Category: Politics

Through a Glass Darkly

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“We just can’t continue to look into the filter of our politics at our spirituality. It’s got to be the other way around ….” (Spoken by Andy Stanley speaking at Catalyst West at Mariners church, Irvine, CA April 17, 2015 as reported in Christian Post)

Are we, Christians, more identified by our politics than our faith? If it is the former, we have terribly missed the mark.

It may not be completely “our fault”. Political pundits are constantly categorizing and labeling Christians and determining our political leanings. Political analysts and prognosticators are continually defining and redefining Christians and their politics.

But, we do play along and allow ourselves to be pegged by political affiliations and positions and, thus, allow ourselves to be defined by them. We allow ourselves to go with the flow and become indistinguishable from the world around us. Continue reading “Through a Glass Darkly” →

Immigration: the Strangers Among Us

If Christians are to be instructed by the Word of God on immigration, what would that instruction be?

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In the wake of Obama’s executive orders on immigration and the outcry and fallout from it, I realized that I did not have a biblical framework on which to analyze the issues. I could not definitely say exactly what the Bible instructs us on the issue of immigration.

The Syrian refugee crisis at that time was much in the news, and I was conflicted by the many Christians urging our government not to allow Syrian refugees into the country. I was conflicted because I didn’t know what to think.

I realized that, as a Christian, I need to be instructed by the Word of God, and I wondered, “What would that instruction be?” Therefore, I took the time to study it, and the answer surprised me in its clarity.

Continue reading “Immigration: the Strangers Among Us” →

When Words Become Fact

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Facts in Speech Bubble

To start this post, I need to begin by apologizing for focusing on politics. That is not the focus I want to have, but the current federal government “shutdown” dominates the news and, therefore, is hard to ignore.

For a little perspective, the government “shutdown” effects about 17% of the federal government operations. No, I did not take the time to fact check that statistic. (“Fact check” is the proper verb, isn’t it?) Please be my guest to correct me if you determine I am wrong. In fact, I have spent an enormous amount of my time trying to fact check many things that are being bandied about by the pundits, commentators, politicians and just about anyone who can post to Facebook, but fact checking in the whirlwind of the swirling and diametrically opposed assertions can be difficult.

It doesn’t seem to matter much anyway. I don’t see many people changing their minds when “facts” are tossed out that, if true, ought to make a reasonable person stand up and take notice. Maybe that is due to the fact that everyone makes statements that they assume are facts, without spending the time to vet (to use a cool political term) those assumptions; and, therefore, we all know that the “facts” tossed wildly about by our political opposites are only as reliable as the “facts” we our selves have carelessly stated. No one is to be taken at face value.

It seems like most discussions are no more than hot air. I am not sure people even connect with each other any more. Maybe we never did.

Facts become words and words become facts, and it all becomes just another point of view. Its hard to determine where facts end (if they ever started) and opinions take over.

Words do have meanings though, and the manipulation of words can have a real effect on the law, on health care and on real people. Take the recent article in Forbes published on September 29, 2013: “Why The Federal Government Wants To Redefine The Word ‘Cancer’” This article demonstrates how changing the definition of a word, can change the law, changing whether someone may be covered by health care insurance and whether someone gets treatment that might save a life. When “the government” can manipulate a word like “cancer” to change how a law applies, we should take notice.

When words are disconnected from their meanings like that, we all have reason to be concerned. In fact, maybe there is more to the debate than I skeptically thought.

Regardless of the veracity of the facts that are being leveraged by both sides of the political equation in the current battle over health care, government shutdowns, spending and debt ceilings, the truth of those assertions will eventually give way to words that are passed into law. Those words will become our reality, regardless of any other facts (unless the meanings of those words are changed).

Shutdown the Political Game

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Disillusioned PoliticianSomeone is lying. At least someone is not telling the truth, not all of it anyway. Maybe no one is being honest.

When I listen to CNN, I hear senators and commentators talking about John Boehner, and his cronies, and the Senate and how they refuse to compromise. When I  listen to Fox News, I hear representatives and commentators talking about President Obama, and Harry Reid and the Senate and how they refuse to compromise.

Both sides blame the government shutdown on the other. The last comments I heard on CNN were about how federal parks are closed, people are out of work and barricades are shutting the public out, as if barricades put themselves up. Do these people think we are stupid?! Someone gave the orders to put the barricades up. Someone was paid to put them up. Someone is being paid to keep people out.

The conservative sources I read say the orders are being given to “make people feel” feel the impact of the shutdown because they think “the people” will blame the Republicans. It certainly seems that way. People are being paid to keep the lid on the shutdown. The liberal sources I listen to reflect a sort of confidence in the perception that the Republicans are at fault. From my perspective, the Emperor has no clothes!

That does not mean the Republicans get a free pass. Both sides are playing against the middle. This game of chicken is a car wreck, and the car getting wrecked is “the people”. Real people are out of work, can’t pay the mortgage, can’t buy groceries. Real people spending money on vacations can’t get into parks. Real people living on federal land are being dispossessed. Real soldiers’ families are no longer getting their death benefits. They have to rely on the generosity of “the people” to provide money for burial.

There is no generosity in our politicians. There is no civility left in politics. I have never been more repulsed by political gamesmanship. Politics has never been a dirtier word.

Both sides seem to think that the shutdown will be solidly pinned on the other side. Both sides may be wrong. They seem to think they are playing with Monopoly money and pawns. It is time to shutdown the political game and turn up the heat on our politicians.

A City Set on a Hill in a Foreign World

Our end goal is not ultimately to rehabilitate an earthly city or country, but to enter into a heavenly City of which the designer and builder is God.

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One Sunday I recall the pastor deviating from the planned sermon to observe that Christians today sometimes act as if God is not in control. We do this by complaining about politics, our country, the world, etc. Sometimes when the Spirit leads, we need to stop from our planned way and consider what God is saying. If we don’t, we might miss God.

There is a segment of the church that believes and acts like the USA is God’s country, a Christian nation. I think this is where many Christians allow politics into their theology at a grave danger to pure religion, which James reminds us “to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world”. (James 1:27)

Yes, the founding fathers were “Christians”; and the country became a haven, a promised land, early on for people escaping religious persecution in England and other places. I love the fact that our country was founded on Biblical ideals, among other things, with honor for God. The freedom of religion and freedom of expression in the USA make this country great, the envy of much of the world, though not understood by much of the world as well.

Many hundreds of years before Jesus the Israelites were God’s chosen people. They were chosen out of all the people groups in the ancient Middle East on the basis of Abraham’s faith, and a promise was made to him that the whole world would be blessed by his progeny.

The promise of God to the people (Abraham and his descendants) to whom He chose to entrust that promise prepared the way for Jesus, the Messiah, except Jesus came with a plan and a message they did not expect. He came to his own, and his own knew him not. The Israelites were dug in, resting on the assumption that they alone were God’s chosen people. Many of them missed the boat. They rejected the Son of God because they had their own expectations and were not in tune with what God was doing.

We know the rest of the story, at least where the narrative continues today. God’s plan was to introduce the Christ for all people through the platform of the message entrusted to the Jewish people, who preserved that message and protected it. But many of them missed it. God does not always work as we expect Him to work.

We might say the Jews became nationalistic in their religion, and they missed the fact that God intended to bless the whole world. Yes, Jesus came to his own, but he also came to all who would believe on him. The new wine came, and the old wine skin could not contain it.

Continue reading “A City Set on a Hill in a Foreign World” →