This is another instalment in the Question of Identity series. To find out more you can read the introductory entry by clicking here.
As you might have noticed, across the pond, our American cousins are gearing themselves up for Tuesday’s Presidential elections. As with the General Election, this time in the political season can evoke much emotion on the issues and candidates. I have not been swamped by the coverage, but neither have I bedn ignorant of the issues. As a student of politics, I find these times fascinating.
It is also a chance to get incredibly depressed about the human condition. You see the huge amounts spent on the campaigns, you read the barbs and jibes one candidate gives to the other, you hear the grandiose rhetoric of how things will be better under their stewardship but query how these promises can ever be kept in the ever changing circumstances of life. Yet they carry on. People either get caught up in the hype or despair in the cynicism of the system. In the midst of all this great call is made to exercise the civic duty and go out and vote.
Here again the question of identity raises its head, and here there is a conflict of identity. I find it fascinating candidates stating that they are not running according to their Christian views, however much it might inspire or influence their decision. They state quite clearly that they are a Democrat, or a Republican, or a Conservative, or a Labour or a Liberal Democrat. It is intriguing that this distinguishing of identity can be so easily made.
Also they appeal to people to put identity with a political party as priority. Or they seek to appeal to how much that party or personal identification is closely related to what you value. Elsewhere and elsewhen I’ve talked about the importance of using your life to make a difference and there is more to political engagement than voting every few years.
As that is the case I have made every effort not to get caught up in identifying myself with a political part or doctrine. I am of the belief that everything we do is political. Voting or not is a political expression. Working or not is a political expression. Driving a car, going by the bus, going to a state-run or private school or homeschool, private health, on the NHS, banking or privately investing, shopping at a major superstore or growing your own products – all of these are political expressions.
Jesus was a political agent even if his agenda was not about overtly taking over the established ruling order of the day and neither is the Kingdom Agenda about ensuring Christians have all the seats of power from the headteacher to the Prime Minister. Yet any call for love, righteousness, compassion, peace, holiness and justice has political implications. It affects views and actions on taxes, the rich, the unemployed, the disabled, the unborn child, the marginalised, the middle class, the armed forces, the education system and more.
In as much as the Kingdom Agenda has those consequences, it is not necessarily always so clear cut how those consequences are played out. It is certainly not the case, as some have argued, that we are thus compelled to engage in the political process by voting. It is certainly not the case that the church en masse becomes politicised and works as an overt agent of a political party of a political doctrine.
It is the case for me, that I have a responsibility to use my vote in accordance with godly wisdom – and the use of that vote is just as much in not using it as it is in casting it. It is the case for me that I am to apply wisdom in all my political expressions so that in all things Christ continues to be reflected in what I say and do.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 