God and Our Political Platforms

Rachel Held Evans posted a blog today on the stir created when Democrats booed the passing of “an amendment to the party platform reinstating language that identified Jerusalem as the rightful capital of Israel and that referred to people’s “God-given potential” in its preamble.” Of course this fed into the belief that if you’re a democrat, you must hate God. Hmmmmm. How far have we come when the validity of your faith is so closely tied to your political affiliation? Rachel hit the nail on the head when she said:

There seems to be a misconception among many American Christians that fighting the good fight of faith means keeping God’s name on our money, in our speeches, in our pledge, and on our bumper stickers. But this is the danger of civic religion: it convinces us that God’s name is the same as God’s presence; it convinces us that we’ve “won” when we hear the right words, regardless of whether we’ve seen the  right fruit. 

But God’s name is not enough, and America has a troubled history of slavery, ethnic cleansing, and the destruction of creation to show that invoking God’s name is not the same as earning God’s favor.  As Susan B. Anthony so wisely put it, “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”

Ironically, we render God’s name more meaningless each time we use it carelessly to advance our own agendas.

We hope you’ll read the entire article. And remember: Jesus is not affiliated with any political party. He transcends all of our categories and agendas. Let’s keep the Kingdom holy.

Image by takomabibelot. Used in accordance with Creative Commons. Sourced via Flickr.