is the biblical paradigm. I don’t feel as if many believers live like it is. Yes, render to Caesar what is Caesar’s [Mk 12]. Yes, submit to authority [Rom 13]. But please, don’t rush to the polls as if you are doing God a favor. We must be upstanding citizens, but we are strangers and aliens here [1 Pe 1 and 2] and our true citizenship is in heaven [Phil 3]. We have to live like that is true.
There are people on both sides (republican and democrat) acting as if their candidate and their platform are God’s chosen. It simply isn’t true. The success or failure of America’s economy/war on terror/revenue system/budget is simply a tool which God will use to further his kingdom.
I hear a lot of people saying we should try to figure out who Jesus would vote for and then they give reasons why Jesus would vote for McCain or Obama or Baldwin or Barr or Nader. I’m not yet convinced that Jesus would actually vote.
I’ll say that again, I AM NOT CONVINCED THAT JESUS WOULD VOTE.
He reluctantly paid his taxes. He, along with his early followers, seemed to have little concern for whomever was in political power. If anything, he made it clear that his purpose was not political… his kingdom was not of this earth.
But if he were to vote, he wouldn’t be interested in which candidate would be the most moral or which one would change the moral direction of the US, like so many people suggest. I think he would vote for whomever would allow for the greatest expansion of the kingdom of God, wittingly or unwittingly.
In other words, if a government making Christianity illegal would best foster the growth of the kingdom, I believe that’s what Jesus would do with his votes. If a government that was on a slippery slope to being a communist dictatorship were best for the kingdom, that’s who Jesus would vote for. I cannot say that with certainty, but his purpose was not to further the kingdom through political or governmental means. I think he would have the same bones to pick with James Dobson and Tony Campolo.
I think that seeking to further God’s kingdom or Christian morals, etc. through the government is the antithesis of the biblical model.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” Samuel 8:4-9
The people wanted a government who would lead them to be a great nation, but God saw it as them rejecting him. This government set to rule over God’s chosen nation was a horrible failure. David was a good king. Then the kingdom split. Josiah was a decent king. The vast majority of them were horrible, evil kings. When we trust in government and politics to lead our country into being a “Christian” nation, we’re doing the same thing that these guys were doing. Do what you need to in your nation to keep it safe, to be sure that people are taken care of, lessen poverty, crime and disease. But don’t trust in it. Our citizenship is in the kingdom of God… the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is our king and our leader. Not an old prisoner of war. Not a young, charismatic community planner. Not a pitbull wearing lipstick.
I found this quote from Bono about the recent bailout:
“It is extraordinary to me that you can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can’t find $25 billion to save 25,000 children who die every day of preventable treatable disease and hunger…that’s mad, that is mad.”
We’re all worried about the world’s economy and about the price of gas and about our houses and cars and stuff. There are a lot of people who will not be affected by this economic slump because they did not have anything to be affected. They never had a house. They never had a car. They never had healthcare. They did have diseases. They also had dirty water. They also had lives surrounded by death, disease and war. But, unlike those of us who have a lot, many of them have contentment. Many of them have hope. Many of them live lives that are full of joy and happiness in spite of all of their poverty. Many of them had no hope before the financial crisis and have no hope after the financial crisis. If someone wants to help, where to start?
In other news, I befriended a bear on the shoulder of Highway 6 in Manitoba, just south of Devil’s Lake.
I am tired of politics. And, since I am an American living in Canada, I get twice as much as any of my other American friends. Obama this. Harper that. McCain what? Palin and Layton were making out underneath the bleachers. Biden spent seven years in a Turkish prison. (For those of you who didn’t know, Harper is the current PM of Canada, and Layton is the NDP party leader aka candidate for PM). Seriously, I’m tired of it. Tired of hearing about it. Tired of thinking about it. Tired of reading about it. Tired of Christians being unnecessarily outspoken about it (including myself). Don’t get me wrong, its important. In fact, I’ve already sent in my ballot. But its not THAT important.
Read this post by Scot McKnight. Its really good.
Our hope is in the gospel of God. God’s mission is gospel-shaped. Some today want to reduce gospel to what we find in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, while others want to expand it to bigger proportions (and I’m one of the latter), we would do well at election time to re-align ourselves once again with the gospel as God’s good news for our world. Therein lies our hope.
and then there is this song by Derek Webb:
A Savior on Capitol Hill
I’m so tired of these mortal men
with their hands on their wallets and their hearts full of sin
scared of their enemies, scared of their friends
and always running for re-election
so come to DC if it be thy will
because we’ve never had a savior on Capitol Hillyou can always trust the devil or a politician
to be the devil or a politician
but beyond that friends you’d best beware
’cause at the Pentagon bar they’re an inseparable pair
and as long as the lobbyists are paying their bills
we’ll never have a savior on Capitol Hill[Bridge]
all of our problems gonna disappear
when we can whisper right in that President’s ear
he could walk right across the reflection pool
in his combat boots and ten thousand dollar suityou can render unto Caesar everything that’s his
you can trust in his power to come to your defense
it’s the way of the world, the way of the gun
it’s the trading of an evil for a lesser one
so don’t hold your breath or your vote until
you think you’ve finally found a savior up on Capitol Hill
This may seem to contradict my previous post, but it really doesn’t. I just finished reading Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw. And I’ve decided to drop my vote for Obama and vote for Jesus instead.
Seriously though, though I am convinced that Obama will make a great president, I don’t believe that Obama will be our savior. He won’t solve all of the world’s problems, though some are convinced that he will. He’s a politician. Though I’m convinced that he is a different sort of politician than we’re used to, he’s still a politician. And the leader of a nation. And as a Christian, my national identity is of little importance.
Thats one of the points that Claiborne and Haw make in JforP. “Being born again radically dissolves affection for national borders,” or at least it should. I think that President Obama will do a lot of good for our nation, and a lot of good for the world.
And I am fortunate to have American citizenship and the freedoms that come along with it. But when it comes down to it, my citizenship is in heaven. Not the U.S. I have brothers and sisters here in Canada with me. I have brothers and sisters back home in the U.S. I have brothers and sisters in Mexico. I have brothers and sisters who are Mexicans illegally in the U.S. I have Palestinian brothers and sisters. I have Iraqi brothers and sisters. I have Chinese brothers and sisters. I have North Korean brothers and sisters. And all those who are my “brothers and sisters,” are made in God’s image and have the opportunity to be a part of his family. But if we keep killing their “brothers and sisters” in the name of the American Jesus, why would they want this Jesus?
In reality, Jesus isn’t an American. He is the head of a new kingdom. The only nation that is actually sovereign. The Kingdom of God. And one day, it will come on earth, as it is in heaven. Thats what we look forward to as Christians. The day when all things will be made right.
And if the King has already come, why are we still clinging to our former nations? I may be planning to vote for Obama, but in reality, Jesus is my president.
And, tomorrow, Leah and I are leaving to go home for Leah’s brother Adam’s wedding. Another 35 hour drive. And then I’ll be heading back all by myself to live for 2 weeks without my beautiful wife. I’m gonna miss her a lot.
Frank Schaeffer wrote an article about why he supports Obama. Its a pretty compelling read. My beautiful wife also wrote a blog post on politics that will explain some of this.
I was thinking back to high school when I was a diehard republican. I thought thats what I was supposed to be. Wasn’t Jesus a republican? Seriously, I had thought from an early age that being a Republican and a Christian went hand in hand. How can you support a politician who supports killing babies? How can a Christian allow his country to legalize gay marriage? The terrorists want us dead, so we should kill them first, and if a few thousand of their innocents die, well its risk we have to take to keep America safe.
I couldn’t vote in the 2000 election, but if I could’ve it would have been Bush all the way. I got excited about having a Republican congress. Over the past few years, I’ve listened to a lot of conservative talk radio, and I’ve agreed with quite a bit of it. I supported the war in Iraq and up until not very long ago thought that there were actually WMD’s in Iraq–they just were never found. I thought that there should be a fence on the mexican border and thought that amnesty was the dumbest thing I had ever heard of. I thought that a constitutional ammendment would champion the sanctity of marriage.
My opinions on those things didn’t change over night, it was a long process. But my realization that they had changed was an overnight thing. I woke up one day and realized that I wanted Obama to be my president. I realized that I didn’t want anymore of my peers killed in Iraq. I realized that I didn’t want any more innocent Iraqis to die. I realized that those guys on conservative talk radio don’t live in the real world. Their elitists who get paid bank to do what they do. I realized that Oil shouldn’t be the driving force of our economy.
So am I a democrat?? No. I’m not prepared to call myself a democrat by any means. But I’m not a republican either.
I still hold that abortion is murder. I just think being pro-life entails much more than being anti-abortion. My wife, Leah, said it pretty well, “abortion is a ’sanctity of life’ issue, and that you can’t be against abortion and yet in action be unwilling to take in unwed mothers, or adopting needy children.” And if sanctity of life is such a concern, what about all those who have been killed in the war?? Do their lives not count? What about the people who don’t have any sort of healthcare and can’t afford it? I still hate abortion, though.
I still hold that homosexuality is a sinful lifestyle. But enacting a law will not change people’s hearts. And homosexuality is mentioned only a handful of times in God’s word. Injustice, poverty, and oppression of the poor are mentioned more than 2000 times. Why are we so quick to keep homosexual couples from getting a piece of paper acknowledging what we all know anyway. And, in all honesty, divorce is what is destroying the family in america, not homosexuality. And if we’re going to talk about the sanctity of marriage, read a little bit about McCain’s first marriage and his transition into his second. It will probably surprise you. Basically, McCain returned from service a war hero with a wife who was disfigured in an accident. Instead of keeping his vows, he started sleeping around and eventually met Cindy, while he was still married to his first wife. He divorced his wife and married Cindy.
Obama will pull troops out of Iraq. Obama will ensure healthcare for everyone. Obama refuses to accept contributions from lobbyists. He’ll reinstate taxes for the wealthy and protect tax cuts for the poor and middle class. His goal is a nuclear weapon free world.
There are other things that I don’t agree with. But, he is a man of principle. A man who loves his wife and daughters. A man who really wants to help people, not just help himself. A man who will change the face of this country for years to come. A man who will change history.
We’re not going to have a savior in Washington. We won’t have someone who will usher in the golden age and make everything great for every american. But we can have a president who’s goal will be to make life better in this country for everyone. Thats something I can support.
Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
The first time I ever heard this song, I thought, “Oh my Gosh!!” This guy obviously makes Jesus cry. It disturbed me. The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve come to appreciate the Beatles’ music. But their lyrics are less than understandable, oftentimes.
This song, though, is different. John Lennon apparently is taking a serious look at the world and saying, “If their weren’t all of these religions and nations warring with each other, if all of these people weren’t just worried about what they might get in the next life, maybe life here on earth would be different.”
While John would disagree with the Christian belief that the ultimate cause of human suffering is sin, he had a good point.
Imagine if Christians would stop focusing on this heaven-oriented, i’ll-fly-away easy-believism, and realize that the Gospel of Christ is about the new creation–that Christ was the first-born from the dead, that God will redeem his world, that he’ll resurrect his children, that God’s kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven. Maybe then we’d be less focused on getting a bunch of converts and more focused on changing the world. On loving sinners the way jesus loves sinners. On sharing the Good news of the kingdom of God as opposed to making it illegal for sinners to sin.
Imagine all the Christians living for today.
Some may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one.
I’m in the process of reading both Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne and Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright. So should everyone else be.
Filed under: Politics, Theology, culture, people, etc., youth ministry | Tags: enemies, jesus, John Piper, love
This has become a common theme, I know, but John Piper talks about the contradiction many of us have in those to whom we have compassion.
This is why aligning with a political party is seldom consistent with Jesus’ message, regardless of what most people think. We are all guilty of treating compassion towards one group as more important than compassion towards another group. The sanctity of life includes far more than just the unborn. It also includes the poor. It also includes the unwed mothers who decided against abortion. It includes the homosexuals in your community. It includes your boss. It includes the guy who cut you off this morning on your way to work. It includes the inconsiderate jerk who lives next door.
Love your neighbor as yourself. I think that in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus made it clear that our “neighbor” should be anyone and everyone we come across, regardless of differences. I asked my youth the other night how we could better love our enemies, and one of them said, “Don’t have any.” Don’t have any enemies. View them all as your neighbor, no matter how different they are, no matter how much they disagree with you, no matter how much they abhor you. Love them as you love yourself. This is way that Jesus would have us follow.
Its a hard way to walk, but its what we are called to.
