I'm writing this post early on the Saturday after the election. I'm listening to Gerry Mulligan and looking forward to going to a men's breakfast at church.
We don't generally talk about politics at church. I could guess at what some of my brothers are thinking, and I'm pretty sure of which way one of them voted, but that's about it. We are not a red or a blue or even a purple church. This reticence about politics probably speaks to a determination to not let ourselves be divided along political lines.
And not to be distracted. A church is a group of people who think they are on to something. On to something big. Virtually everything else seems like a lesser thing, and on these lesser things we may and often do differ.
We have no authority apart from Jesus. Our authority runs in very narrow but not insignificant paths. We have the authority to forgive. To withhold judgement. To offer grace far and wide in the interest of displaying the beauty of of God in Christ (God as seen, as revealed, in Jesus).
But of course there are Christians who do put politics first. Personally, I think they are making a big mistake. I think it's corrupting. Show me a politics-first person who does not believe his or her political opponents are stupid and evil, and you will have shown me the exception, not the rule.
[Note: I've moved on from Mulligan to the Houdak Trio for my background music. This stuff is incredible!]
Where was I? Oh yeah, the matter of politics and faith. I do think a political program may well flow from a faith position. Actually, it would be strange if one didn't. And I also think that many of us (us Christian believers) have not thought these connections and transitions through. Our political views are alongside our faith-understanding, but unrelated. Our politics is a sort of cultural inheritance, and we have been careful to give it preferential treatment, protected status.
It's similar to not letting your faith disturb your attraction to violence, or to pornography. I am not equating political views to sin, but when anything has a protected and untouchable place in our psyche, it is an idol.
A sign of this sort of idolization is our willingness to lie on behalf of our political interests. You see, if our politics flowed from our faith in Christ, we would never lie for politics. Or for a politician. If Christ comes first, lying is off the menu, sorry.
That is what has disturbed me most about Evangelical supporters of Trump. The willingness to pass on the official lies of the administration. To call lies truth. When you think a man is beyond the reach of ordinary sensible skepticism, that man is your idol. You are enmeshed in sin.
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Read also:
We Are All Revenants, by Bradley Jersak
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