The
election in all its stunning fury is over! No more political ads, no more
obnoxious phone calls and over 2 billion dollars spent cumulatively between
both campaigns. It’s November 8th and its been decided. For the sake of time, I won’t comment on the
ridiculousness that is the number 2 billion (restraint). What I will comment on
is the response of so many Christians. Over the past 48 hours, I have read the
most outrageous comments and have been privileged (sarcasm) to hear some of the
most disgusting and racist words dribble out of people’s mouth—all of them who
put themselves in the Christian column. I’ll go out on a limb here, but I
assume their guy didn’t win.
I’ll
do my best to keep this short, but I have a few issues here. Yes, all the
obvious ones, but perhaps a view or two that may come from a different slant.
Firstly,
I posted the question on Twitter, “I wonder what would happen if Christians
prayed as passionately for the President as they did hatefully rant about him
on social media?” Although my lovely Calvinist friends responded with
“nothing,” I can’t help but agree and disagree. J
For
starters, I agree with the idea that nothing is a surprise to God nor is it an
infarction on his Supremacy and His Sovereignty. I didn’t mean it in the sense that
our prayers trump His plan and force God into immediate action, but rather,
that how we respond may be a crucial aspect to his future plan.
My
statement flows through the filter of future progressive- how things will be,
not how they are right now. And here is
how I connect it to the Sovereignty of God. What if (and I realize that in
itself, this is an assumption) this is indeed His plan and apart of that plan
for day 2 or week 7 or month 3 or 2 years later is the radical revolution of
Christians and how we actively engage and set the social dialogue.
The
old adage goes, “If you don’t tell your story, someone else will.”
And
people form these stories, these narratives based on the current conversation.
What do I currently say or think about one subject, how do I respond to a
challenge? These are all used as tools to build the narrative.
And
so, what is the story Christians tell? What is our narrative? How do we fit
into the current political and social climate? And forgive me if I make the
next few points quickly…
Firstly,
we are silent for the majority of 4 years, and then around 6 months leading up
to the election we all the sudden think, “Oh wait! It’s time to get our boots
on and fight this fight! Troops circle up and move out!” My question is obvious, where have we been
all the other time?
Secondly,
we have lost the art of losing. We know how to win but we don’t know how to
lose. What if the day after the election we came together as the Church or the
“group from the losing party” and sent out the following Press Release:
“Dear
Mr. President- We wanted to be the first ones to say congratulations on your
election win! We honor you, we love you and we will be praying for you. Just
like any American should, we will hold you accountable as leader of this
country and we will support you on issues we can mutually come together on.
Because we love this country, you will garner the unimaginable prayer support
that God will help you to lead this great country into its greatest years yet!
We will champion the idea of coming together and do whatever we can to help.”
Instead
we cloak ourselves in the shadows of social media and spread hatred and further
division. Remember, these are the societal components people use to build the
narrative of the Church (or Christianity, Religion, etc).
A
popular (sarcasm) follow-up to my tweets on the election and whatnot, I sent
out this thought:
“Division,
gridlock, bickering, racism, secrets, lies, power grabs—and I'm not talking about
Washington, I'm talking about the Church.”
For
the people who don’t know me, or better still, the ones who think they know me,
their first thought was probably, “There he goes after the Church again!
Doesn’t he know that the Church is God’s bride and we must not talk bad about
her?” And with much respect I acknowledge that point, however, I think it is
misguided and slightly immature.
If
my wife notices something in my teeth, if something I’ve picked out looks
goofy, if I am rude to someone in the drive-thru, she doesn’t just overlook it
and ignore it because I am her husband. She confronts me on those items to make
me a better person, a better man, a better father and better husband—its all
about motive and intention.
I
make these comments about the Church because I respect her, I value her, and I
refuse to let the parsley in her teeth be the thing that gets talked about the
most.
Yet,
if you’ve talked to anyone with something in their teeth, its hard to focus and
keep the conversation going as long as its there.
“But
Matt!” you might say, your list above is not so commonplace as parsley—those
are some serious accusations! And do you really think those are the main
characteristics of the majority of the Church or just in your experience?
Perhaps it’s just “your opinion,” and maybe it is but as I encounter people
both inside and outside the church, those who have been in relationship for
decades and those new to the body of Christ, those hurt and those helped by her
hands, these characteristics and conversations consistently come up. I have to
believe it’s more than a coincidence.
“You’ve
got something right there Church,” and whether its big or small, until we talk
about it, it will only distract from the radical perception changes need from
the Christian social narrative.
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