The Foundation of Political Action: A Kingdom Perspective

This is partially a response to the news story linked below, and is also born out of many conversations I have had with others.

http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1015217

My college years challenged me in many ways, and one of the many was in the area of politics. I grew up in churches that always voted Republican and always encouraged their congregations to vote Republican. I was taught that the conservative way of thinking most highly reflected God’s way of thinking. Republicans held high the banner of morality, family, and God. We are a “Christian nation” and the Conservative crowd aimed to keep it that way. College shattered this for me, and I think – along with the other ways I changed – it was for the best.

During my college years, I started to lean left, considered voting for Democrats, and began to be open to the idea of being called a liberal. Soon after college, I read some conservative books, listened to conservative talk radio, and really began to swing back the other way. However, the shattering that happened in college slowly started to creep back in, and as I began to learn more about the God of the Scriptures I slowly defined a view for myself that I would argue is closer to Biblical than what I had previously bought into.

I have read both sides of the Christian arguments. I think both have merit. However, I believe both are missing the point altogether! To put it bluntly, I believe we are to exploit the political systems of this world to advance the proclamation and outworking of the Kingdom. Within Christianity, there should be no Democrat or Republican. We are part of a different Kingdom altogether. Of course we are citizens of America, but our true allegiance is to Jesus the Messiah. We are part of a community and Kingdom that are not of this world (John 18:36-37; Phil. 3:20). I believe that thinking in these terms will allow us to address the present political questions of our country from within a truly Biblical framework, rather than basing our votes on whether we believe Jesus would camp with the political left because of His social agenda or the political right because of his moral agenda. Our national citizenship should only be valued to the extent that it can benefit us in our mission to advance the Gospel (as Paul used his in Acts 16:37; 25:11). That being said, our voting habits and political involvement should be in the interest of advancing the Kingdom… PERIOD (just as our careers, finances, and lives should be).

I will give an example of how this plays out for me personally. First, let me give a disclaimer. I do not have this all worked out yet. I am constantly learning and changing. There are things I may stand for today that I may completely change position on tomorrow, because, if what I am proposing is right, we have to beseech God and use our best discernment to make appropriate choices on what political positions we take. It is no longer as easy as Democrat/Republican or Liberal/Conservative; rather it is a constant evaluation and re-evaluation of the most effective ways to exploit the politics of this world for the advancement of the Kingdom. Also, others’ conclusions may be different than mine and that does not make them wrong. It may merely reflect God’s desire to use that person in a different way, even though our perspectives on furthering the Gospel and the work of the Gospel may be the same. So, here are some things this has led me to:

I believe that that our freedom as American citizens is one of (if not) the most beneficial thing(s) we have to further the Kingdom. Freedom allows us to use our money, our words, and our lives to advance the Gospel without heavy persecution. This means that maintaining freedoms within America is a big priority for me. This can play out in a number of ways. For instance, I take a very Conservative stance on fiscal policy. I believe that the more money that believers can keep in their hands, the more we can use to serve the Kingdom. Of course, paying taxes is part of our duty as American citizens (Mark 12:17), but less taxes means more money for us to do our jobs and take care of the poor and sick (assuming that we live this out). To further clarify I use the term Conservative, because Republicans have done a pretty lousy job at fiscal responsibility. In fact, both parties have, so I am attempting to spread awareness that we need reform in this area and to vote accordingly. The government is not very good at taking care of the poor anyway, and Christians should put every government program to shame when it comes to this task!

On the other hand, I take a liberal approach when it comes to homosexual marriage. This is not because I endorse homosexuality. In fact, I think the Scriptures are comprehensively clear in portraying homosexuality as sin (as they are with lying, stealing, lusting, injustice, etc. - I would go into this here, but I am working on a more detailed argument on another subject that puts this into perspective and will be hopefully published at a future date). However, I believe that upholding our freedom is more important than stopping two people from receiving a marriage certificate. Also, I do not see how the constant protests, hate speech, and discrimination benefits the Kingdom in even the slightest way. If we vote to take away freedom from others we may inadvertently take away our own rights. I think that churches should have the right to hire who they want to hire and pastors/priests should be able to perform marriage ceremonies over those they want to marry. The government’s affirmation of a marriage does not make it a marriage. The ultimate truth is that it is God’s affirmation that makes it a marriage. Now, I know there are a lot of questions to be asked here, so feel free to ask. I just merely want to say that within the perspective of the Kingdom I think that in this particular area, my involvement and calling is to reach out to the homosexual community. Not to “support” their right to marry, but to enact the Biblical calling to be God’s love, healing, and restoration to humanity.

Though you may not agree with the specifics, I hope these two examples put into perspective the point I am attempting to make. The whole topic of politics in the Christian world needs to be set within a refreshingly new (at least to many of us) framework. The concept of tying our national identity to our American citizenship seems unbiblical when confronted with Jesus’ declaration of His identity as Messiah and our identity as his disciples and members of His Kingdom. There is much more to be said about all this of course and many more topics that need to be addressed. I just don’t want to write a book as a blog entry (since I tend to write long blogs anyway). I just hope that we can take this challenge up so that we have more opportunity to participate in and advance God’s work and so that our unity as the people of God intrigues and amazes the political world that knows only division.

Sophie Scholl, Human Longings, and an Answer

I believe that most individuals have longings that are universal. Of course, this is a generalization (but can you ever write a set of observations about cultures, groups, or species without generalizations?). These longings within us are so deep that I think most of us do not know how to express them. We long for love, acceptance, justice, peace, freedom, beauty, etc. Now, I understand that I am speaking from within a Western world where these things are commonly accepted and/or embraced, but (at least from my admittedly biased opinion – I am a Christian and have been immersed in Western ideas and traditions), I believe that a majority of human beings have these longings. From the time we are children outside forces are constantly working against these longings. It can be cultural forces, such as a culture that embraces war as the norm and holds onto the belief that men are to show their strength and courage through spreading fear and death. It can be forces from within the family structure, as in situations where child abuse takes place. It can be physical forces, such as chemical imbalances or handicaps. However, I firmly believe that deep down inside these longings still grip us. They grip us at our very core. They grip us at night when we lie in bed, or when we stop to take a breath from all the running around we have been doing. They grip us when we are surrounded by danger and war. They grip us when someone we care deeply for is sick, or when we have lost someone we love. They are always there. Calling us to feel uncomfortable and out of place. Calling us to hear that something is deeply wrong and this is not how things are meant to be.

Tonight, I watched an instant movie on Netflix called “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days”. The movie was based on a true story. For those of you that don’t know (I didn’t until I watched the movie and then read up a little bit on the background) Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans were part of a passive resistance group, named the White Rose during the days of Hitler. The group printed and distributed thousands of pamphlets encouraging Germans to resist the Nazis. As the title suggests, Sophie was put to death for being involved in this group. What was so captivating about her story is her belief in human dignity that was born out of her strong faith in God. Sophie stood against the Nazis because she believed in the dignity of the Germans, the Jews, the handicapped, the elderly… She believed all humanity is valuable because all of humanity has been created in the image of God. I reference this particular movie because it reinvigorated these longings within me. It put them in a historical perspective that is much different from where we are as Americans, but that still deeply touches us. Even without our freedoms and lives being violently ripped from us, we still feel that something is deeply wrong with the world. We still, despite all the books that have been written to the contrary, believe that good and evil exist. We still believe that good should prevail and the evil should be dealt with. I find it interesting that even atheists still want to use the terms “good” and “evil” as if they are somehow still applicable to a worldview that states merely that the entire cosmos exists in and of itself as a series of processes that came from nothing (even more confounding that space itself was born from nothing! – or maybe from something we haven’t discovered yet- how can we discover something outside of space??? ). But that is another conversation for another time. My point here is that these universal longings are pointing us in a direction outside of ourselves. They are pointing us to the actuality of what we are created for. Evil, and death its byproduct, were not meant to be a part of this world.

At one point during the movie, Sophie recalls the last days she was able to spend with her fiancé before he was ordered back to the frontlines of the war. She says, "We'd sing at night and talk about peace. No soldiers anywhere. No planes, no bombs. Just the sea, the sky, the wind, and our dreams.” I loved this line because it revealed those deep longings right in the middle of the raging reality around her. I have had times like that. I can recall specific meals with amazing food, amazing wine, and amazing friends where I’m briefly caught up by the thought, “This is how it’s supposed to be.” It’s happened in beautiful weather during a sunset. It’s happened with my family seated around the dinner table free to be who we are with each other. It’s happened when I have been hiking and reached the peak of a mountain and been overwhelmed with glory reflected by Creation. The tension between how things are and how they are supposed to be is what brings these longings out. It points towards the truth (however hard we fight it) that there is something more than just what is.

When viewed within the Christian framework, all of these longings begin to make sense. The longing for justice and goodness are within us, not because they are an evolutionary byproduct, but rather because humanity was created to reflect the Image of God (where we find true love, justice, peace, etc.). Since the garden in Genesis and the entrance of evil into the world, humans (and all of creation) have become disjointed. Death and decay entered the picture. Evil, it seems, has won the day. However, the Biblical story continues by revealing God’s love for His good creation and His promise to one day reveal that love by bringing His promised One who will reverse the effects of the fall and reconcile humanity to God. Towards the end of “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days” as Sophie is facing execution, she is allowed a visit from her mother and father. During this time, her mother says with tears in her eyes, “My little girl, never again will you walk through the door of our house… Sophie, remember Jesus.” Sophie responds, “You too mama.” The answer for Sophie is still the answer for us! It is through Jesus’ death burial and resurrection that God is restoring and will one day fully restore ultimate peace, justice, love, and goodness to His Creation! It is through Jesus Christ that we find redemption (both now and future) and it is in Jesus Christ that we find these longings are not only affirmed, but answered and fulfilled.

If we ignore these longings, or brush them off as just idealistic thoughts that do not have any merit in the real world, we may be missing why they exist; We may be missing why the haunt us, why we feel alone even with so many friends, and why the world just plain does not feel right. I suggest that we at least attempt to discover why these feelings are a part of us, and that we address them head on… Anyone who does may find that the Christian story does indeed fit the reality of human existence a little more than they expected.

After her final words with her parents, Sophie is taken to her cell where she spends the short minutes before her execution. There she prays, “My God, glorious Father, Transform this ground into fertile earth, so that your seeds may not fall in vain. Let the longing grow for You, the Creator, that they so often do not want to see. Amen.”