It’s only been a few days since what has been referred to as the “blue tsunami” wiped out “God’s chosen representatives” in the midterm election (tongue firmly planted in cheek). I try not to let politics influence my faith but instead attempt to live the reverse, let faith influence my politics. I am not going to sugar coat it; this has, for most people, become impossible. I am not suggesting that we compromise our beliefs when I say it’s time to step back from the Christianizing of political parties but rather I want to urge each one of us to stop letting a party with a beam in their eye influence our view of the other party with a beam (speck would better maintain the biblical narrative) in theirs.
We have it rather easy in Canada, at least for now.
Our conservative leaning party, for the most part, has taken a stance against much of what we would consider major anti Judaeo-Christian ideas, but they have not run on a platform that would bring wide sweeping change to the status quo. While some Christians look to the party as the only hope to restore laws that enforce Christian values, most see the party as conservative in economics and social decorum. The Liberals and the Conservatives, when it comes down to party platforms, are more left and right of centre with a few policies that might be seen as extreme. We have a third party that would be considered very progressive (socialist), so we do not have the same extremes in the two main parties. Some would disagree but when it comes to voting in Canada, you’re not voting to end abortion or gay/trans rights, you’re voting on how much farther these issues will go simply because our Supreme court has ruled that these things cannot be stopped and that cannot be changed.
You don’t have it as easy in the USA.
Your politics demand that your values be met by a party that aligns with your faith. There is no third party (I know there are independents) leaving a binary choice that is often categorized in terms of Christian and non-Christian. After the way the midterms turned out, you will hear that the sky is falling, that the country is going to hell in a handbasket, that you are losing your Christian country. Let me suggest that this could be the best thing that happened to Christians and the Christian faith in the USA.
We have been played for fools.
By shifting the way we see our world from politics influenced by faith to faith being defined by politics, many Christians and the churches they attend made the Trump administration and the Republican party the party of those who had faith in Christ. It wasn’t hard to do. Some of the most egregious actions including abortion were on the table and only the Republicans would stop them. It was and still is like a card trick, a slight of hand. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, nothing to see here, move on. If this was a movie there would have been a trigger warning. People should have been told ahead of time that what they were being told would cause such an emotional response that they would be unable to detach from their emotions. Say enough about the horrors of sinful choices permitted by law and you can whip people into such a frenzy that they will make a person and a party into a saviour.
It’s time for a great reset.
We need to once again be able to call out the wrongs, to speak biblical truths without having to support one political party. I am 100% against abortion just because the baby is unwanted. The prochoice people will degrade human life calling the baby a clump of cells, so as to suggest the child is worthless. I am 100% against degrading fellow humans regardless of age. I will stand up for the unborn who is labelled as not human/worthless but I will also stand up and say the words of The President of the United States of American that degrades fellow humans suggesting they had lessor or of no value is the foundation of the same argument made for killing babies.
We don’t get to pick and choose.
While our democracy gives us the right to vote for the person we think is the best for our Christian faith, that faith when practiced correctly removes all our rights to choose and replaces them with the perfection of God’s laws. Our vote and even our emotional response to a party platform does not give us the right to call out the sins and ungodly actions and positions of “the other guy” while remaining quiet when “our guy” is actively governing out of arrogance, corruption, degrading of humans and the advancement of their own personal agenda. We must speak against all sin even when it comes from our own camp.
We must not be silent no matter what.
John the Baptist was beheaded for calling out the adulterous action of the person holding the place of power Matthew 14:3-12. We need to understand that while the Jews did not want to be occupied by the Romans, they were given certain rights and freedoms including their religion and access to the temple. Shouldn’t John have ignored the sinful marriage of Herod to Herodias, his brother’s wife, because the governing system and the governor himself supported the Jews in their religious practices? John was not silent about the political leader’s sin even though the leader enforced laws that supported John’s faith and this got him killed.
Jesus and many of the disciples were killed for speaking out against the sins of those who had power. Christianity has always faced persecution for calling out practices that go against God, all practices. Silence on a sin so that another one can be addressed is not part of the Christian faith.
Now that the “Christian Party” no longer holds the House or the Senate, the only thing that can be done is go back to proclaiming the power of Christ instead of the power of political victory but more likely the plans to win the next election will become the most important. There is a cost to saying the unpopular especially when it is against those in power. Christianity seemed to have gained so much in the 2024 election but the truth is, we lost the moral high ground because we let the immoral go unchallenged so we could address hot button issues that we use as the litmus test for morality. We liked the power of position but Jesus did it a different way.
Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! Philippians 2:1-8 (NIV)
Just some thoughts from one of your neighbors/neighbours/enemies/future conquests/1st state/trading partner/rip off artists/stealing/thieving monsters/polite friends/mean people/allies/grifters or whatever we who live in the country north of you are being called today!
