Missio Dei Suburbia

David Brooks - A Call to the Middle

In this morning's New York Times:

Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was. His words are responsible; his character is inspiring. But his actions betray a transformational liberalism that should put every centrist on notice. As Clive Crook, an Obama admirer, wrote in The Financial Times, the Obama budget “contains no trace of compromise. It makes no gesture, however small, however costless to its larger agenda, of a bipartisan approach to the great questions it addresses. It is a liberal’s dream of a new New Deal.”

Prayers for America on Election Day

John Piper

Al Mohler

Link to others in the comments below...

Christians and Politics

This will show up sometime in The Oconee Leader. I'm channeling two semesters as a political science major, involvement in two presidential campaigns on a local level, pastoring in the Bible Belt and thoughts from Charlie Drew's book, A Public Faith.

Christians are lousy at politics.

Thirty years of organized evangelicalism as a political entity has failed to bring about the kingdom of God or better days for all or much else besides the centaurian cross-breeding of conservative social policy and the Republican party. Evangelicals have become a constituency to be pandered to and for the most part we have taken the bit. Walk into almost any church in Oconee County this Sunday (including mine) and political conversation will sound like talking points from Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly or any number of conservative pundits.

I believe that followers of Jesus Christ can and absolutely must walk down a new political road and become the kind of people who provide the resources for hope and change and unity that politicians of all stripes promise but simply cannot deliver. There are deep divisions in our country and in this county – to ignore them or to attempt to wish them away is both naïve and the height of tomfoolery. This is not a call to ignore our differences, only to put down the guns, knives, ninja stars and other rhetorical weaponry that so often accompanies political dialogue.

Acts 29 in the New York Times

Really good article that appeared in today's New York Times on younger evangelicals and politics. Acts 29 and The Journey in St. Louis are highlighted.

Jesus and Politics

My newest article for The Oconee Leader:

So I heard this rumor that a presidential election is going on. Maybe you’ve noticed. Two years of watching men and woman jockey for the right to become mistrusted and second-guessed by half of the country and hated by a good part of the world.  And people think dog fighting is inhumane.

Part of the inhumanity of our modern political process stems from the fact that how we vote goes a long way in shaping our cultural identity. We gain the label of ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ – and while we only connect those names to social concerns and economic theories, the reality is that we’re talking about two very different ways of seeing the world and determining what’s valuable in us and around us.

In more liberal, non-traditional communities, who you are is determined by what you make of yourself. Instead of allowing family or circumstances to dictate what you can or can’t do, liberal communities value the individual’s unique and self-determined identity. Not only does this create a diversity of hairstyles and fashion statements, but it helps us understand why people can passionately insist on a woman’s personal right to choose abortion or to love whomever they want, however they choose.

But in conservative, traditional communities, your identity is fairly well predetermined because who you are has everything to do with how well you fit the unspoken standards and values of that particular community. Someone moving into town will be considered normal as long as they look like, vote like, and act like us. So you end up with school uniforms and churches that insist that everyone – including people who have no interest in Jesus and even less interest in the church -act like them on secondary matters such as the consumption of alcohol. Communities are formed with almost no racial and socio-economic diversity in neighborhoods that all look the same and everyone says hello but no one knows each other because you can learn all that really matters about someone by what they drive and what they wear.

So where does Jesus fit into our political world? Without delving into side roads and rabbit trails, I’m pretty sure that Jesus would have a difficult time embracing any brand of contemporary politics carte blanche. And while that shouldn’t be taken to mean that followers of Jesus should abandon the political process on a local, state, or federal level, it does mean is that Christians should bring greater balance and stability to an increasingly volatile situation rather than exacerbating the problem by insisting that faithful Christians must embrace a single political party or persuasion.

The truth is that Christianity is far too conservative for liberals and way too liberal for conservatives. The way of Jesus is equally concerned for the rights of individuals and the health of our communities. The message of Christianity that we call the gospel not only deals with the brokenness of individuals but the dysfunction of systems and the injustice of nations. Our identity as followers of Jesus is found in the call of God to make him known by joining him on his mission that emanates from the cross of Jesus Christ.

For churches, this means that we have no business involving ourselves organizationally and institutionally in endorsing political candidates. To do so stands outside our God-given purpose and is practically impossible given that no political party or candidate will consistently uphold both the rights of individuals and the health of our communities. For individual Christians, following Jesus in politics means that whichever political persuasion we’re drawn to, we must always champion those positions which declare and display the kingdom of God while seeking to reform, reshape, and redirect those which deconstruct the vision and values of God for his world and his people.

Who Made Who?

Not just a great AC/DC song...Colbert and Stewart vs. Conan.

It Happens to the Best of Us

And who says you can't fall asleep to a black man preachin'...?

I Wanna Be Your President

Now if only we can get Clint to sing this when he's here with Red Mountain Music in March...

What To Do About Politics

Some of you know I spent my first semester in college as a political science major. When I was a senior in high school in 1992, we did different mock debates of the views held by Bush 41, Clinton and Perot and at one time or another, I played the part of all three candidates. I knew my junk...

For various reasons, politics has become less important in my universe although the human chess match remains interesting. I do know a lot of people - particularly those under the age of 35 - that can hardly stomach the circus that is the 2008 presidential campaign. No one believes in any of the candidates and the nature of political campaigns with all the glad-handing and stump speeches makes the whole thing come off as disingenuous at best, if not completely fraudulent. For instance, while conservative evangelicals seems to be flocking to Mike Huckabee, I'm not particularly impressed. Not only does he appear to be fiscally irresponsible in an election where fiscal responsibility should be getting a lot of air time but I'm becoming troubled by his increasing willingness to play the Jesus card and what appears to be a strategy of establishing himself as God's choice for the gig.

So what should we do as Christians in relationship to politics? That's certainly up for debate and you can jump in by commenting below. I will say that I thought this post by Tullian Tchividjian is a good start to the conversation.