Politics

It’s November 4th and I have failed to even mention the election or politics before now. For the last three months especially I have been daily bombarded with news clips, sound bytes, campaign promises, propaganda, and a literal mound of political jargon. There is much talk about this campaign being different, about it being ground breaking. But once we get past the jargon and political clout, racial significance and romanticized ideals, it’s still the same. The theme of this election has been Hope and Change. The pastor at the church I visited last week made an excellent point; has there ever been an election that did not promise change? Can anyone remember a Presidential election where the candidate promised to keep things the same? Granted, I’ve only been alive for a handful, but I do not remember that being the case. Now it could be assumed I am referencing only Obama’s campaign, but McCain also wishes to distance himself from the presidency before him.

So once again we have the stratification of the nation. Obama is made out to be a ‘false prophet and terrorist sympathizer,’ and McCain is made out to be a rich elitist who has no idea how to fix the economy. On the converse side, Obama is the savior of a nation and a people, while McCain is the war veteran who will protect the American way. So where is the truth? For Christians, truth must always come before stereotypes, wishful thinking, and just the ease of labeling the Other as a villain while idolizing what we believe to be right. For Christians, what should be our response?

As I write this, two fellow Divinity School classmates are sitting behind me. They have been talking loudly and blasting the ‘far right’ and Republicans. I have heard this same matter of talk used for Obama as well. Now I am going to propose a new idea of how to handle this election. Why is it that we feel the need to elevate a human onto a pedestal every four years? Whether Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or unaffiliated, we all lift up our own candidate while we vilify the other. The sad and disturbing truth, the only absolute for every, single candidate, is that they will let us down. They will disappoint. They will fail. They will not fulfill their promises. The world will not change. As Christians, we must recognize that America will either rise or fall and it will have nothing to do with who is President. God is Sovereign. Obama is not sovereign; McCain is not sovereign. Now very few people would ever use this language to describe their candidate, but it comes across in how we think, speak, and act every single day.

Jesus’ political policy was not right or left. Jesus would be neither Democrat nor Republican. If the role of Christ in his first coming was to establish a right-minded political system, then he would have. As it was, he lived within one of the finest tuned political machines of known history; the Romans had few equals. So instead of vilifying the other, Jesus calls us to love the other. Instead of labeling and hating and stereotyping, Jesus dares us to get out of our comfort zones, off our soap boxes, and to engage the other. We engage by talking, but also by listening. We need to listen to one another, understand one another, maybe even disagree with one another, but always love one another. This changes worlds and nations, not politicians. The leaders of today will be dust tomorrow. The pillars of the state will crumble over the years, and the generations after us will wander these shores and say, “This was once America.”

And God will continue to say, “I Am that I Am.”