On
Tuesday mornings, after our men’s group, some of the guys meet for breakfast
with men from our “brother” group (a few years ago the original group grew to
so many men that we morphed into two groups).
From
time to time someone will ask me about going to the breakfast; this past week I
was asked again and I replied, “Well, I know that politics comes up a lot and I
don’t like being in the minority.” Being in the minority can be wearisome. Since
most, if not all, of the men who have breakfast together style themselves
“Conservatives”, my comment can be taken to mean that I’m a “Liberal”; but I
would say (and do) the same thing if the group were Liberal. I want my center
of gravity to be Jesus Christ and His Kingdom, I want to live as a citizen of
heaven before I live as a citizen of the United States, and assuredly I want to
live as a citizen of heaven before I remotely consider identifying with a
political party or political agenda.
For
years I have been intentional in not using the words “conservative” and
“liberal” because I frankly think they are thoughtless, forgive my bluntness.
Explain what you believe, explain what you stand for; explain your
understanding of what other people believe and stand for – think these things
through. The result might be that we grow in our own understanding, that we
challenge our own assumptions, that we place ourselves in a position where the
Holy Spirit and the Word of God can use us to build bridges to others in order
to share Jesus Christ.
Another
reason I don’t use the words “liberal” and “conservative” is that I don’t want
to build barriers, and I think this is a major
communications problem – is my goal to convert a conservative to a liberal
or a liberal to a conservative? Or is it to thoughtfully share Jesus Christ? Is
it to thoughtfully bridge relational chasms?
I
have read articles and books that were making thoughtful points and presenting
worthy ideas when the author starting using the words “liberal” and “conservative”
– and I’ve thought, “What will the
person who is not a conservative (or liberal) think when he reads this, for all
of a sudden a barrier has been thrown up? Now the author is attacking the other
“party” and what was once a reasonably-presented argument has now, with the use
of polarizing words, become a tribal issue.”
And
doesn’t the use of such words, at least for the Christian, dehumanize other
people, for how can I know the heart and mind and soul of a person, in some measure,
unless I listen and ask questions?
I
recently read Edwin Lutzer’s book, The
Church in Babylon, it raises a number of important issues and had the potential to be a wake-up call
to Christians, but there are places where Lutzer brings out his big brush and talks
about “liberals” – what is the point of that? How is that effectively communicating?
How is that persuading? I know political and theological folks who consider
themselves liberal who have Biblical perspectives on issues that those who
consider themselves conservative don’t seem to have, and I know folks who
consider themselves conservatives where the reverse is true.
Let’s
not forget that Jesus called both Matthew the tax collector and Simon the
Zealot.
If
we are followers of Jesus Christ, no broad brush is our salvation, and no civil
religion is our salvation; Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ should be both
our testimony and our salvation. Our overcoming can only be by the blood of the
Lamb and the Word of our testimony (Rev. 12:11). A simplistic nationalism, a
confusion of the Gospel with our nation, an ignorance of our nation’s
historical sins and our present sins, and a framing of life in political and
economic terms, without those terms being informed by the Gospel, is toxic to
our life in Christ and our testimony.
If
the Word of God is informing our view of economics, politics, education,
business, standard of living, entertainment, sports, healthcare, immigration,
foreign policy; in other words, if the Word of God and the Cross of Jesus Christ
are at the center of our lives, and if we are submitted to the Cross and God’s
Word, and if Jesus Christ is our first love…then I think I can safely say that we
will nearly always find that God’s Way is not our (naturalistic) way, and that
God’s interests do not align with our own selfish interests, and that it
will cost us to follow Jesus Christ in obedience in all of these areas of life –
we will seldom, if ever, find ourselves in either the majority or even in a
significant minority.
Of
course, and I do not write this tritely, if we are with Christ then we are in God’s
majority; that should be sufficient for us. To quote Saint Athanasius, “Do not say
that the world is against Athanasius, say that Athanasius is against the world.”
The
only hope for our country, or any country, is Jesus Christ. This means that God’s
People live as citizens of His Kingdom before they live as citizens of any
earthly nation or identify themselves with any earthly political perspective. It
means that God’s People live as a distinct minority so that they, by God’s
grace, might be salt and light in the midst of insanity. It means that we are
willing to suffer for Christ and others. It means that we are not known as conservatives
or liberals or moderates…but rather as followers of Jesus Christ.
“Then
he [Abraham] said, ‘Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once;
suppose ten are found there?’ And He [the Lord] said, ‘I will not destroy it on
account of the ten.’”
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