Apparently, according to close sources, I can be a rather pompous and arrogant kind of fellow. One who could be accused of having one’s head located at some point up the posterior orifice if one can disseminate the essence of one’s desired statement of intent.
My own fault, I reckon, I get carried away with things to such an extent, that I do forget my surroundings. It’s almost like getting caught up in another sphere of being like all that mumbo-jumbo, I mean indistinguishable language that lovingly sincere brothers in Christ refer to as ‘speaking in tongues’. It’s almost as if you’re the only one who understands what you’re saying, and as someone who genuinely has no problem with speaking in tongues I get the impression the whole deal is that unless it’s for the interpretation for the benefit of the Body, or as a witness to those of foreign tongues (in which case it’s obviously foreign tongues, not unknown tongues), you are in dialogue with God in a manner that is kind of exclusive.
Anyway, the mention of being pompous can also be referred to my ‘specialist subjects’. It’s like a sad dweeb who has an expertise in computers or computer games or cars or football or what happened in Eastenders or shopping or whatever. Get them going on that topic and they can go from an air of passion and excitement to an air that is rather more stuck up, as if they and only they have the answers – the perspective – the right view.
So among my ‘specialist subjects’ reside politics and the Christian faith. (As you know other specialist subjects are talked on frequent occasion over at The Other Place – try it, you might like it.) To keep with my specialisms online I track them on Google Reader and endeavour to catch up on them whenever I can. Sometimes I want to link some of the great reads I come across, but I can never make the time. On this occasion, however, I just had to share this with you.
One of the blogs I follow is from a Labour MP known to his friends, family and enemies as Tom Harris. It is to be noted, I am not a Labour member or supporter. I am in no way impartial or objective (in as much as I like to think I am), but I enjoy reading good stuff and that hasn’t got to be about what I agree with, it just has to be good reading. In any (suit)case (except for the bulky awkward ones), dear Mr. Harris put on his blog recently this remarkable questionnaire about how your personal beliefs regarding politics marks you as being in an ever changing culture. Kinda where are you on the political compass if you will. For this I am most appreciative of Mr. Harris and regardless of your political opinion suggest you read his blog every now and then. (He’s also a Dr. Who fan which further solidifies him as a worthwhile decent human being!)
All that I’m getting at for the time being is how faith and politics often collide. It was one of the thoughts that I dwelt on for some time back in the enforced absence. My understanding of humans is that we are essentially social/relational and spiritual and political. That is to say we relate to others and because we relate to others there is something beyond the material that motivates those relations. For the time being, bear with me when I assume that the motivating factor is the spiritual dynamic – that is not dependent on the acknowledgement of deity or being religious, it’s just an explanation for the non-quantifiable force that enables relations to be more than functional.
Now as well as those elements there is also the ‘order’ in which we relate. It is something we come across from the beginning – we are born into a family and there are parents or maybe just the one parent. Acknowledging that they are the source of our being we develop a way of relating that sets out some level of power/control dynamic. Maybe the parent is lenient, maybe the parent is strict, maybe there is no parent but in some shape or form we’re introduced to the ‘authority’ figure and on depending on a number of factors we determine how we engage with authority.
Not only are we determining that, but we’re also working out how we get along with each other when certain responsibilities require us to exercise some influence over others. For example school projects, sports teams, organising a night out, all of that implicitly requires some form of different for want of a better phrase ‘power dynamics’.
In as much as people say they are not interested in politics, all politics is about is how things run, how we rule, how we go about discharging responsibilities that have effect on people and the environment around us. It doesn’t have to be party political for it to be political – that’s why we slap the word party before it. So we have church politics, office politics and so on and so forth. There’s nothing wrong with politics other than the fact that we fallible, error-prone, sinful people are involved in making sure it goes right. Sometimes we get it spot on. Sometimes it works beautifully. Sometimes problems and long-running issues are satisfactorily resolved and the world is a beautiful place. Of course, though, that’s just sometimes – there are other times.
So followers of Christ find themselves in a bit of a quandary. We are ambassadors and emissaries of the Kingdom on earth and we engage in the issues of life here – we will always be political, get over it. The question is to what level does our faith compel us to get involved in the political issues of the day, when the political system in question though ordained by god does not often pay homage to God in its policies and worldview?
In as much as the efforts of Wilberforce and Luther King Jr. are efforts in reforming society have had a huge impact on understanding a fair society, generation after generation continues to have that mix of the good, the bad and ugly. As well as that we have Jesus’ insistence to Pilate that if the deal was a revolution of the kind people are used to – physical, violent, bloody, etc. then He could have got the job done with a call to the heavenly host.
So how do they work? How does it mix? How should it be? In a life lived with all things being part of our relationship with God what does our political choices say about the Lord of our lives. It’s not just an issue of voting – it’s much bigger than that.
This is just the beginning, I’ll be back on the theme.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 