Just when you think all the drama of middle school is over, we have another election year.
First we have mudslinging, name calling and rumor spreading by the men and woman we want to lead us into the future.
And then we have a guy named Jesus, a gentle Jewish carpenter- rabbi who lived two thousand years ago thousands of miles away from us.
And then again we have His people; church-goers from all walks of life who have had the responsibility of choosing sides and trying to figure out how exactly the teachings of this Jesus apply to the decisions demanded of them by the hundreds of campaign commercials they are bombarded with on a daily basis.
You never really realize how so many opinions and viewpoints can be grounded by a spiritual leader with verses from the Bible until rich men in expensive suites start telling you what you want to vote for. It seems like every person of “understanding” has their own legitimate opinion on everything every politician and hopeful says while the large majority of us are left pretending we know what we are talking about. I think, if we were honest, everyone categorized by our media as an “evangelical voter” just wishes we could pull a Carrie Underwood and just let Jesus take the wheel when we take our place at the polls.
Wouldn’t it be so much easier if Jesus just told His disciples His official political opinion of everything right before going up into heaven? I wish Jesus just would have said something like this:
“I go to prepare a place for you, but don’t forget what I told you about universal healthcare and embryo testing! I’m Jesus Christ and I support this message.”
That would make the month of November every four years so much easier, but obviously Jesus knew what He was doing.
Now I am told that there are three things that you should never talk about in polite society; religion, politics, and bathroom habits. However this is my blog and I can do whatever I want.
I want to try and tackle religion and politics at the same time. I will save the other one for another time.
What if Jesus didn’t tell us exactly how to vote on those issues because He didn’t want us to rely on the government to do what He had commissioned His Church to be responsible for?
What if the issues aren’t the issues?
The problem isn’t that our government allows woman to decide whether or not they want to keep the baby growing inside of them. The problem is that the Church refuses to wrap their arms around a teenage mother who is hurting and confused and offer to be there for her for whatever she needs. We as a Body have failed to show the next generation why a marriage is worth the wait and that no life can come into this world without God putting it here. What if instead of picketing abortion clinics we adopted a teenage mother and, if needed, adopted her child?
The problem is not whether or not our Government allows people of the same gender to marry each other. The problem is that we as a Church have let the world pervert what God created holy and instead of loving those who have “come out” into new life and repentance we have chosen to stand by and throw hate. Though I would love for it to be so, no one can eat enough Chic-fil-A to take a hurting person and transform them into the man or woman God created them to be. It takes choosing to love someone through sin and into a new identity.
The problem is not whether or not the Government is taking good care of the poor. That’s not the Government’s job, it’s ours. Jesus never said, “make sure that Caesar is taking care of everyone’s needs.” The broken and down-and-out should be our specialty. Well-fare never had to exist in the Church we read about in Acts. The Church took care of the needs of itself, and everybody else as well.
It shouldn’t be a problem if the Government wants to add more taxes. Being a Christ follower means giving God everything, so He will deal with anything that Uncle Sam tries to take from Him. Why should we worry about what isn’t ours anyway?
Obviously, there will be some issues that Christians need to let the Government take care of and the privilege of democracy allows us to contribute our vote. I just want to make a cry to the Church to rise and and be the Church. Let the Government handle building highways and libraries but let us take the real issues of the day back to the only One who can do anything about them.
So was Jesus a Republican after all as we have always supposed him to be? No. He was simply a doer. He never for once thought that He could vote away an issue God had called Him to resolve. He never let the worldly authority take responsibility for what no one could do but Him. We cannot settle with voting for what we think is right but never once getting out of our comfort zone to do something about it.
I bet the Church would have a whole lot less opposition from the Government if the Government could no longer deny that the Church took better care of the people of their nation than they could.
Did I hit it on the mark? Or did I miss some things? Please comment and share your opinion, I want to hear from you.
First we have mudslinging, name calling and rumor spreading by the men and woman we want to lead us into the future.
And then we have a guy named Jesus, a gentle Jewish carpenter- rabbi who lived two thousand years ago thousands of miles away from us.
And then again we have His people; church-goers from all walks of life who have had the responsibility of choosing sides and trying to figure out how exactly the teachings of this Jesus apply to the decisions demanded of them by the hundreds of campaign commercials they are bombarded with on a daily basis.
You never really realize how so many opinions and viewpoints can be grounded by a spiritual leader with verses from the Bible until rich men in expensive suites start telling you what you want to vote for. It seems like every person of “understanding” has their own legitimate opinion on everything every politician and hopeful says while the large majority of us are left pretending we know what we are talking about. I think, if we were honest, everyone categorized by our media as an “evangelical voter” just wishes we could pull a Carrie Underwood and just let Jesus take the wheel when we take our place at the polls.
Wouldn’t it be so much easier if Jesus just told His disciples His official political opinion of everything right before going up into heaven? I wish Jesus just would have said something like this:
“I go to prepare a place for you, but don’t forget what I told you about universal healthcare and embryo testing! I’m Jesus Christ and I support this message.”
That would make the month of November every four years so much easier, but obviously Jesus knew what He was doing.
Now I am told that there are three things that you should never talk about in polite society; religion, politics, and bathroom habits. However this is my blog and I can do whatever I want.
I want to try and tackle religion and politics at the same time. I will save the other one for another time.
What if Jesus didn’t tell us exactly how to vote on those issues because He didn’t want us to rely on the government to do what He had commissioned His Church to be responsible for?
What if the issues aren’t the issues?
The problem isn’t that our government allows woman to decide whether or not they want to keep the baby growing inside of them. The problem is that the Church refuses to wrap their arms around a teenage mother who is hurting and confused and offer to be there for her for whatever she needs. We as a Body have failed to show the next generation why a marriage is worth the wait and that no life can come into this world without God putting it here. What if instead of picketing abortion clinics we adopted a teenage mother and, if needed, adopted her child?
The problem is not whether or not our Government allows people of the same gender to marry each other. The problem is that we as a Church have let the world pervert what God created holy and instead of loving those who have “come out” into new life and repentance we have chosen to stand by and throw hate. Though I would love for it to be so, no one can eat enough Chic-fil-A to take a hurting person and transform them into the man or woman God created them to be. It takes choosing to love someone through sin and into a new identity.
The problem is not whether or not the Government is taking good care of the poor. That’s not the Government’s job, it’s ours. Jesus never said, “make sure that Caesar is taking care of everyone’s needs.” The broken and down-and-out should be our specialty. Well-fare never had to exist in the Church we read about in Acts. The Church took care of the needs of itself, and everybody else as well.
It shouldn’t be a problem if the Government wants to add more taxes. Being a Christ follower means giving God everything, so He will deal with anything that Uncle Sam tries to take from Him. Why should we worry about what isn’t ours anyway?
Obviously, there will be some issues that Christians need to let the Government take care of and the privilege of democracy allows us to contribute our vote. I just want to make a cry to the Church to rise and and be the Church. Let the Government handle building highways and libraries but let us take the real issues of the day back to the only One who can do anything about them.
So was Jesus a Republican after all as we have always supposed him to be? No. He was simply a doer. He never for once thought that He could vote away an issue God had called Him to resolve. He never let the worldly authority take responsibility for what no one could do but Him. We cannot settle with voting for what we think is right but never once getting out of our comfort zone to do something about it.
I bet the Church would have a whole lot less opposition from the Government if the Government could no longer deny that the Church took better care of the people of their nation than they could.
Did I hit it on the mark? Or did I miss some things? Please comment and share your opinion, I want to hear from you.
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