"Why I am thankful for Hillary and Donald" by Greg for Monday, 17 October 2016Amid cantankerous social medial debates and an endless stream of stories delving deeply into the villainy of our presidential candidates, silence has been my general posture. With the hurricane force winds that have ripped apart our country from the continuous bluster blowing back and forth, the wisest choice has seemed to be to stay quiet, stay present, and exert as little emotion about the election as possible. Today, however, I desire to emote in what is hopefully a healthy and effective way. So today I am giving thanks for the rancor, the passion, the hatred, the divisiveness of Christians on all sides, and the horror show that this election has become. Let me tell you why.
I am thankful because this entire election is a genuine life experience of Reductio Ad Absurdium. Reducing an argument to the absurd is a wonderful tool for making arguments or creating satire. The idea is that you take the argument of the other side and your continually push it further and further to its absurd conclusions. It is a methodology that has long fascinated me in both serious and satirical uses.
My friends, welcome to the world of the absurd! If we ever wanted to really understand the way our political system works or the ideologies we unknowingly serve this election has given us everything we will ever need. For years, as a pastor, I have wrestled with the tricky reality of being a Christian in America. Navigating the punji traps of American Christianity has left me with plenty of wounds and battle scars. But my own hurts have paled in comparison to watching so many others, whom I love, plunge head long toward an expression of faith that inherently makes a kingdom life impossible.
I am so thankful that this election has finally brought us face to face with the ideologies that have infiltrated the American Church. We are a people who worship a multitude of idols. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, you are such a gift to us all! Republicans and Democrats alike are doing their best to serve the church, unknowingly, and save it from itself! Thanks be to God for this election.
So how is this election of absurdity saving the church? Let's start with the banner of ideology that has defined the Religious Right -abortion. For many Christians in America, making political choices has been the least complicated part of their faith. Whichever candidate (almost always Republican) declared themselves to be Pro-Life (defined strictly as being pro- unborn life- this is an important caveat) was clearly the choice. This has been the trump card of elections (pun unintended) that motivated us to vote for politicians regardless of their qualifications, policies, or competency.
This is, in my opinion, a poor decision making criteria. I am passionately pro all life. The horror that 1/4 of all pregnancies in the US end in abortion is staggering. The church in America, however, has frankly done very little to change this reality and it is to our shame. But wait, haven't we voted for forty years to elect whatever candidate would most address this horror? Yes we have, but it hasn't worked very well. Helping the unborn is not, primarily, about whether or not abortions are readily accessible. Being pro-life is not simply a case of what we should do to protect the unborn. Being pro-life means that we value all life, at all ages, of all races, of all orientations.
We can't claim to be in favor of an unborn fetus before it is born and then turn our backs on that child, especially when they are born into a situation that is clearly stacked against them, after they are born. We can't be pro-life and not strongly wrestle with our countries status as the leading weapons manufacturer and seller in the world. Do dead unborn children in Mississippi somehow matter more than dead children in the Sudan? Being pro-life is an all consuming reality for Christians. How do help those at the margins that are most at risk and most likely to choose to have an abortion? These are huge questions without simple answers.
We have been fed this ideology for so long, however, that we haven't realized just how insufficient our pro-life movements have been, in light of the good news of the Kingdom of God. So I give thanks for Mr. Donald Trump, our latest pro-life candidate.
To consider a candidate who is unrepentantly misogynistic, filled with hatred, acts like a bully, expresses outright xenophobia, and openly declares his readiness to bring destruction to his enemies as pro-life is the truest form of Reductio Ad Adbsurdium that I can imagine. Even as wonderful, faithful, Christians have caught on to this they have been urged by leaders to overlook all of these things, because a man who has shown such unbelievably low moral character will surely appoint people of much better character to important positions that will support our beliefs. That my friends is being served an ideological poop sandwich.
On the other end of the spectrum we have a perfect representative of the ideology of the left, rooted in human progress. Ever since the enlightenment we have had a powerful narrative working its way through the West. It is a story that tells us that human society is progressing. With more thought, more technology, and more science we are progressing towards the highest ideals of humanity. This is a narrative of the elite, the educated, and most importantly, of those with power. The world will be reshaped, into it best form, but having the right power, with the right ideas, finally in the hands of the elite. (Maybe there are roots in Plato's Philosopher King here too.)
Could their be a better representative of progress than Hillary Clinton? Her resume is truly stunning. She has achieved remarkable things in her disguised career. Education, opportunity, and hard work have made her a champion of what is possible. In solely a comparison of resumes, she is a ridiculously better candidate for any elected office, than Donald Trump, in almost every conceivable way. Of course, with that resume comes hard questions about how those achievements, and the power necessary to achieve them, came about. Hillary Clinton is a highly skilled politician. She has been positioning herself for this presidential run for decades.
She has shown a brilliance for maneuvering, ruthlessness, strategic inclination, and competency in being a politician that are marvelous. She is the embodiment of hope for so many, even if she personally isn't their idea of progressive perfection. A woman as president will be another forward movement of progress, another sign that we are getting closer. But are we getting closer? Is our world progressing into a better reality? Are our government, media, academia, and technology, truly healing the world? Is progress our hope? Is a movement sharply to the left, moving our country deeper into the ideologies of liberalism and progress going to fix things?
As kingdom people, can we ever put our hope in power acquired by such means? The kingdom of God exists to subvert such power. It exists to operate outside of hallways of power that dominate our country. It turns down a path that requires ruthlessness and cunning to embrace a path of grace and mercy. Can a kingdom people ever place their hope in the myth of progress?
So for these experiences of the absurd I give thanks. I give thanks because we are being forced, as the people of God, to wrestle with alternatives. We aren't trapped in a world where we have to choose between two ways of trying to make the world a better place. (I know there are other candidates, but they are just less absurd choices that are equally flawed .) We are a people who exist to offer the world an alternative. We are a community of grace and hope that exists to be a physical manifestation of hope. We don't need political power to be good news. We are a pro-life people, who must fight on the behalf of all lives right where we are, regardless of the laws and politicians. We are a people who believe in the progress of the kingdom of God that thrives when it is outside of the power structures of our world.
Be a kingdom people this election season.
If, as God's people, you genuinely believe Donald Trump is the best possible choice, for whatever reason, then make that choice with tears in your eyes. Mourn for that choice and how broken our world is. Do not trumpet it, celebrate it, or pretend it is anything more than it is. Donald Trump is not for us or for Christ.
If Hillary Clinton is your choice this election, then make that choice with tears in your eyes. If you are choosing her solely because she isn't Donald Trump then mourn. If you are choosing her because she is such an amazing politician, then mourn, for politics are inherently self serving and destructive. If you are choosing her because she fits the model of progress that is the best hope for our country, then mourn.
If you decide not to vote, or to vote for a third party, for whatever reasons, mourn. Mourn for a system that offers us so little hope for effective change.
But, after you are done mourning, give thanks. Give thanks because Jesus is Lord. Give thanks because the kingdom of God is at hand. Give thanks because your call and ability to be good news in this world is unaffected by this horror of a political season. Give thanks because maybe the absurdity of these choices has finally helped us remember that we pledge allegiance only, ever, to Jesus as Lord. We are not American Christians, we are Christians who live in America.
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Greg
Monday, October 17, 2016
Categories: Scripture and Discipleship
URL: http://wp.me/pqY3-T7
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