Seeing Past the Donkey and the Elephant

In one of those vague childhood memories that is still with me, I can recall my first "discussion" I had on politics. It was with my mom, while we were going somewhere in the car. She was driving and I, being what I'm guessing to be around 10 years old, sat quietly in the passenger seat with my belt buckled. We had been to the polls to vote for governor or something like that. My mom was telling me that she always voted for the Republican candidates, straight ticket. That was why she didn't have to fill in all the boxes on the form. As a little kid, I just assumed that when I got old enough I would continue voting the way my parents did, and so I asked my mom, "What's the difference between Republicans and Democrats?" My mom, never being someone who really got into politics and who was faced with the difficult task of explaining the issues to a 10 year old, simply said, "Well, the Republican is the more Christian party and the Democrats are not."

That settled it for me. After all, I was a Christian and I knew I wanted to vote like a Christian when I turned 18. So without further questions I went on to vaguely support Republican politics through my teenage years. I formed a healthy dislike for Bill Clinton when all I really knew about him was that he cheated on his wife and that somehow that made him a terrible president. I supported Bob Dole when he ran against Clinton and all I remember is him falling off a stage while he was trying to shake somebody's hand. I had no idea really what either candidate stood for or wanted to do for the country. I just followed the Republican or Democrat label and that decided for me who I would pull for in elections.

My first chance to vote came in 2004 when I had just turned 18. At the time I was going to a church where it was preached from the pulpit that the Christian thing to do was vote Republican. Again, this was at a time when I really didn't care much for politics. I didn't question why we were at war in Iraq and I didn't really think too much about Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest people along with other issues that were coming up at the time. The only person at my church who had a different take on politics was Andy. Andy talked about politics a lot. He voted for John Kerry that year. He and April were probably the only two church members to do so. But I have to admit I tuned him out a lot of the time because I really wasn't that interested. And it's not a pleasant thing to disagree on politics. I did, in fact, end up voting for Bush that year.

I say all of this because through all of those years I bought into a lie. It was a lie that my mom believed, my church believed, and I believed to be true. And that lie was that Republican politics and Christianity were one and the same. It's a lie that has been perpetuated through Christian communities in America for decades, and because of that politicians and talking heads have tricked Christians in order to get their votes. It has led to Christians in high percentages supporting policies like torture, an unjust war, and economic strategies that leave out the people that Jesus taught us to care for the most - the poor and vulnerable.

I think that this happens because a lot of times when we follow politics and vote, we get caught up in the game of partisanship and in doing so, we lose sight of the things we really stand for. When issues are split along party lines, it's easy for a person to see the other party as constantly wrong and their party as always right. For Christians, this is dangerous because neither party comes close to maintaining consistent Christian values, but we really act like they do.

I remember last month at my church when we had our annual 4th of July service. We sang all our patriotic songs and pledged allegiance to the flag. At the end of all the national praise it finally came time for the sermon, Pastor Ron went on stage and he said as calmly as he could: "I am a patriot. I am a God and country person. But, we have to make sure that it's not more about our country than God."

Pastor Ron was my hero that day. He was dead on. I have seen many times Christians getting caught up in politics, and the thing that ultimately decides their position on a particular issue is not their faith, it's their party affiliation. For instance, one morning last week I was at work and they had WDJC playing. On the morning show, they were taking callers to give their opinions on the "beer summit" in which Obama invited Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt James Crowley to the White House to have a beer. This was in response to Obama's comments that Crowley "acted stupidly" in arresting the Harvard professor.

So people called in and many of them said that the president should not invite these men over to drink a beer, that as president he is a role model and by drinking beer he is setting a bad example. If you have ever read the Gospels, this should be probably striking you as ironic right now. Jesus, who is the ultimate role model and example for us Christians, drank wine. He once went to a wedding, and when the wine had run out he took some water and turned it into more wine, which was even better wine than they had at first! So what happened was Christians were criticizing the president as being a bad role model for doing something Jesus, the lord and savior, did himself.

What I'm trying to say here is God does not play along party lines, and so neither should we. The Republicans are not the most Christian party, and neither are the Democrats. Some people try to present that lie in both obvious and subtle ways. We should be careful that when we cast our ballots and decide what side to take on certain issues, we are not just playing the party game. The Bible says nothing about limited or expanded government, trickle down economic theory, or who you should or shouldn't tax but it says a lot about helping the needy, protecting life, caring for the environment, and maintaining peace. On these issues we should look beyond the red and blue, the donkey and the elephant.