Politics as Backdrop

I like politics. Not enough to be really involved in it, mind you, but enough to keep up with what people think, what they find important, and how they express those views. Politics has taken the place of religion for many in a secular society because it has become the answer to the 'big questions' of life, or at least it provides the solution to the question of how do we get out of our mess. So, it has been interesting to watch the fallout from the November 2 presidential election among both Democrats and Republicans. Most amazing is to watch the introspection that Democrats are going through trying to understand why they lost. Bob Herbert in an editorial in the New York Times yesterday says that, in contrast to what many political pundits are saying, it had nothing to do with moral values. Why try to appeal to Middle America whose values he finds fairly "repellent?" Democrats need to define what they stand for and advance those views as morality. Eleanor Clift in Newsweek says that Democrats should not get caught up in the anit-abortion, anti-gay rights agenda of conservatives, but rather define moral values with issues such as raising the minimum wage since the Bible has a lot more to say about poverty than the other issues. I think that it is both poverty and morality, not either/or and that is the problem with politics in America. Herbert finds Evangelical Christians repellent and Clift tries to expand the scope of what morality is to include the Democratic agenda. It seems that neither really care about what is important to people or what really works - they are more interested in their side winning. So, ultimately it is about power, not values, public service, or the greater good.

While Democrats try to coopt what they perceive as winning Republican strategies, and Republicans are glorying in their victory, God's agenda for this world is much more holistic, redemptive, and beautiful than either side can possibly imagine, no matter how much they appeal to religion and moral values to win votes. Politics tells us a great deal about what we are placing our faith in here in America. Is Bush the savior? Does Kerry have the strength to oust Bush and "restore sanity to the White House?" Both sides are right on some issues. Both sides are flawed. As Christians, the question becomes how we participate. Do we follow one party step for step, or do we have the moral courage to believe that some things are right because God says so, and some things are wrong, despite the fact that a praying president or candidate proposes them. If politics is a backdrop or stage for us to play out our hopes, dreams, and fears, then what does it tell us about ourselves when we place our trust in a candidate and fail to ask hard questions of that candidate on very important issues, like the sanctity of life either in the womb, in city streets, or in far away places like Iraq? Both supporters of Bush and Kerry did not ask those questions because they so wanted to win. This election was more about power than truth for both sides, but that was difficult to see because we got caught up in the partial truth that each candidate was supporting.

If we could see the larger story of God's activity in this world, what it looks like really, for His Kingdom to come, and what our role in that is to be, then we will not just be spectators cheering for one candidate over the other, we will truly be participants in His plan to redeem a fallen world in every area of life, which includes the spiritual, the social, and the economic spheres. Jesus is a Savior from every form of injustice, suffering, hatred, and sin. Maybe, over the next four years, we can look to Him more than we look to Washington.