my faith is not political
my faith is not political: my faith is not based on the call of anyone on the "right" or on the "left" of anything they call politics - my faith is spiritual; my faith comes from a relationship with God and not a political rally cry. my spiritual walk determines my life walk, how i act, how i relate to others and how i see myself and others. my spiritual walk is not political, i will not march for it, i will not speech for it, but i will die for it.
i am unwilling to die for a political stance, be it on the "right" or on the "left;" i am unwilling to die for a political party, a country, a government, a ideology or a campaign. i seek to live in my relationship with christ, walk in the light of the son and seek to be the incarnation of christ in the world - i desire to love others, forgive others, accept others, walk with others, know others, sit with others and most of all get to share with others. i desire to be the incarnation of christ, not the incarnation of political rhetoric designed to control. i desire to stand for all human dignity, and allow others to come to find what that means as they explore their spiritual walk. i do not desire to be more then who i am, by speaking a game i am unwilling to play -
if you see this as political, then you see this through the eyes of a human seeking to define me as you desire, and out of some febel desire to contol my life. it is done to place me in either a "right" or "left" box, to tag me as "liberal" or "conservative." to not see me for me, but to see me as you desire to define me. when you do that, you insult me and show a desire to control and a want to move me into some definable group you like to think you can control. i seek to walk with God, and God is not a politician - God speaks with honesty, in love, in grace, in forgiveness, in harmony with all that is around us - God unites and seeks to do what is right for us, not some special interest group. politicians divide, because for them power comes when people are divided and fragmented. in God, "grace" is seen as serving others and in uniting the hearts of all the people.
in that, two things turn my stomach - religious "leaders" who desire to act like politicians [when i spell check this the computer change it to "pollutions"] and politicians [pollutions, here also] who act like religious "leaders." neither know the heart of God and both seek to control, misuse and abuse the people around them.
tags: emergent church, emerging church, john o'keefe, ginkworld, politics, republican, democrat,
3 comments:
Two quick comments:
1. I couldn't agree with you more. You're absolutely on target here. and...
2. Remember what politics means: it comes from the Latin, "poli" meaning "many" and "tics" meaning "tiny blood-sucking creatures."
- John
I am soooooooooo with ya on this John. Great post. Be Moved!
John, I think you are right to be angry at those people that miss the point but I fear that you've fallen victim to the system that desperately wants followers of Jesus to mistakenly keep our faith to ourselves. I think you have mistaken "bad politics" and "political pride/selfishness" with politics in general. I think you are making a serious mistake that undermines the message and mission of Jesus and lessens the tools you have been given to develop the kingdom of God here on earth.
You are correct to react to what you see, but please choose to let your reaction motivate you to be MORE politically involved not to withdraw from the process. Politics is how we express our values to the world and if we keep our faith inside our churches then we are being selfish. We must share our faith and that begins by using our voices to change the systems of this world so they reflect the compassion of Christ.
Politics is the public and social expression of your values. It is bigger than elections and bigger than governments. Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. were all extremely political even though they didn’t run for office. Every time you blog or preach or share your faith you are being a prophet and you are definitely being political!
Politics is making public statements about injustice (prophetic words) and taking actions to make the world a better place. The problem we have in Christianity right now is that the only Christians being publicly prophetic and political are the ones that have it all wrong. If you make the decision to not let your faith affect you politics and you keep political words out of your expressions of faith then you are giving up on the mission of Jesus that is centered on taking down the unjust empires of the world and making the world into a kingdom that represents God’s values. As Christians we MUST stand up and bring the kingdom by implementing social and political systems that align with the will of God which means that they focus on LOVE, PEACE, and JUSTICE for the “least of these”.
If you refuse to champion the values of Jesus on the public social stage and in the political process, then you are missing the reason Jesus was killed by the empire and you are allowing him to die in vain. If you refuse to see the Gospel as political then you are missing the entire message of the Bible which is squarely aimed at toppling one domination system after another from Pharaoh to Herod to Caesar to Hitler to the next guy that assumes violence and injustice is the answer to our problems.
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