What is God asking of us
during this season? Clearly God is
asking us to fix ourselves, to be different.
But there’s more: I am pretty much persuaded, while allowing plenty of
room for the possibility I could be wrong, that God is calling us as Christians
to fix politics. Maybe, instead of
complaining about politics, or chafing under politics, or trying to squeeze
some Christianity in there somewhere, we might find a way to change politics in
America. Republican Senator John
Danforth’s wish is appealing to me: “I want political people to stop using
religion to divide Americans, but I want religious people to become more
engaged in fixing politics that is currently broken.” Wow.
And… how?
For years, religious people thought God was
asking them to take control of political life in America, to seize power, get
their candidates elected and judges appointed, and usher in more righteous
policies. The “Moral Majority” was
perhaps the largest sustained effort by Christians to assume power. But that endeavor fizzled. Nowadays, Christians can’t pretend they are
the one big thing; if we are to get anything done, it will only be with others
at the table. And Jesus, after all,
declined Satan’s offer of political power.
Politics will only change when the people
change. We have some expertise here:
people change is the Church’s business.
Americans blame government for gridlock and all that ails us. But Danforth is absolutely right: “The main culprit behind our broken government isn’t the
535 members who serve in Washington; it’s the public to whom the members
respond. We are the culprits when we are
so intent on getting our way and so certain of our ideology that we really
don’t want a structure where others are heard and differences are resolved, and
we let our politicians know it.”
What if we let our hearts be converted by
the Holy Spirit? Can’t we in the church
model unity, and how to disagree respectfully?
What if we refused to respond to negative campaigning, or repeat
negative chatter ourselves? We gripe
about negative campaigning – but in this election, all we hear from each other
are negatives about who’s running. What
if whole congregations phoned up politicians who say “I approve this message”
(which they must do due to the McCain-Feingold Act of 2002) and told them Stop! We Americans won’t vote for you if you
approve negative messaging.
What if a mass of Christian voters got in
cahoots with a mass of Jewish, Muslim, and atheist voters and insisted on a
very different tone to campaigning and politics? What if we became vocal advocates of
compromise? Shrill voices shout “No
compromise!” – which is why gridlock wins and nothing gets done. Compromise is a virtue in politics, and even
in religious life.
What if, instead of blaming Washington or
the courts, we got busy reforming hearts, lives and families in our
communities? We know people are broken,
sinful, and flawed; but we also know each person is beautiful, wonderfully made
in God’s image – so can we appeal to the brighter angels in all of us and ask
politicians to do the same?
You may be snickering by now. But seriously: what else will change the
country? And where better to begin than with me, and you, and the Church? Cultural change takes a long time, and it’s
all about baby steps – and we’ll look at a few others that really are do-able
next week.
FYI:
Earlier installments in this series are archived here – so
you can catch up!
