Yes, maybe, no, don't care, etc.
I wonder if politics could ever be something to talk about that would not be associated with the dehumanizing of one another or degrading each other simply because of who we like as a possible president or who we are willing to lend our ears to.
I grew up on the west side of Cleveland in a VERY Catholic saturated neighborhood and in a VERY conservative portion of the city. Just writing that sentence there makes me feel like the word "Catholic" and the word "conservative" are such bad bad words!! Now I said - they make me feel like they're bad words and I'm not saying that they are.
In our day and age they have become bad words to certain folks as they roll off the tongues of folks with opposing thoughts and ideas. When I was in high school there was a clique of fellow classmates that used to call people "liberal!" as if the were flinging the F-Word at you and all because you had longer hair than they did.
{Side Note: In my all-boys-catholic-high school your hair was not permitted to grow past your shirt collar which doesn't give you a lot to work with - unless you just grew out your bangs which my best friend did actually do as a way of "getting around the system" and defying it as teenager should.}
Today I received another mass email from a family member. The email was specifically ripping into a targeted political party. I could laugh at it a little with the ability to show that I have a sense of humor. Now, what I find disheartening is that my family member is assuming that I feel the same way. Now they've never asked - they've only assumed because that's just how we were raised and not taught. Think about that. That's how you are raised so just be "that" and don't teach yourself about "it". The "it" is for "politics" and such and the things of this world that deserve our attention more that our indifferences.
Maybe you'd say so what or big deal. Well, I know it's a big deal. I know it's a big deal from just my familial experiences. My family thinks that I am a Republican simply because I grew up in a strictly Catholic slash strictly Republican family.
I am not saying that I am a Republican either. (So don't start assuming for me.)
Now, on the other hand, as a pastor of a very unique Church here in Kent, Ohio that is made up of 20 and 30 year olds and living in the city which was turned upside down and left wounded during the Vietnam War, people simply assume that I am a Liberal Democrat.
Which I am not saying that I am.
If because of where I may be found suddenly determines what makes my identity in the political world to be so easily configured then man... what have we missed here??
Have you seen the movie "Amazing Grace"? It's the movie that tells the story from the political perspective of what William Wilberforce had to do in order to bring down the Slave Trade in Great Britain that affected over 11 million Africans. It's not a super-action-packed-emotional movie but a disturbing one. It is disturbing because people were just so oblivious to the wrongs of the Slave Trade because they accepted it as normal because everyone else apparently did and mostly because people prospered greatly from the trade.
So because of popular opinion's ability to support the furtherance of the Slave Trade it would turn out to deliver the destruction of millions of human lives. Popular opinion destroyed millions of husbands and wives, moms and dads, brothers and sisters, children and babies. So whether popular opinion takes root in a small family or in the general consensus of a nation it has made way in the past and in the present for some of the greatest injustices to find growth.
Are you seeking to conquer any particular political party by how you were raised, by what your friend likes, by what the polls are saying, or by how your Dad tells you to vote? Or are you preparing to seek what is right, what is just and who is trying to lead us in that way. I know that that statement there alone can lead to a lot of debate - but so what - debate out of care and not out of reaction. Talk and share. Respect other peoples concerns and cares.
Walk with me for a minute...
Far too often I see assumptions like this:
Republicans are conservative Christian families that are made up of rich white people who hate gay people and love George W. Bush and hate Muslims and love war and hate people who have abortions and they get to go to college and they shop at Abercrombie & Fitch and drive SUV's and hate...
Or assumptions like this:
Liberal Democrats are hippy-coated-vegan-yuppies that serve poor people because it is trendy and cool and love abortion and they wish everyone could just be super-gay if they want to be and they hate soldiers, the military and the USA and they love the Middle East more and hate Hummers and they love animals more than humans and hate...
Are politics that shallow to you?
Aren't you sick of those stereotypical perceptions?
I've heard people look at it like this and only like this.
It is just so wrong and such a disservice for ourselves to think that we can sum it all up like so.
Is your political life just a love/hate kind of thing?
What I love about Jesus and how he approached politics is the fact that His very presence challenged the entire system and it changed it instantly. His perfect life dissolves the way mankind institutes kingdoms and it in turn restores us with truth and not destruction.
There is a story known all around the world about a woman being caught in adultery and she is being sentenced to death as the law states. Look it up in the Book of John, chapter 8, verses 1-11.
The woman that was guilty of adultery was approached by the law with death preparing to justify the wrongs and Jesus stands in between the death sentence and the guilty. Ultimately, in the life of Jesus, He was already on His way to take the blame for her sin for the sake of justifying His beloved through His death on the cross.
It was the love of God that would change this moment. It was the love of God in the Person of Jesus that would change a woman from guilty to innocent. It was the love of God that would change the decision to execute the guilty and cause the law enforcers to look at their own hearts and consider the goodness of God. It is the love of God that can cause us to do the same if we let it.
So whether you find yourself a Follower of Jesus or not you cannot escape the fact that His presence changed everything in this one occurrence. That is revolutionary. That is Jesus.
Approach politics in the way Jesus did - with great love. The kind of love that relies on the plans of our Father in heaven and changes everything in an instant for the sake of saving our hearts from killing each other as we are all His treasured possessions. The kind of love that enables us to value others far more than ourselves.
1 comment:
scott,
as usual, you rock and say things that i'm thinking better than i ever could.
on the same theme, here's an interesting quote from my man thomas merton:
"One thing is very clear: all that passes for aggiornamento is not necessarily good or healthy. One has to remain pretty critical and independent about all ideas ... Both the conservatives and the progressives seem to me to be full of the same kind of intolerance, arrogance, empty-headedness, and to be dominated by different kinds of conformism; in either case the dread of being left out of their reference group."
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