On this night before the official kickoff of the 2016 election season, I’m going to attempt to say a few words about politics without making everyone angry with me. The fact that I feel the need to preface this with such a statement shows how heated and warlike the political debate has become in recent years. After spending a year outside of the US, I came back to a nation that has never seemed more divided along ideological lines in my short 24 years of life. I realize this division has always existed, but it has definitely intensified.
Since it’s a presidential election year, it’s obvious why I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Everywhere I turn, there’s some headline about which candidate said what and everyone’s opinion on that candidate. And that’s completely normal, but my fear is that we as Americans have gotten so wrapped up in this zero-sum, ideological battle that we don’t have any sense of solidarity or identity as “one nation, under God”. And we’re still in the primaries.
I call myself a centrist, partly because I see the extreme sides of our hyperpolarized system, and I want don’t really want to identify with either of them and alienate the other. I feel like Tevye, “He’s right, and he’s right…THEY CAN’T BOTH BE RIGHT!” In my life, I have swung between the conservative and the liberal side, and in my current stage of life, I tend to care more about the issues that progressives care about than the ones conservatives care about, but I’m not really on board with the liberals’ approach with most things. “Ah-ha!” you might be saying. “So you’re really not neutral!” You caught me. There is no neutral, moderate option in our system so we all have to swing one way on ballot day.
I see the Republican Party as having strong values and a better economic sense, but a tendency to marginalize and oppose any group that doesn’t seem to be like them. On the other hand, I see the Democratic Party as having great intentions, but a tendency to throw blanket solutions to solve extremely complex issues and end up creating other problems.
I want to clarify myself in saying that I don’t think it’s bad to be a Republican or a Democrat. I’m just saying that I think we have been taken captive by our Western dualistic way of thinking in how we divide every complex issue, forming two equal and opposite opinions without allowing room for honest discussions and thoughtful analysis.
I’ve also been reading and thinking a lot about Jesus lately. Jesus shows up on the scene in first century Palestine after hundreds of years of the Jewish people living under the rule of various empires and shortly after the Romans have taken control. Jesus came preaching, saying “the kingdom of God is at hand”. One thing I love about Jesus is that people got so annoyed with him because he wouldn’t fit into their mold of what he should look like and didn’t take the sides they wanted him to take. Many of the Jews wanted him to overthrow Rome, and that wasn’t on his agenda. At the same time, we see the legalistic Jewish leaders get so mad at him because he wasn’t obeying all their rules. Jesus didn’t take sides of the current debate of the time because he had purposes way above and beyond throwing the Romans out of Jerusalem or what you can and cannot do on Saturdays. Jesus’ mission was to ignite the reign of God on this earth.
Two millennia later, we who claim to follow Christ have this mission to continue seeking to establish God’s rule of love and justice. And to be honest, I feel that we in the United States are so wrapped up in the partisan debacle of our generation that we’re less concerned with how we live our lives in the context of the Kingdom. And yes, these issues we’re divided over truly do matter. I do not want to minimize that. I just want to say that when it becomes more about whose party has the White House next year than what we’re doing to seek God’s reign, I think it’s time for us Christians to reconsider how we push our platforms.
I know I just opened a huge can of worms, and I’m avoiding any specifics because my point is this: in this election year, can we try to start living in a way that does not demonize those who don’t agree with us? Can we think long and hard about these issues and about who could be adversely affected by the position we support?
Whether you call yourself a liberal, moderate, or conservative, think carefully about what you post on social media or say to those around you and if it’s really beneficial, or if it’s just adding to the noise. Again, I’m not saying we should be neutral. Support who you choose to support, but know that no candidate is going to nor should completely agree with you.
And let’s attempt to live our lives in a way that seeks to love our neighbors, enemies, and friends in a way that is active, not passive. In doing so, we can join Jesus in his mission to bring God’s reign to earth as it is in heaven. Then, go vote as we have the wonderful right to do, knowing that whatever the result is, we have a lot of work to do in seeking justice, mercy, and peace for our world. And I personally think that matters a lot more what the next administration and Congress is going to do and fail to do.
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