Hello everyone,
While we are being obedient to the call for social distancing, Pastor Mike has asked us to continue to engage remotely. He has sent out instructions to access our worship service via streaming this Sunday. This email is my attempt to draw our group together in spirit with a thought provoking exercise - in the vein of our current lesson (let's call it "Christians and Politics").
Before you review the lesson content, Ben and I would like to get your feedback: How can we best engage as a group moving forward? We have already discussed setting up a blog online, where we can post links to files, links to audio or visual recordings, as well as a place where the group can easily respond with their thoughts. Some other groups are meeting with video conferencing platforms (like FaceTime for a group). We'd like to hear your preferences for our remote "gathering" moving forward! Please send us your thoughts by Monday, and we'll do our best to act on it.
For this week, I have included links to three short articles and a few questions. Feel free to respond with your thoughts over email. Again, this week we might fill up a few inboxes, but we'll come up with a different, less cumbersome method for next week.
Also, please reply with your prayer needs this week. I will add them to the list.
Articles:
- https://www.baptiststandard.
com/opinion/editorials/ christians-political-lines- define/ - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/
09/29/opinion/sunday/ christians-politics-belief. html - https://www.bruderhof.com/en/
voices-blog/world/christians- dont-fit-into-the-political- system-period-nyt-oped- timothy-keller
Questions:
- On which ideas do you agree with these authors? Where do you disagree?
- In our society today, do you see any examples of Christians influencing the world for Christ through politics? How?
- What political actions do you see Christians engaging in today, that actually may be creating a barrier in others knowing Christ?
On which ideas do you agree with these authors? Where do you disagree?
ReplyDeleteHow I read each article, they essentially had the same opinion and that opinion was pretty wish-washy. They said that a Christian shouldn’t slide one way or another but they give no practical answers after that. They say neither to get involved in a political party nor stick your head in the sand. I find that without clear direction, a person, including myself, will simply continue doing what what they always have been doing. I found it most interesting in the articles that some might see coming to Christ as buying into a political party but it really should be opting out. I just am not sure if they can be separated when we are told from childhood that voting is our civic privilege and duty..and I’m not likely to vote for something or someone just because it seems nice.
In our society today, do you see any examples of Christians influencing the world for Christ through politics? How?
I don’t know about them influencing the world FOR Christ through political action, but I do see some statesmen standing blatantly on His standards as reason for their actions. One example would be Mike Pence refusing station to a traveling journalist because it would have involved one-on-one time alone with a female who wasn’t his wife. While Pence was publicly toasted for this (about 2 or 3 years ago), he stated something to the effect that his faith and marriage were more important that political correctness (he was labeled a sexist).
What political actions do you see Christians engaging in today, that actually may be creating a barrier in others knowing Christ?
A lot of times we Christians, including myself, tend to work on an measure behaviors as a means of seeing how much faith a person has in Jesus. In Eric Black’s article, he refers to this as a person aligning themselves to Jesus’ teaching. While doing the will of Christ can and should be a sign of knowing Christ, we can’t base a person’s faith solely on that principle. There have been plenty of situations and seasons in my life in which my actions didn’t line up with my testimony. For reason x,y, and z, the person I differ with political could be living the same way. One of the articles, I can’t remember which, said that though the gospels tell us to help the poor, how one does that is up for interpretation. If the government hands out money (mine and yours) to people “in need”, what glory does God get? If the Church hands out money (yours and mine) to community around them, we call that being the hands and feet of Jesus. The first we would label as progressive or socialist, the later we would call conservative and even biblical. What is the difference here that causes political trouble for people? Mandate!
-Bobby
My thoughts on the articles Adam provided links to and the questions to consider.....
ReplyDeleteThe message that stuck out to me from those 3 articles (and maybe I'm wrong) was "Don't align yourself in politics because you'll be stereotyped and ruin your witness." The authors do make some valid points, but similar arguments could be said for becoming a pig farmer, a tattoo artist, a dancer, a beer maker, or a pastor. Immediately our minds form stereotypes about them (and in fact we do this constantly). Politics and religion always boil down to some form of "right and wrong", which immediately results in some type of mental or emotional reaction on our part if we are on the "wrong" side. Politics and religion really affect people's lives - amplifying more people's response. By either just discussing politics or religion publicly, or getting a job as a senator or a pastor - we cannot get away from being stereotyped (I stereotyped one of the authors who's bio says he lives in a small home community he started in Denver). The author's all made a point that its really our actions that define us as Christians and will make the impact to others - agreed. Sure, strong stereotypes may hamper how people see us - but Christ didn't shy away from parts of society, rather he hung out with sinners and spoke to leaders. We should be cautious with whom and what groups we affiliate ourselves with - what labels we choose for ourselves. But at least for me - in whatever I feel I'm directed/compelled/want to do - my focus is to do it God's way. If my path were to lead me to working in local, state, or federal government - working for the benefit of society, my focus shouldn't change - even when the mud starts flying. Mr. Pence seems to be a good example of this.
-Ben
Thanks sharing, Bobby and Ben. Good perspectives.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea that Christians really won’t and shouldn’t align 100% with any particular political party, an opinion all the authors shared in some way. I also agree that we should be engaged in the political process, as a way to affirm the principles of the kingdom whenever possible. That’s becoming more complicated, as Ben said, because it seems we can’t share a political opinion without being stereotyped and “lumped in with a group,” which in turn alienates is from others (usually folks we’d like to reach with the Gospel).
I disagree with the author of the New York Times article when he insinuated that being a conservative meant being a racist. (He didn’t say that, but alluded to that being a prevalent conservative mindset.) That said, I do think we see all too often among “conservatives” a mindset that is anti-immigrant and hostile to other cultures. In my experience, I see this mindset very often among Christians. That’s probably a more complicated issue for a live discussion.
As far as finding examples of what it looks like to influence the world for Christ through politics, I think our examples are lacking, but that’s probably because I’m not actively engaged in following the news or politics in general. I do think Mike Pence has a good reputation with respect to his faith, and that in and of itself is rare and difficult in times like these.
Finally, I think I see Christians engaging in Black and white Facebook politics more than anything else these days, aligning themselves all or nothing with a candidate or party ideals without taking the time to criticize leaders and ideas within their own “party lines.” It’s rare I see a politically active Christian criticize a “conservative” political leader publicly, even when it’s clear that leader is not acting according to a Christian moral code. What I mean is, rather than making excuses or even just turning a blind eye to the mistakes being made by folks who say they represent our beliefs, we should challenge them to do better, or at least acknowledge to others that we don’t align on such matters with the prevailing “conservative” ideology. I see some Christians do this, at least in conversation, but it would be nice to see it done more publicly.
That’s all from me. Man, I can’t wait until we can get back together to have actual conversations...until then!
-Adam