Thursday, June 24, 2010

Politics

For some time now, I've been having a struggle reconciling politics and my faith.

Is it "Christian" to be political? or to get involved in politics? We, as worldly citizens of the United States of America, have such little appreciation for the freedoms guaranteed (not granted) by the United States Constitution (hereinafter referred to as "Constitution"). We really need to talk to folks from other countries that don't enjoy the same freedoms in order to get a better understanding.

So, what should one do when you feel that a particular piece of legislation violates the Constitution? Or when we take time to learn how our founding fathers thought about government, and the amount of time and energy they put into crafting our system of governance. Our government is so far removed from the intent of the founding fathers that it would probably be unrecognizable to them. I know that when I think about the absurdity of our current government, all three branches, I get very, very angry. And when I get angry, at least that passionately angry, I cannot maintain my Christian life. But, if we don't "fight" to return our government to it's rightful size and behavior, at least how the founding fathers intended, what happens to our freedom of religion, speech, and the other freedoms that we take for granted? Is it "Christian" to fight to protect our freedoms and our Constitution? Or, more succinctly, "What would Jesus do?" We know that Jesus was not apolitical, he spoke out (and acted) on oppression of the poor, the weak and the downtrodden. The entire Jewish system, as originally enacted, had built-in methods to eliminate extreme poverty and oppression. Just read about Sabbatical and Jubilee years in the Law.

I found a book, Jesus For President, that looked like it might guide my thinking. It is a fascinating book that described the authors' views of Jesus and his political behavior. I don't think I really grasped all they had to say, I definitely need to read it again, and perhaps again. The lifestyle they describe is radical, but then that's what I believe Jesus was calling us to do, live radically.

Oh my poor, confused aching head! It's a very, very deep concern of mine, and I haven't found any hard and fast answers. I'm going to have to spend some time on their website: www.jesusforpresident.org and obtain some of the books they used as references.

Thoughts?