Tag Archives: politics

live animal

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I’ve previously mentioned our self-induced engineered lack of community in this world, and I want to tell you about Chad.  I don’t even know his last name, other than he is a one-man band called, “Live Animal.”  Chad and I shared a flight from Indianapolis to Denver.  He is the kind of vagabond that rejects the societal engineering that forces individualism.  He is a communal guy who finds hope in creative community.  He and I shared a two-hour conversation about politics, Dylan, Jesus, Nietzsche and community.  We hardly landed on anything except for individualism is putting a stranglehold on our society.

Individualism isn’t all evil, it’s good to have an individual personality so one can stand on their own two feet.  It is extreme individualism that is killing our culture and harming public morality.  Extreme individualism is inherently selfish, community is inherently selfless.  Individualism leads to excess while community leads to generosity.

These might sound like bold claims but just think about the very simple task of going to the grocery store versus growing your own food.  At the grocery store you can buy one apple and meet your need, but if you lived in a village that grew their own food and you grew an apple tree, you can meet the need of many people in your community.

Here’s another example, and warning, this is going to sound liberal.  Why do you pay taxes?  Probably because you are compelled to by the IRS, but what is the thought behind taxes?  We all contribute to a government that will be for the common good of its citizens. (I know this is idealistic and there is a larger question about whether or not the government is faithfully stewarding the peoples’ resources, but humor me a little, will ya?) So the question I have is would you pay $50 more a year in taxes for our schools to improve?  For many of us that is an easy answer, we would say “absolutely no new taxes.”  I understand this mentality; really I do because I struggle with this.  So now that we have all voted “no” what happens to your local school?  Teachers get pink slipped, class sizes increase, the quality of education begins to diminish, the people with the means pull their kids out and send them to private school, thus reducing school funding.  Then what happens to the culture of the town where this school is going down hill?  Maybe the dropout rate increases, maybe crime and drugs become more prevalent in your community, maybe you start seeing prostitution, maybe the value of your home drops.  There are a lot of maybes in this scenario, but let me ask one more question.  Would you pay $50.00 per year to maintain the value of your home over the long term?

I realize that our government is polarized and seemingly useless right now, but I think our answers to the questions above say something about what we value.  Do we value community or do we value individuality? Do we act in the common good of society, or the common good of the individual.

I am thankful for my conversation with Chad, it went everywhere.  We talked about schools and taxes and even though you might think my senario is far fetched, it is what is playing out in his hometown of Indianapolis.  When we reframe our perspective from, “what is the best for me?” to “what is the best for my community?” then we take a jump from selfish to selfless from an individual perspective to a communal one.

It is interesting to note that Jesus has a solid plan for taking care of the poor.  It is called community.  It is called jubilee.  It is called generosity.  Some people call it love in action or incarnation living.  It is called the church, or the community of redemption…But what happens if that institution too has become individualized?

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tension

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Do you have any friends with strong political beliefs?  Maybe their beliefs are so strong that you won’t bring up certain topics around them for the fear that they will go off for hours on how they feel about the topic.  Maybe you’re in a conversation about your favorite band and they work in the latest political issue. You know what I’m talking about.  You might even be, “that guy.”

Lately I have been thinking through the relationship between the church, the people and the government.  Churches have always taken stands in the context of history, and in the context of history the church and state were more closely tied.  However, the secular state is somewhat new.  Over the time of recorded history there has almost always been some sort of religious system attached to the governance of the people.   The laws and ordinances usually reflected the values of the deity of the state. The secular state draws its values from tools such as the constitution or laws.

So in the secular state there is a tension that emerges when people have different value systems.  They want to push their value system on the state. Among the different flavors of Christianity some churches begin to look less like Christ and more like a particular political party.   When one church gains a reputation for looking like a political party, then guess who will never step foot in that church?, Probably members of the opposing party.  I remember in college, Campus Crusade for Christ sponsored a question wall, which each student was allowed to post questions.  One question read, “Does God hate Democrats?”  While entirely untrue, the perception was that the Christian God is a Republican.

Many Christian leaders who engage the political have some amazing beliefs and thoughts, they have great intentions. However great these intentions are, we need to ask the larger question about what are we doing to the community?  Are we ushering in a culture of polarization?  In which way are we introducing political discourse, are our conversations “seasoned with salt” and covered with grace?  Is it a “my way or the highway” conversation? Are we dividing instead of uniting?

Certainly there are issues, which are near to God’s heart.  Certainly we have to protect the poor, the widows and orphans, we need to defend the cause of the fatherless.   We have to be political because after all we are by nature political animals.  But how will we use it?  What will the tone of the discourse be?  Will we be known for our love, or something else entirely?

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city love

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Aristotle once wrote, “Man is by nature a political animal.”  People love this quote, especially the press around election season.  Although, this phrase doesn’t have much to do with politics as we know it.  The Greek word for “political” is, “polis,” polis means city.  The phrase actually means that man is a polis inhabiting creature.  The idea is that man is rational because he makes the decision to live in community.  It would be irrational to live in isolation, away from people who can walk through life with you.

I was flying into Chicago on my way home today and I couldn’t take my eyes off the city.  I have never been there before and I was disappointed that my layover was only ten minutes.  Even though I was anxious to see my wife and daughters, I wanted to experience the beauty of that polis. As I was flying in I was reminded of Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem, he stopped and wept for the city. He said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather you as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” As I was thinking about it the only other time that the gospels record Jesus weeping was at the death of his friend Lazarus.  In the entire bible God mourns at the death of the “wicked” and it even says that he would rather they be saved. (Ezekiel 33:10-11)  I think it is pretty huge to recognize that God mourns.  In this case he mourns his own rejection and the spiritual death of the rational polis people.

So flying over Chicago I though of that moment when Jesus looked over his people with the desire to spread his wings and gather all of the people to himself.   It is rational that a creator would want to live in community with his people. It is rational for a God who lives in community with himself (trinity) to want people to live in community with each other.  In our cities we have many communities, some of business, sports, education and faith.

Sometimes the community of faith is really good about sticking together and that is really good, but sometimes that is all they do!  What if the community of faith experienced that same sorrow for the city?  What if the community of faith experienced the sorrow of Jesus and went on his mission in their own city, the mission of reconciling everything to Jesus.

What if that was your story?  What would it look like for you to have such a burden for people that you gave up everything to see relationships be redeemed?  What would it look like for you to walk co-workers through steps to forgiving others and themselves?  Really what I am asking is what does it look like for you to love your city?  What are you tangibly doing to love the place where you live in community with others?

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