Christians and Politics--Part Two
**This series is turning out to be longer than I originally intended; however, I believe it's important especially given the political climate in the United States right now. Instead of running the political posts one right after the other, after today I will intersperse the series with my regular posts on authentic Christian living. I promise this site won't turn into a political one!!
**Also, all politicians are not bad. (I should know, I'm married to a good one!) For the purposes of this series, I'm talking about those who twist the process to serve their own needs instead of the country's.
In my last post, I detailed the reason why Christians should participate in politics--even in a politically contentious environment. Today, I want to talk about how we should participate.
Because of my husband's job, I have a front row seat to the political goings-on in our state. I can't get away from it even if I wanted to. And trust me, often I really want to get away from it! Politics can be ugly. In some ways it's worse in real life than it is on TV. Some people in both parties seek power for themselves, without regard to the voters or what's best for the country. They call each other names, they disparage voters in the other party. In short, they act like kindergartners.
It can be tempting to do the same. After all, they're our leaders. Aren't we supposed to follow them? Shouldn't we mirror their behavior?
The short answer is--No.
There are two reasons for this. I'll address the first in this post and the second in a later post. The first reason is purely political and isn't applicable only to Christians. The United States is a representative republic. The government derives its authority from the people. It's a bottom up form of government. The people hold the power and it flows up to the government--unlike communism and other centralized forms of government where the power is consolidated at the top, in the hands of one or a few people.
A representative republic is designed to disperse power among the people. This is done specifically to prevent one person from acquiring too much power. The only way a representative republic can devolve into a centralized government is if the people give up their power. This can happen for a number of reasons: apathy, fear, anger. The reason doesn't matter, because the end result is the same: a top down system of government where power is held by one or a few. If this happens, the people no longer have a voice in their government and that opens the door for tyranny. Our government was designed to prevent this.
But we've grown short-sighted. We go to work, take care of our families, binge watch Netflix and fall into bed exhausted. We don't have the energy for politics. We're apathetic. As long as we're safe, well-fed, and happy we figure everything's good. We stop paying attention to anything that isn't entertainment. We don't watch what's going on in the government, and slowly we allow our power to slip through our fingers.
Once we become apathetic, it's easy for politicians make us fear anything outside of our own worldview. They divide us into voting blocks because it's easier to several control groups of people than millions of individuals. So they label us: the female vote, the black vote, the Christian vote, the LGBTQ vote, the youth vote, etc.. They slot us into "categories" then figure out the predominant opinions and fears of that group and play them up. Anyone in the "group" who disagrees faces pressure from their political leaders and other people in the group. It's peer pressure in the extreme, and it becomes easier to follow the "group think". We teach our children not to give in to peer pressure at school, but then we become adults who do exactly that. We are afraid to stand apart from the group, to voice our own opinion.
But our strength is in our individuality. This country was founded on differences. It was founded on the belief that we are ALL equal. That means your opinion matters, even--no, especially--if it differs from your "group's".
Given all of this, how should we participate in politics? First, PAY ATTENTION to what's going on in state and federal politics. I know you're busy. I know you're bombarded with things vying for your attention. I know you might feel that your opinion, your vote doesn't matter, but fight those feelings. As we've seen in recent close elections, your vote does matter.
Second, THINK FOR YOURSELF. Don't allow politicians or other members of your "voting block" to tell you what to think. I know it's hard to voice your believes. I know it's easier to go with the crowd. But if we allow ourselves to be silenced because we are afraid to speak, we are giving up our power.
And once we lose our power, it becomes almost impossible to get it back.
**Also, all politicians are not bad. (I should know, I'm married to a good one!) For the purposes of this series, I'm talking about those who twist the process to serve their own needs instead of the country's.
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| Christians and Politics -- how should we participate? |
Because of my husband's job, I have a front row seat to the political goings-on in our state. I can't get away from it even if I wanted to. And trust me, often I really want to get away from it! Politics can be ugly. In some ways it's worse in real life than it is on TV. Some people in both parties seek power for themselves, without regard to the voters or what's best for the country. They call each other names, they disparage voters in the other party. In short, they act like kindergartners.
It can be tempting to do the same. After all, they're our leaders. Aren't we supposed to follow them? Shouldn't we mirror their behavior?
The short answer is--No.
There are two reasons for this. I'll address the first in this post and the second in a later post. The first reason is purely political and isn't applicable only to Christians. The United States is a representative republic. The government derives its authority from the people. It's a bottom up form of government. The people hold the power and it flows up to the government--unlike communism and other centralized forms of government where the power is consolidated at the top, in the hands of one or a few people.
A representative republic is designed to disperse power among the people. This is done specifically to prevent one person from acquiring too much power. The only way a representative republic can devolve into a centralized government is if the people give up their power. This can happen for a number of reasons: apathy, fear, anger. The reason doesn't matter, because the end result is the same: a top down system of government where power is held by one or a few. If this happens, the people no longer have a voice in their government and that opens the door for tyranny. Our government was designed to prevent this.But we've grown short-sighted. We go to work, take care of our families, binge watch Netflix and fall into bed exhausted. We don't have the energy for politics. We're apathetic. As long as we're safe, well-fed, and happy we figure everything's good. We stop paying attention to anything that isn't entertainment. We don't watch what's going on in the government, and slowly we allow our power to slip through our fingers.
Once we become apathetic, it's easy for politicians make us fear anything outside of our own worldview. They divide us into voting blocks because it's easier to several control groups of people than millions of individuals. So they label us: the female vote, the black vote, the Christian vote, the LGBTQ vote, the youth vote, etc.. They slot us into "categories" then figure out the predominant opinions and fears of that group and play them up. Anyone in the "group" who disagrees faces pressure from their political leaders and other people in the group. It's peer pressure in the extreme, and it becomes easier to follow the "group think". We teach our children not to give in to peer pressure at school, but then we become adults who do exactly that. We are afraid to stand apart from the group, to voice our own opinion. But our strength is in our individuality. This country was founded on differences. It was founded on the belief that we are ALL equal. That means your opinion matters, even--no, especially--if it differs from your "group's".
Given all of this, how should we participate in politics? First, PAY ATTENTION to what's going on in state and federal politics. I know you're busy. I know you're bombarded with things vying for your attention. I know you might feel that your opinion, your vote doesn't matter, but fight those feelings. As we've seen in recent close elections, your vote does matter.
Second, THINK FOR YOURSELF. Don't allow politicians or other members of your "voting block" to tell you what to think. I know it's hard to voice your believes. I know it's easier to go with the crowd. But if we allow ourselves to be silenced because we are afraid to speak, we are giving up our power.
And once we lose our power, it becomes almost impossible to get it back.
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