I have to admit that my faith has been shaken over the last few years...I guess since I returned from Costa Rica nearly four years ago now. I've had to wrestle with a lot of discrepancies between what I've been taught in the Church my whole life and the injustices that I've seen in society and the world.
As election year has come around for the second time since I've begun wrestling, I've often felt angered by those who would insist that, as a Christian, I don't really get a choice as to who I vote for. It seems that the Church as a whole tends to endorse whichever candidate has the most ties to itself and claims the pro-life agenda.
Now my point in writing all this is more to explain my personal journey over the last few years and months, not to endorse Obama or hail him as the perfect candidate. He's not. None of them are. My point in writing this isn't to endorse a candidate at all, although most of you know that I do plan to vote for Obama. I merely want to explain how, as a committed Believer, I've become frustrated with the Religious Right for being, as I'll argue, selectively Christian and for dictating how the rest of the Church ought to vote.
I've recently picked up a book, which, had I read it years ago, might've saved me from feeling so ostracized and crazy for questioning the Church and it's political agenda. It's called God's Politics - Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It, by Jim Wallis of Sojourners in D.C. Granted, I'm only about a chapter into it, but I'm already beginning to feel like someone in the Christian community understands my struggle. Allow me to post a few quotes that highlight the tension I've been living with for a long time now.
"...the confusion comes from many sources. From religious right-wingers who claim to know God's political views on every issue [i.e. abortion & gay marriage, he says], then ignore the subjects that God seems to care the most about [i.e. poverty]" (p. 4, notations mine). After all, poverty and social injustice are HUGE issues all over the Bible, yet they often don't affect how we vote.
"Endorsing political candidates is a fine thing, but ordaining them is not--the way that some leaders of the religious Right named George W. Bush as 'God's candidate' in this election [2004] and proclaimed that real Christians could vote only for him. Just making it clear that good people of faith would be voting for both George Bush and John Kerry in this election for reasons deeply rooted in their faith was an important statement" (p. 8). He's referring here to the campaign that Sojourners propagated in 2004 that claimed that "God is Not a Republican. Or a Democrat."
This is my favorite quote of all, which pretty much sums up a little smidgen of my struggle over the last few years: "Someday, a smart Democrat [or Republican, possibly] will figure out how both pro-choice and pro-life people could join together in concrete measures to dramatically reduce the abortion rate by focusing on teen pregnancy, adoption reform, and real support for low-income wwomen. That would be so much better than both sides using the issue as a political football and political litmus test during elections, and then doing little about it afterward" (p. 11).
Think about it, friends? Do your political preferences cost you anything? We can vote against abortion all we want, and maybe someday we'll overturn Roe v. Wade. But who will pay the economic price for it? Not the wealthy politicians we voted into office. It'll be the desperate woman who find herself pregnant, scared, and without health insurance...the one who struggles to know how she'll afford not only to have a baby, but to raise him or her alone. She will pay the price. Personally, I stongly believe that if I have to pay a little more in taxes to ensure that she will have the resources she needs to have her baby, that's a price I'm willing to pay.
It frustrates me that the Church loves to quote that verse about not offering to God that which costs us nothing (2 Sam. 24:24). We use it to explain why we'll generously tithe or give to missions organizations. Yet we vote based on which candidate will give us the most and ask from us the least! Friends, isn't it time that we put our money where our mouths are and vote in favor of "the least of these"?
Sigh. As this blog is entitled "Half-Baked Thoughts from a Persevering Traveler," I will be the first to admit that I have a lot more thinking to do about everything I write here. I recognize that this posting alone will offend many people, and that's okay. I hope that it at least makes you think and perhaps even sparks some good dialogue about stuff that's really important.
As my pastor preached last week, politics are unfortunately often a very divisive thing within the Church. It doesn't have to be this way. Some of us will vote for Barack Obama on November 4th...and others will vote for John McCain. And we will do so because of matters that we hold as deeply relevant to our faith.
I think that's great. It's time the Church stopped dictating who Christians "have to" vote for and allowed some meaningful conversation among its members. Maybe we'll all learn from each other instead of feeling threatened by those who don't share our opinions (or labeling them as "the backsliders"). Somehow, I think that that would show more growth and be a better testimony to the world than our insistence on cutting each other down over our political views or making everyone conform to one way of thinking. Just a thought... :-)
8 comments:
I totally feel you on this, Amy...I've been really considering both sides, both views in this election because, like you, I grew up with the "you can't vote democratic if you're a Christian" mindset. I remember the first time I met a Christian who was a democrat, I literally thought, "How is that possible?" And I still remember being slightly scandalized by Josh's "Vote for Kerry" shirt on the day we LASPers met up in Miami.
But anyway, I am one of those "independent voters" we keep hearing about in this election, trying to go deeper into the issues than I have in the past. I have to say that I am completely frustrated when I hear people (on either side) talk about how this person talks his way out of things, or how that person is too old, or that one has things in his past....I wish people would talk about substance, as you are, so we can all get to the real issues. And talking about one issue in particular--abortion--the past couple of weeks have been a revelation to me as I've thought about all the issues that are interrelated with it. As you said, adoption reform, educating teens, providing health care and other economic means so that abortion doesn't seem like the only option, AND so that less women get pregnant to begin with. Wow, what a concept...there ARE other issues out there, and they all affect each other. you might be interested in www.prolifeproobama.com
So it's complex, and I know where you're coming from. I am still slightly undecided, though I am leaning...but my next predicament is how to tell my family if I vote for Obama.
Any suggestions with that one?
LOL, I love that you totally know where I'm coming from! Let's just say that my family has had a tough time with my political musings since the day I walked off the plane from CR (and if you recall, I was still pretty resistant back then to all the LASP stuff anyway). It's prompted some rather heated debates at times with numerous people in my life, and I think I've come to the conclusion that some people will never understand where I'm coming from (or even want to)...and that's just life, I guess. That's why I sooo need to keep in touch with friends like you who understand the struggle and how we don't cause controversy just because we feel like it...but the turmoil that it causes in our friends and family is only a small fraction of the battle that's been raging in US for years now. Sigh.
I met another LASP alum from Fall '03 recently at church, and we were like, "Do you ever feel normal after all we lived through? Um, NO." haha And it was good to realize that there are lots of people out there like us. I've become really thankful lately for Eastern and the way they encourage the discussions (and communal "processing") over stuff that I feel really matters. Which reminds me, did you get the email that Tony Campolo is speaking tomorrow night on politics and "Red Letter Christians"? I'm gonna try and go...
That's awesome, Amy. Yeah, my hubby is really supportive of me in all these "musings" (and I think he's already decided to vote for Obama, though it helps that his whole family is doing the same). Anyway, I REALLY wish I could go tonight, but we have a weekly home group that is just amazing, and we meet on Tuesday nights! Let me know how it is....maybe they'll record it? I think they usually do.
:) God bless!
I recorded it - it was really insightful. I can burn you CD's of it if you like...
I would love that! Thanks!
So, Amy, what a thought provoking post.
I seriously doubt few can compare to how republican I was when Jenny and I met.
I am sure you remember, as Jenny was a registered democrat and I a registered republican. And as Naomi said, "How can you be a democrat and a Christian?!"
I was horrified at this revelation and had never given it a single thought.
How times change and the people with them.
Most would call me a sinner now, for I refuse to vote in this election. I cannot in good conscience, vote for either candidate.
I hate how split down the middle things are.
Reminds me of a time long ago (around 2,000 years in fact) when within the Jewish community, you had two major schools of thought, the Sadducees and Pharisees.
They were in major opposition of each other, while Sadducees were controlled the seat of power (mostly), the Pharisees had the people's admiration.
Yet out of the blue comes a strange man from the province of Galilee. Yes, there had been others to come from Galilee with the promise of leading the people to freedom from the oppression of their Roman masters, but this man was different.
Jesus angered both "parties". They saw him as a threat to the power the wielded seat of power.
The Sadducees wanted him quieted because of the fears that he would catch the attention of their Roman companions and cause them to lose their standing. Pharisees hated Jesus, because he caught the eye of the people that they so desperately craved attention from.
So I say this to make a point, that both established parties have deep-seated personal motivations to protect their establishments, as all power seeks to preserve itself more than it does to accomplish good. Such is the case with today’s establishment.
I share your frustration with the "religious right", but I am just as frustrated with the "religious left".
We would be wise to have people in the church with a broad spectrum of political views, but we should be the model example of a body that can have different views and still be united because our eternal view, our kingdom view, is much greater.
It begs to ask, how a group of people could follow Jesus as his disciples did, yet not be ready to kill each other at a given moment. Consider Matthew (a tax-collector and co-conspirator with the Roman powers) and Simon the Zealot (a radical Jewish sect who sought to overthrow Roman rule from Jerusalem).
I get angry when someone is called "God's candidate". I have even heard this term thrown around with Sarah Palin.
You know my opinions on Obama, that is no secret, but what if he is God's candidate, just as much as Nebuchadnezzar was God's chosen vessel?
I personally, cannot place my confidence in either candidate. There are too many unknowns with Obama and (not saying this is what you are doing) many are voting for him solely out of an emotional state based not on factual information, but on smooth speech. Is this not happening on the other side? Most definitely it is, but we both know McCain lacks the oratory skills of Obama.
McCain on the other hand has always scared me. And I know what McCain will do, because of that; I cannot place my confidence in him.
This election, I cannot, in good conscience, vote.
This is a decision I have come to with much prayer.
Thank you for openly sharing your thoughts, Amy.
I hope my jumbled mess here makes sense.
Thanks to both of you for your well-thought-through comments. I think that one of the most valuable things about this election is the amount of conversation it has stirred up among fellow Believers who are all seeking wisdom and truth in confusing times. It's easy to forget that, as Believer, no matter how we vote, we are all ultimately on the same side.
Yes, it seems it is easy to forget that fact...though it seems there are some who never believed it in the first place. It's very disheartening to me when I hear someone say, "Anyone who votes for (insert democratic politician name here) is not a Christian" or, "Christians can't vote for (insert name or party here)." I'm sorry, I must have missed the part where God gave you the power to judge someone's salvation and the intent of their heart. It's so offensive to me, and perhaps because of that I am being a bit judgmental myself. But indeed, I think we need to realize that we ARE all on the same side. And no matter who is in the government, the church is called to minister and reach out to the communities we're living in. Even if a program has government backing or support (such as the food bank run by my church), it needs people to get off their butts and help each other out. The government can have some great programs, or it can have none at all...but we, individuals, need to help each other. As Obama said, he can promote and ask for funding for great educational programs, but only parents can turn the TV off and read to their kids.
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