A Difference of Perspective... I Guess

I have marveled over the years at how very differently we all seem to see, hear, or otherwise experience the same facts, situations, events, people--nearly anything, and reach such differing conclusions about what we have seen or heard. Nowhere is this more true than in politics and religion. As a committed Christian, I am bewildered that many Christians read the Holy Bible and seemingly do not see or give heed to the many, many admonitions of concern for the poor and defenseless among us. The book of Proverbs in the Old Testament, the four Gospel accounts of Jesus' life and ministry in the New Testament, and many of the others books in both the OT and NT are replete with these admonitions. Not only was Jesus greatly concerned for the poor in general, but he also freely interacted with prostitutes, tax collectors, and other "undesirables" in that society. He was constantly among the "unwashed". Was that behaviour an example for us or not? Do we somehow think that was only appicable to the first century? Why is this not at the forefront of any Christian's political agenda? It is said there are over two thousand references to concern for and helping the poor and defenseless in the Bible, and very, very few on homosexuality, and yet gay issues are in the forefront of many Christian's political agenda while concern for the poor and vulnerable in our society is not even on the list. Why is that?!

The so-called "Christian Right" seems to me oftentimes neither very Christian, nor right, in their positions. Does anyone take the Christian Coalition's agenda and put it alongside the Gospels for a comparision? What Would Jesus Do (WWJD) is a popular motto among some of our youth. That is a good question to ask in this context. Does anyone really believe Jesus would join, or approve, the Christian Coalition?!


Telling untruths, not telling the whole truth, misleading, being deceitful, being disingenuous, etc. (lying in any of its many forms) is clearly and strongly condemned in Scripture. We are told that God hates a lying tongue. Why then, do we simply ignore or wink at lying politicians if they are of our political group--whichever one that may be. All lying should be repugnant to a Christian. The list could go on and on of the differences between accepted political behaviour and acceptable Christian behaviour.


The real underlying problem may be our tendency to overly-mix politics and religion. Talk about oil and water! How anyone can so mix and intermingle as to even confuse the two is beyond me. But it has become very common for some folks, seemingly, to have their faith as rooted in their political party as in their Lord Jesus Christ. Talk about missing the mark! Don't misunderstand me, I think every Christian has a duty to positively influence society, and voting and being active politically is one way that is done. However, and it's a BIG however, one has to be careful to keep one's Christian perspective clearly in the forefront. It is very easy to be co-opted by the political world and lose one's Christian perspective.

I was very impressed when the head of the President's "Faith-based Initiatives" resigned and talked very frankly about this very thing. He simply said the whole process was about politics and not religion. Decisions and actions were totally made from a political--not at all Christian--perspective. Anyone in politics could have told him that would be the case. The President may quote Scripture, written for him at Karl Rove's direction, but that is primarily to influence a segment of our society. Pragmatic politics is the basis on which decisions are made. Anyone who believes otherwise is very naive. All the political insiders seem to understand this. It is just us outsiders who get confused.


I think we should all pray for God to give us discerning hearts and wisdom to understand the issues and candidates better and to make the best judgements we can in voting and involvement in politics. I also hope we can clearly understand that no political party nor candidate in any way, shape, or form is worthy of our devotion. Only our loving God alone, as revealed through the Lord Jesus Christ, is our only hope and anchor. May He guide our lives each day.