Do you often use “politics” and “peace” in the same sentence? Do they seem like a contradiction in terms? Do you feel at peace as we enter the home stretch of a presidential election cycle? Or, do conversations about politics create turmoil within you?
As I said last week, our school theme for this year is “Seeking Shalom,” it would be really difficult, perhaps even disingenuous, for us to talk about shalom and ignore the “third rail” of politics. After all, very few things in our culture are more polarizing than the political battles of the day.
If you’re my age (and how many of you actually ARE?) you remember an old 80’s movie with Mel Gibson and Tina Turner called “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome” (it’s the same character that Tom Hardy plays in the modern version; Mel was the original Max). The “Thunderdome” in the title was a post-apocalyptic cage match to the death where people resolved their grievances, much like the Roman Colosseum. Thunderdome runs through my mind now when I think of modern presidential politics: kind of an ugly, to-the-death, no-holds-barred ultimate-fighting-with-chainsaws-type arrangement, where there are no real winners, least of all, it seems, the American people.
I don’t often write about politics, and there’s a good reason for that. First, we are in the business of helping kids think and feel Christianly about the world around them, meaning to think and feel like Christ. Notice that I didn’t say, “Think and feel ‘biblically.’” I’m becoming increasingly uncomfortable with that term, not because I don’t believe our kids shouldn’t know God’s word deeply and well—they absolutely should. But what constitutes “biblical” is increasingly in the eye of the beholder, subject to interpretation, and often includes things, like, as I’ll talk about in a minute, partisanship, that aren’t biblical in the truest sense. Our focus is “teaching Jesus,” meaning teaching kids to think and feel like Jesus (which, of course, means developing a knowledge and appreciation for God’s Word).
Second, we’re in the disciple-making business, which means, at Grace, we are in the business of leading children (and, sometimes, adults) into a lifelong relationship with Jesus Christ, and teaching them all he has commanded, helping them practice the Way that he gave us to live. And, as I heard pastor Andy Stanley say on a great podcast last week because we are in the business of “teaching Jesus” and making disciples, our job is to reach out to and try to invite and embrace the largest number of people we can into the body of Christ (like your church should be doing). This means that if we begin coming out too hard on one side of the partisan spectrum or another, we will immediately alienate half of the people we are trying to reach. Jesus didn’t give us the option to fulfill half of the Great Commission. It’s not a fifty-fifty thing.
And, while we may say, “Yeah, but those people are wrong, or messed up in their thinking,” I’m pretty sure Jesus would have said that about the tax collectors, prostitutes, adulterers, Pharisees, and all the other sinners, too. But, that didn’t stop him from embracing them and making them into disciples. If everybody had to clear up their politics and get straight on all the issues before they became Jesus’ disciples, then Simon the Zealot and Matthew the Tax Collector, who in that day were complete partisan opposites, would have been up a creek without a paddle, right? That’s not how this discipleship, body of Christ thing works.
I think that, as Christians, meaning those who think Christianly (like Jesus), although not necessarily “biblically” (a confusing term) about life, it’s important to be involved politically. Being a follower of Jesus requires a commitment to justice AND truth, and justice often requires seeking political solutions. I’m involved in several justice issues, like the sanctity of life, fighting human trafficking, seeking to alleviate poverty, and working to increase access to Christian education, which all require me to engage politically. These are all issues where, as Paul says, I believe I have the mind of God.
What I don’t agree is Christ-like (although some have argued is “biblical”) is partisanship, meaning party politics as they’ve become known in early 20th-century America. I am not saying that being a member of a political party is not thinking Christianly, but “partisanship” in the sense of taking the position that my party and all its positions and candidates are right, your party is wrong, and I am committed to the character destruction of you and your party because you all are dangerous and evil. In other words, turning party politics into an existential battle, a type of Armageddon.
This divisiveness doesn’t only show itself in partisanship politics, either. It’s any tribe, club, affinity group, or position that sees the other (whoever the other is) as dangerous, and evil, and needing to be destroyed or otherwise attacking their dignity as people. This line of thinking is completely out of touch with how Jesus thought and acted. He didn’t seem to care much about what people’s political leanings were, what tribe they came from, what ethnic group they belonged to, or where they stood on the issues. He loved them for who they were and spoke directly to their broken and desperate hearts.
Jesus realized that the kingdom he came to bring—God’s rule and dominion on earth—was the real and final answer to every problem. No matter what this issue was, and even where politics might help, they were only temporary solutions at best. He was the permanent solution. He was life, where there was only death. No one was going to find salvation in any tribe, club, or political party, no matter how much their candidates tried to convince them otherwise. So, Jesus didn’t spend much time on these things, transcending them and going straight to the heart.
I have some close friends who are politicians, and the ones I’m close to are godly people who love the Lord and do good work in Jesus’ name. But, they would be the first to tell you they are working for earthly solutions for the common good. They are not healing people’s greatest need, not providing eternal solutions.
So, how do we become bringers of shalom in a fractious culture like the one we live in, in a contentious election year, and in a divisive time in our history that will no doubt continue even after election season ends? First, we shouldn’t be afraid of opinions. It’s good to have opinions. Opinions are a sign of good thinking. As Christians, our opinions and perspectives should be underlined and driven by God’s word, not “biblical” in the sense of what some guy or gal who studied the Bible told me to believe (although good teaching can be helpful), but led by my own prayerful study of God’s word.
Bringing shalom means our opinions should be coupled with humility, and with the willingness to be wrong. At Grace, we WANT to be wrong (another good point Stanley made the other day). The whole learning process is about finding places where I’m wrong in my thinking, discovering the right answers, and correcting my thinking to line up with truth and reality. That doesn’t end when we graduate high school. It’s a lifelong process. We have to be willing to listen and learn.
Bringers of shalom should be generous, gracious, and loving with people when they know they are wrong. Jesus was perfect. He was God, so he was omniscient; he knew everything. He was Truth. This means that everyone he knew was really, really wrong about a lot of things. If anyone could have said, “You’re all a bunch of morons,” it would have been Jesus. But he was amazingly loving, amazingly patient, and kind and generous. Loving like Jesus loves means being the same. Certainly, it means engaging, having good conversations, and working with others to correct wrong thinking, but always with love and grace.
In the end, shalom means love always wins. We can, and should, disagree about things, but love is transcendent. The author Pete Grieg made the point in a book I read recently that, in the book of Jude, the archangel Michael is battling with Satan over Moses’ body. In so doing, Michael says, “The Lord rebuke you,” refusing to do so himself, as the text says, “not willing to issue a blasphemous judgment.“ (Jude 1:9). If the archangel Michael, in doing battle with Satan, can do so with an amazing, paradoxical spirit of regard, recognizing that even though he is evil personified, the father of lies, as God’s creation, he is worthy of some degree of dignity, what does that teach us about that person with whom we disagree on social media?
As God’s children, this political season affords us a great opportunity to seek and bring shalom in an age and context that desperately needs it.
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