After the Election
Nov 7th, 2008 by ljkim
What a great week it’s been for our country! Not only did we get the chance to elect a supremely capable and qualified president but we were able to renew the idea of America as a country built on ideas and (dare I say) hope rather than fear, and race, class-ism and political maneuvering. It reminds us that this country is worth fighting for, not just the people of the country and its security, but the very idea of America is worth fighting for. But before we go forward we need to assess our role in America. I mean “our” role as in the role of people like us, believers who hold to a higher authority, an even greater government with God as king.
What is our role in a democratic society? Let’s think about this for a minute. This is a country we share with people of many ideological positions. America is an atheist country, a Hindu country, a Muslim country, a Buddhist country, a New Age country, as well as a Christian country – because it is a representative government that represents the people who live here. It is a rural country that is quickly becoming urban in a planet in which the majority of the world’s population is quickly becoming urban and interconnected. How then should we live in a world like this?
I don’t know the full answer to that question, but I do know it must involve “love your neighbor as yourself.” Literally that means that one group cannot try to oppress or take over another.
Along these lines, what I’ve learned lately is that the role of believers in a political party and the country is similar to the role of the conscience in a person. The conscience is not always the strongest part of a person: Your conscience doesn’t have absolute control over your money, your words, or things like your appetite and sex drive. Yet in an emotionally healthy person the conscience critiques and challenges and shapes a person. People don’t often think about their conscience (and don’t need to) until a point comes where conscience wakes them up to something, or corrects a mistake or sounds a warning. Believers need to act like the conscience of each party and our country.
We’ve failed in that role in the past. Too often we’ve taken up the ‘spirit of the world’ in our political parties instead of challenging it. Christians should have been the first to object to racism and politics of fear. We should have been the first to stand up for the rights of minority groups (whether it’s the poor, or ethnic groups or Gays and Lesbians, or prisoners of war). Instead Christians on the right have sold out to the spirit of conservatism (Drill baby drill!), the Christians on the left have sold out to the spirit of liberalism (Regime change!), when we needed to be filled with the spirit of God. Our silence against the fear tactics and slander in our own parties shows that we’re out of shape, not paying attention, unable to do our job as the conscience of our country.
Today is a new day, a new era, but only if believers can repent of the past and take up our responsibility to our country. This is our time, this is our chance…as the president elect said. But for us this is also our chance to do it better. To love our neighbor better than we have in the past. To be good citizens in a pluralistic society. People who love their neighbors and even their enemies (those who are in opposition to them) as they love themselves.
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