Have you noticed that God has been reduced to a marketing tool and many of us ignorantly clamor behind the erroneous rhetoric presented to us as if Jesus himself was producing the advertisements? This past election cycle served as an uncomfortable wake up call for me. I heard many politicians and even more presumed followers of Christ speaking as if there was a clear and obvious slate of candidates that God had chosen, called, and ordained to lead America and the world into the next century! Some even topped off their proclamations by quoting verses from the Biblical letter to the church in Roman (chapter 13). That states that authority is given by God. Ironically, these same prophets now declare that our future as a nation is dire because God's candidates were not elected. How can it be both ways? Perhaps these self-proclaimed prophets were wrong. Its obvious that on at least one of these points they were mistaken: either they supported the wrong candidates or God does not give authority to governmental leaders.
Perhaps the conundrum lies in a loss of perspective as followers of God. Maybe we failed to get to know the candidates sufficiently and allowed The Machine to tell us about them. Perhaps God is concerned about more than one or two issues? Perhaps there could be more than one valid Christian answer or approach to the ills of society?
In the aftermath of the election the pundits have not paused to re-examine there diatribes, but continue with even more rancor and determination. A line from Billy Joel's song, "Only the Good Die Young" keeps playing in my mind: "Your mother never cared for me, but did she ever say a prayer for me?" I wonder if a better, more Christian response could be for ALL Christians to begin to pray for OUR new governmental leaders-elect who are currently making plans and decisions that will affect the future of our country and the future of the world. Many of those elected profess to follow Jesus too. Instead of questioning their allegiances why don't we pray that the decisions they make will be guided by God? Why don't we encourage and support them as they seek to lead from their consciences and out of their convictions? Why can't we show a bit of humility and admit that we may have seen things wrong, that we may not have had the whole picture, that we may have been duped by The Machine?
I know I am going to be proactive. I am praying for unity in our country - among those who follow Jesus and those who don't. I am also praying for our current and future leaders, that their decisions and actions will be guided by wisdom informed by their Christian faith and the Holy Spirit more than by their political advisors or indebtedness to supporters or financiers.
May God bless the USA and the world, and may the USA bless God!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
2 comments:
Nathan,
Thanks for your thoughtful post. This is the first time I've seen your blog--I'll have to keep checking back in the future.
I agree with you that there's some inconsistency in the thinking of folks who claim that one person is chosen by God to lead as President, only to claim that God's plans have been derailed because this candidate didn't win. I think the problem is that they have conflated the categories of God's sovereign and moral will. Just because a candidate's positions may be perceived to more closely resemble God's moral will does not mean that it is God's sovereign will that he be elected, and it seems unhelpful to imply otherwise. The way I see it, Christians should vote for the choice that is most pleasing to God and rest in the confidence that God's sovereign will will come to pass on election day. But it's precisely because the folks you've mentioned lack this category of God's sovereign will that they proclaim that the sky is falling when their candidate of choice doesn't win. Scripture is clear that God establishes kings and kingdoms and does according to His will among the host of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth (Rom. 13; Dan. 4). There's a lot of comfort to be had in that.
I also agree that Christians, regardless of the way they voted, now have a responsibility to submit to and pray for OUR President-Elect. It's not only unbecoming, but also theologically inconsistent, for Christians to grumble, mope, or pout about election results, if God appoints all rulers (Rom. 13).
Thanks again for your thoughts. I enjoyed reading your post.
Blessings!
Kyle Smith
I think it's a bit odd how large parts of the entire world celebrated the results of this election, but large parts of the "evangelical" community did quite the opposite (expressed internally or externally). Now I hope nobody would interpret such an observation and construe it to prove how Christians are persecuted in this world where we don't belong. Such an assumption would be wrong on multiple levels.
I was one of those people quoting Romans 13:1 throughout this past election season, but I learned, just as you've presented, that many people do not understand the verse. People cannot have it "both ways," as you said, and really they cannot have it either of the ways from your account. The responses from others you mention are all improper interpretations of Romans 13.
Paul tells us to submit to our earthly authorities whoever they are. He doesn't tell us that we can whine and not cooperate if "our candidate" doesn't win. The word Paul uses is "hypatassesthw," it is an imperative, and it means that we need to submit. Paul had no choice in the political authorities over him and he, guided by the Holy Spirit, still instructed Christians to submit. I think our "hyper-individualized" culture creates us to reject submission, but submission is a huge theme in the Bible that we just do not understand as we should.
Cooperation and service are some other huge themes in the Bible that we evangelicals should embrace these next 4 years. The decision has been made in America and so its pointless to continue the campaign frenzy. I am personally fascinated, intrigued, and entertained by outlandish things, so I had fun seeing the crazy emails and videos about the candidates during the campaign, and I enjoyed Tina Fey's Palin on SNL, but it's time to put the campaign fun behind us. It's now time for cooperation. It's now time for Phil 2:14, "Do everything without grumbling or arguing."
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