Perspective: The Thorn in the State's Side

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

The Thorn in the State's Side

The LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims to all the exiles I have carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and settle down; cultivate gardens and eat what they produce. Get married and have children; then help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Increase in number there so that you don’t dwindle away. Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because your future depends on its welfare.

Jeremiah 29:4-7 (CEB)

The world is heading for mutiny

When all we want is unity

We may rise and fall, but in the end

We meet our fate together

From "One" by Creed

I hate politics. I mean, I really, really hate politics. The two sides of my family are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, so I have heard a lot of political arguments in my lifetime. Ideologically, I consider myself to be somewhere in the middle between the Left and the Right, but growing up hearing family members say nothing but bad things about the opposite side has made me distrustful of politicians in general. Most of the time I just find myself cynical or apathetic.

Despite my hatred of politics, I believe that God cares about politics, though not necessarily in the way that we humans often care about politics.

When I was a junior in college, I went on my very first mission trip. That year, the Wesley Fellowship of Furman University went to Mississippi to help with home repair in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At breakfast one morning, I listened as the campus minister got into a political argument with the man who was coordinating the volunteers. One said that she was liberal because of her faith, and the other said that he was conservative because of his faith.

Christians often disagree about which political party the Church should support. Some believe that the Church should support the political Right, citing the Right's concern for personal freedom and traditional values. Others believe that the political Left better exemplifies the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, particularly in the Left's concern for the poor and the marginalized. Sometimes I wonder if perhaps we use our religious beliefs to justify our own personal political preferences instead of allowing our faith to shape our political actions.

After the death of King Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel split into two separate kingdoms. Both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah had a series of corrupt monarchs, and both kingdoms were eventually conquered by foreign powers. At this time, many of the Israelites found themselves living as exiles in Babylon.¹ The prophet Jeremiah exhorted the exiles to carry on with their lives even though they were far from home in a land where most people did not share their beliefs. Amid these exhortations, he called them to work with their neighbors for the common good, for their own welfare depended on the welfare of the city in which they were in exile.

After any presidential election, some people view the president as the savior who is going to solve all of the nation's problems, while others see the president as the antichrist who is going to usher in the apocalypse. Some feel as though they are in the promised land while others feel as though they are in exile. The rest of us just float on through to the next election and watch the political pendulum swing back in the opposite direction. Jeremiah's words remind us that, no matter what politicians or political party happens to be in power, we all need to work together for the good of the nation because our own welfare depends on it. We are all in this together, whether we are conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican, part of the Tea Party or part of Occupy Wall Street, Christian or non-Christian.

We are all called to work together for the good of our nation and for the good of the world, but we must be very careful that we do not get caught up in partisanism. In a recent interview, Jim Wallis of Sojourners said that people of faith should never be satisfied with the government regardless of who is in power. He said that the Church should be the ever present thorn in the state's side, holding elected officials accountable and challenging them to do what is right for the common good.²

The Book of Daniel tells the story of four men in exile who found themselves caught up in the political affairs of the Babylonian and Persian empires. The prophet Daniel and his three friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were all hand-picked to serve in the palace of the king of Babylon.³ Time and again, Daniel served as an adviser to the King. More than once, he interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar's troubling dreams,⁴ and he translated the mysterious writing that appeared on King Belshazzar's wall.⁵

Daniel and his friends fought for what was right, particularly in matters of religious freedom. They negotiated with the palace officials to secure the right to follow Jewish dietary rules.⁶ They even used civil disobedience when it was necessary. When King Darius declared illegal all prayers not directed to himself, Daniel continued to pray to God, and he was thrown into a den of lions.⁷ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar's golden statue as was required by Babylonian law, and they found themselves in a fiery furnace.⁸ They defied the government and faced the consequences courageously, even willing to give their lives, and God was with them the whole time.

God cares about politics, so we should care about politics as well. Still, we must not allow ourselves to be divided by party lines. We should participate in the political system through our votes and through our activism, holding our elected leaders accountable and challenging them to do what is right. Even if we do nothing else, we must pray for our elected officials, for, as the prophet Jeremiah reminds us, our own good depends on the good of the nation.


Notes:
1 - You can read more about this in the books of Kings and Chronicles.
2 - Christian Piatt and Jordan Green with Jim Wallis. "Jim Wallis Post-Election CultureCast Special." Homebrewed Christianity CultureCast, 11/08/12. This is one of the few political discussions that has left me feeling good afterward.
3 - Daniel 1:3-7
4 - Daniel 2, 4
5 - Daniel 5
6 - Daniel 1:8-17
7 - Daniel 6
8 - Daniel 3

Daniel's Answer to the King was painted by Briton Rivière in 1890.