A word on the election

For about two months I have gone back and forth about saying something as your pastor about the upcoming presidential election.  On one hand, I wanted to buck the movement that suggests that because the church has a tax-exempt status it ought to not comment on politics (whether the church has that status in a culture or not, it’s certainly not defined by that).  And on the other, I have found the political theater of the past eighteen months so sticky.  We are currently re-visioning what American politics actually consists of with the heightened level of destructive rhetoric we are seeing.

But I have decided at last to put some thoughts down.  Here they are. 

1. The election has played out in a context of profound immaturity.  “Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” asks Jesus.  In American politics they certainly are.  The way we evaluate candidates is so unwise.  George Bush remains the primary example.  It is likely he was elected by the American people because of his profession of faith in Jesus Christ.  While I have great personal respect not only for him but also for his office, we can see that he often was not able to respond as Jesus Christ would have responded in the same situation.  We no longer have a system of discovering political candidates who are like Him in character and magnificence.  Here is something you have heard me say in other contexts and is true here too:  profession is of very little value.  What matters is what we can do.
2. Neither of the current candidates seem to work from a robust or radiant faith in Jesus Christ.  Now I can only make that statement on basis of what has been presented of them and their philosophies to governing.  Neither one defines reality as Jesus does.  It can be easily shown that neither one is proposing directions that will easily lead to the fundamental goodness and greater happiness of Americans.  While each are truly inspiring, generous and magnanimous in their own ways, neither have consistent track records of causing others to live lives that are consistently more full and ethical.  I am trying to look here at their “fruits” (Matt. 7:16) as best as I have been able to make them out and make sure they correspond with the kind of “tree” they each claim to be.  I would hope and expect others to do no less of me.
3.  What I am left to evaluate are the party platforms.  And contrary to Eastern thought which emphasizes balance, what we have here are not polar opposites but distinct points along a process of cultural decay.  You simply have to review the process of how the Roman Empire fell to see that America has entered that same process.  The current republican platform assumes less decay and the current democratic platform assumes more.  Given the inevitability of cultural decay when knowledge of God is not retained in a society, the choice between the platforms is merely a matter of pragmatics. 

I make no recommendation as to who to vote for nor will I be revealing who I vote for.  What I do counsel each of you to do is not merely to “vote” but “vote with intention”; that is to say, have your vote be compelled by your vision of how life ought to be.  I hope and pray that you understand what the Kingdom of God is and what it offers to those who choose to live in it now.  If your vote is compelled by such a vision then I will be thrilled about it.  If your vote is otherwise compelled by the massive political theater that is constantly before us, then God help us all.