John Ortberg on the Election

Continuing my posts on the election, I’d just like to point to a blog John Ortberg wrote on the 7 deadly sins of evangelicals in politics.

Messianism. The sin of believing that a merely human person or system can usher in the eschaton. This is often tipped off by phrases like: “The most important election of our lifetime” (which one wasn’t?); or “God’s man for the hour.”
Selective Scripturization. The sin of using Scripture to reinforce whatever attitude toward the president you feel like holding, while shellacking it with a thin spiritual veneer. If the candidate you like holds office, you consistently point people toward Romans 13: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.” If your candidate lost, you consistently point people to Acts 4:10 where Peter and John say to the Sanhedrin: “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.” It’s just lucky for us the Bible is such a big book.

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Read the rest here

Is Race Still an Issue?

One of my great fears about Barack Obama’s win in the election on Tuesday is that people will now think that race issues are a thing of the past: that there is not still racism that indwells our system.  I understand as a white male who grew up in a middle class home, that it is very hard for us to see how a system could be inequitable to minorities and the poor.  This is mainly because it is outside of the framework that we operate in.  It is always hard for those of us who have benefitted from a system to see the weak points of that system, because it would seem that we would be biting the hand that feeds us.

This election was a great step forward in beginning to see America as a country that really buys into equality.  It cannot however be seen as the moment that we can stop worrying about race and class issues.  There are still deep issues to be worried about, and I pray that we will not allow this moment to become an excuse for ignoring some issues that need to be addressed, specifically us as Christians addressing race and class issues.

For those of you who don’t know, I help administer a blog called Consuming Jesus.  Consuming Jesus is based off of a book by my friend Paul Metzger, which has the same title, Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church.  This blog is a great oportunity for us to process how the church moves beyond the race and class issues that we have allowed to infect the church.  If you haven’t read the book, I would definitely recommend reading the book, and either way, stop by and check out the discussion that we have going on at Consuming Jesus.

Letter to my Christian friends

I am sitting in the library at Multnomah, trying to focus on doing some sermon prep for Sunday, but unfortunately the election, and many Christians responses to the election are all that I can currently think about.

Any of you who use facebook have surely seen the ridiculousness that has happened over the past two days with people writing all sorts of things on their status updates.  It has been very informative to me.  I understand that many of my Christian friends are disheartened about having a Democrat in the White House.  I appreciate your zeal for specifically the issue of abortion.  Although I do not share the concerns with you, I can even appreciate your worries about some of President Elect Obama’s tax plans.

With that said, I am asking you as a Christian brother to stop speaking about the election as if we have just experienced the end of the world.  I am reminded of passages in the New Testament where believers are encouraged that God has put government in place, and that we are to pray for those leaders.  And Paul is saying this about a Roman government that does not have beliefs that can coincide with Christianity: a government that requires you to be officially pluralistic in your allowance of other spiritual beliefs, and that requires you to confess Caesar as Lord and Savior.  That title seems vaguely familiar, ah yes…  it is Jesus who the early church attributed that title to.   So, these ancient Christian leaders asked Christians to pray for a government and government leaders that were actually opposed to God’s Kingdom, and to His church.

If these exhortations were true then, how much more must they be true now, in a society that is not directly opposed to us as Christ followers.  I ask then, to please stop saying angry comments, suggesting impeachment, comparing Obama to Hitler, or any of the other things that have been said.  It is not the place of a people who have a bigger Hope than any human can provide to be full of despair in that way.  We must be careful to not find ourselves being hypocrites.  Many of the things that we are allowing ourselves to do are the things we complained about democratic leaning people doing when Bush was elected and during the course of his terms in office.

Pray for our government leaders, and not prayers against them, but genuinely pray prayers that God would keep them safe, and give them wisdom in how they run the country.  Pray that God would allow us to move away from being a country divided by politics to a country that can work together.  Pray that God would convict leaders of both parties to genuinely seek the good of our people.  Pray that first and foremost it is God’s will that is done rather than presuming that our wills are His will.

Do not forget your passion about issues, but take your passion for stopping abortion and instead of focusing on legislation, devote more time to volunteering in centers that council pregnant women, consider adoption, find ways to support means that show there are better ways than abortion.

We have a chance to show that Christians are not like the world, that our hope is not tied up in a party, but that our Hope is in God, through Christ Jesus our Lord.  Let us hold firm to that hope as we seek the good of our neighbors, the good of our nation, even when we do not agree on all issues.

Amen.

Election Time

With the election upon us tomorrow, it has been cause for me to reflect on everything that has happened over the past few weeks.  I have found myself in a number of fierce debates.  I’ve found myself saddened by rhetoric from the different parties working as hard as possible to make the other candidate look terrible.(as an example, anyone in Oregon knows of the annoying Jeff Merkley/Gordon Smith ads, I think there has been more negative campaigning towards each other than positive campaigning about either of them)  In the Christian community, there has been fierce rhetoric as well, which I have been involved in as of late.  I’ve had my ability to read the Bible questioned, as well as my devotion to God questioned because I have not agreed with people on one issue being a central issue.  I have engaged on the other side, in anger I have lashed out against those people and questioned their ability to think for themselves.

As a Christ follower, I have failed in living the way of Christ as a witness in these political proceedings.  For those I have offended, I apologize.  There have been times I have been out of line.  There is one thing that I will not apologize for though, and that is defending Christians who disagree with you on issues, and this goes for both sides.  If I hear Christians bashing other Christians for voting opposite, I will stand up to defend them regardless of their view.  We have painfully lost track of how we are all connected in the body of Christ, as Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians.  We do not take seriously how we are connected to one another through our union with Christ, and don’t understand how we hurt each other in doing so.

The Kingdom of God is much bigger than the United States political issues, and I hope that we never lose sight of that fact.  It is too easy to fall into rhetoric of “if ________ becomes elected, the world is going to hell in a handbasket.”  There is only one person who can save us, and He is not up for election.  He is in control of the situation, and regardless of what happens, asks that we pray for our government.  So I ask you as fellow Christians, to come to agreement with me, that regardless of who gets elected, we pray for that elected official, and trust that God will be at work, accomplishing His purpose, regardless of how election day goes down.  There is too much for the church to do in bearing witness to Christ for us to allow this to be a divisive issue that continues!