Advice During Election Season
Tuesday November 5th.
I cannot wait for this day to come and go. I used to enjoy politics, political debates, and thinking about elections. I was a political science undergrad, and loved many of my classes. But now I just want it to be over with, as it is all so exhausting and broken.
Sadly, that brokenness is spilling over into friendships, families, and churches. Unnecessary division and even condemnation are present. Real damage is being done to relationships, ministries, and souls.
“I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me.”
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer
What if Christians marked out a different way, as followers of the Way, during this election season? How might we go about doing this?
Seek out knowledge, from a variety of sources. Employ some critical thinking, and exercise the intellectual virtues as you pursue truth. Talk with others. Pray for wisdom. Pray for our political leaders, whomever they turn out to be. Pray for our nation, and all the nations, to flourish. Vote your conscience. Then, in humility, give those who disagree with you the grace that you would want from them. Don’t demonize those who disagree with you. Don’t obsess about politics. There are certainly significant things at stake. Politics matter, in many ways they matter a lot, but they are penultimate at best. God’s kingdom, and his Church, are ultimate. The kingdom will endure and even flourish.
Then do the vital things for followers of Jesus: love God, love your friends and family, love those in your church, workplace, and community. Be with, serve, and defend the poor and the marginalized. Love the people you disagree with. Love the people you don’t like. Love your enemies. Share the good news of the availability of the kingdom of God, as Jesus did.
In order to do all of this, we must abide in Christ. We must live each day in dependence upon him, filled with the Spirit, in community with others who are seeking to do the same. We must be people of humility and love. This is the Way of Christ. Let’s try to walk in it.
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