Friday, October 9, 2009

Faith, Hope, and Obama: Part 1


FAITH


Honestly, I'm not very big into politics. Every four years, our entire country gets caught up in a frenzy over the elections, to the point where it just gets ridiculous, in my opinion. Interestingly enough, I've found Christians to be some of the biggest culprits in this over-hyping of our political process. Right-winged Republican Christian radicals are all over the news, proclaiming that the "evil" liberal democrat will ruin the country if elected (in fact, he just might be the spawn of Satan himself). Sound ridiculous?...or just familiar?

Okay, to prove my theory, I've designed the following test:

Raise your right hand if during this last national election you received over 100 emails (many of which annoyingly were missed by your SPAM detector) that proclaimed Obama to be a Muslim who was planning a jihad to take over and/or blow up America. According to these doomsday prophets, if Obama became president, the world as we knew it would be officially over.

You can put your hands down now.

Again, raise your right hand if another 100 or so emails proclaimed Obama to be the antichrist, and voting him into office wasn't just going to be the end of the world as we knew it, it was going to be the end of the world! (If you are currently holding your autographed copy of Left Behind, first put the book down, and then raise your right hand).

Good, you can put your hands down now.

And, finally, raise your right hand if you forwarded on these emails to all of your friends, filling their inboxes with these ridiculous, fear-filled messages. Okay, hands still in the air...hold them up high so I can see them. Now, with your hand, slap yourself as hard as you can across the face. I'm sorry, but you deserved that.

Okay, I'll admit, maybe I'm the one being a little bit ridiculous now, but I think I've made my point clear. Christians put way too much faith in politicians and political parties, especially around election time, and not enough faith in the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving Creator of the Universe. We replace our faith with fear, even though God's Word clearly tells us that we "did not receive a spirit that makes [us] a slave again to fear, but [we] received the Spirit of sonship" (Rom. 8:15). If we truly believe this, that we are God's children, then what do we have to fear?

When I look at the life of Jesus, I see a man who was clearly unimpressed by the political institutions in his day. The people actually wanted to hand him a crown and make him the king, but he wasn't really into their political agendas. He had put his faith in something, or Someone, larger than a political leader with a worldly agenda. In one of his few discussions on politics, Jesus simply said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's" (Mt. 22:21). Translation: pay your taxes, but remember that your kingdom is not of this world.

When it comes to politics, I often find myself embarrassed by Christians. It's like we're still trying to save the world through the kingdom of this world, rather than by bringing the kingdom of God to earth. I'm not saying we shouldn't get involved at all in politics, but we need to ask ourselves: in whom do we place our faith?

So why am I getting on this soap box nearly a year after the national elections? I'll get to that.

To be continued...

3 comments:

derryprenkert said...

Good stuff man. I'm very intrigued (and hope your heading there) to hear an international perspective on how the implications of this stuff is serving to advance or distract the Kingdom.

Andrew said...

I also see a man who was clearly unimpressed by the political institutions of his day. We have, I think, Esau-ed this whole deal... sold our birthrights for a mess of porridge.

Britney said...

Amen!! I'm glad I'm not the only one annoyed with all those e-mails. I'm interested in what the next installment of this series will say.