What is the point in calling anything God if it does not also hold sway in every part of one’s life – especially one’s politics?
But as I pursued that dream of upward mobility preparing for college, things just didn’t fit together. As I read Scriptures about how the last will be first, I started wondering why I was working so hard to be first.
We should refuse to get sucked into political camps and insist on pulling the best out of all of them. That’s what Jesus did – challenge the worst of each camp and pull out the best of each.
When we truly discover how to love our neighbor as our self, Capitalism will not be possible and Marxism will not be necessary.
To be nonpartisan doesn’t mean we’re nonpolitical.
The early Christians felt a deep collision with the empire in which they lived, and with politics as usual. They carelessly crossed party lines and built subversive friendships. And we should do that too.
There are some Christians who totally disengage from politics and set their minds on heaven so much that their faith is so heavenly minded that it is no earthly good.
The question for me is not are we political, but how are we political? We need to be politically engaged, but peculiar in how we engage.
One of the great dangers in political engagement is misplaced hope.
Governments can do lots of things, but there are a lot of things they cannot do. A government can provide good housing, but folks can have a house without having a home. We can keep people breathing with good health care, but they still may not really be alive.
In fact, the Gospel shows us change comes from the bottom rather than the top, from an old rugged cross rather than a gold royal throne.
Faith is believing in the impossible because we have a God who is master of impossible.
We’re remembering each other’s heroes, too. We are learning each other’s songs. We are reminding ourselves that we are a global family praying together. We’re all trying to live in the light of the history that shines through the biblical narrative.
The more I travel, the more I see how important it is to each population to see that their history of the good and the bad is remembered by others.
When one in three Black men are in prison, those larger systemic injustices become a part of what it means to love our neighbor as ourself. We care about dismantling institutional racism. That begins in relationships when you see injustice happen.
If you have two coats you have stolen one. We have no right to have more than we need when someone else has less than they need.
Sometimes our tunnel vision is limited to what we see outside our window. Until racial injustice becomes personal then I don’t think it moves us in our gut.
What the Black lives matter movement is doing is they are making it personal. They are making it hash tagged, exposing the racial injustice that continues to haunt our country in a way that you can’t ignore. There is power in injustice becoming personal.
That is part of our critique of some of the charity and service work is that we can still keep relationships at a distance by creating programs that offer services but we don’t really create a reconciled community.
There is a difference between feeding someone and eating dinner with them. If every Christian at home just made room for the stranger we would end homelessness overnight.