A couple of days ago, my friend sent me a link to this article in Time magazine. I couldn’t help but say Amen to darn near all of it. Last year in my American religious diversity class, it was pretty apparent that I was in the minority on social issues and feeling like Christians were getting a bad name based on the actions of our current administration. As I brought Jim Wallis’ book “God’s Politics: Why the right gets it wrong and the left doesn’t get it” to class, I had some murmurs from classmates that really made me stop and think. What is the deal with linking politics and religion anyway? Oh I could tell you based on that class as we read about every court case regarding religion and politics, but that would waste my time I think because it is just like beating a dead horse. We never reached any sort of conclusion about religion being in politics or vice versa, it was just too tough of an issue. I guess I always go back to Jesus when I’m thinking about stuff, so I state it here, Jesus did not come as a head of state, he did not come to rule a kingdom here on earth. It is much greater than that.

I love what is said in the third paragraph of the article as it really describes where I’m at right now. “And there are those who simply believe that, by definition, God is unknowable to our limited, fallible human minds and souls.” It is that mystery that makes me all the more intrigued. I might be a missionary in the South Central Jurisdiction of the UMC, but you will never see my car with one of these and would more than likely see it with one of these.

I don’t want to choose sides. Living in New Mexico, we have closed primaries. Did I choose a party so that I could vote in the primaries? Nope. I rarely think that either side is making a difference. After all, as pointed out in the article… “In fact, we are opposed to any politicization of the Gospels by any party, Democratic or Republican, by partisan black churches or partisan white ones. "My kingdom is not of this world," Jesus insisted. What part of that do we not understand?”

I think Jesus would weep if he were here with us now. I think that the lack of love for one another, the constant degradation, fighting and pain caused to one another is something that Jesus does not desire for us. We were called to be people who love each other. We are called to bring each other together in a loving community. As the article finishes and I wholeheartedly agree with, “The word Christian belongs to no political party. It's time the quiet majority of believers took it back.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 9:51 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.