Rachel Held Evans<\/a> will be seen, in the future, as a pivotal person God used to bring people out of fundamentalism-evangelicalism, into something much more love and mercy driven.\u00a0 But also, justice driven.\u00a0 She has joined that great cloud of witnesses, but she will be greatly missed.<\/em><\/p>\nAs Christians, we don\u2019t believe politicians, the state, kings, or empires will save us or the world.\u00a0 And yet, we know there is a place for organized community government.\u00a0 We like clean water, air, safe food, decent roads, and not to be robbed whether in our homes or on the streets.\u00a0 We want fire-fighters and police nearby.\u00a0 We want communities that are flourishing and healthy.\u00a0 We want to live in peace.<\/p>\n
In a system like ours, even recognizing how diluted it can be, and overwhelmed by greater forces (money), we do have a voice in these matters.\u00a0 While we know the political cannot save us, it can provide roads without potholes.\u00a0 Thus, Christians have a view of government that keeps it in its place.\u00a0 Recognizing its practical use as a means to an end, government, the political, is neither idol, nor worthless.\u00a0 It is neither friend nor foe, it is more like a rake or shovel.<\/p>\n
Of course, until it isn\u2019t.\u00a0 It can become an idol (nationalism) and it can become a foe.\u00a0 We should never want it as friend, because such will normally mean we have lost our prophetic voice (our current problem).\u00a0 And if it becomes a foe, we are happy to take our place with the martyrs who have gone before us.<\/p>\n
There is one area though where we must speak out, and that is when our government becomes, not our foe, but the foe of the, \u201cleast of these.\u201d\u00a0 When it becomes a bully, when it stirs up violence against the \u201cother,\u201d when it cares no longer for the poor, the orphan, the widow, the hungry, the thirsty, the prisoner, the stranger, or the marginalized, then we have no right to stick our heads in the sand, check out, and yawningly drawl, \u201cI\u2019m tired of politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
From our place of privilege, we whine, \u201cI\u2019m tired of all these political memes in my social media feed; I want to see kittens playing with yarn, and butterflies landing on pretty flowers.\u201d\u00a0 Yes, we all do.\u00a0 But you know who doesn\u2019t have that luxury?\u00a0 All the people being run over by this current government.\u00a0 All the people struggling.\u00a0 All the people who live very different lives than most of us.<\/p>\n
We are also incorrect to think it purely partisan.\u00a0 Yes, I get it.\u00a0 The modern, Enlightenment, Western, Liberal project, with its hyper-capitalist bent, is probably on its last legs.\u00a0 It may have run its course.\u00a0 But that shouldn\u2019t prevent us from speaking up for those still suffering under its wheels.\u00a0 It\u2019s lazy and stereotypical to whine, \u201cOh, they\u2019re all evil, the Democrats and the Republicans are all the same, all corrupt, all bought and paid for.\u201d\u00a0 That may be true.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter right now.\u00a0 The house is on fire.\u00a0 We can talk about what started the fire later.\u00a0 All one is doing with such tired and cliched responses is giving themselves a way out.\u00a0 It\u2019s a back door, an exit, for the people who don\u2019t really give a damn.<\/p>\n
And I would be writing the same whether a Democrat, Republican, independent, or third-party person, were president.\u00a0 If they were anything like the current president, a person morally and intellectually challenged, unfit for office, unfit as a leader, void of any integrity or principles, I would write the same thing, regardless if I agreed with them on anything as far as policy or political philosophy.\u00a0 Basic decency has to be the test, the bar.<\/p>\n
Speaking up for the least of these, in the face of this current administration, has nothing to do with partisan politics.\u00a0 It is not a liberal or conservative thing.\u00a0 It is not a Democrat or Republican thing.\u00a0 It is not a progressive or leftist thing.\u00a0 It is the decent thing.\u00a0 It is a Christian thing.\u00a0 A duty, a responsibility, something linked to our salvation and identity (Matt 25:31).\u00a0 Anyone compelled by love to do what\u2019s noted in those verses, should also be compelled to speak up for the same.\u00a0 When people say they are tired of politics, or that it means those speaking up think the political will save us, that our religion is politics, they show they understand neither the political nor religion.<\/p>\n
And I am not saying we all need to speak out in the same way.\u00a0 Perhaps social media is not the way one feels it should be done.\u00a0 Fine.\u00a0 But, then, how are we speaking out?\u00a0 Through prayer?\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 However, prayer without action is too often only a salve for a guilty conscience.\u00a0 We must pray, but we must do more than that.\u00a0 What are we doing?<\/p>\n
I will leave it to the reader to ponder how they might speak up for the least of these in the face of an administration that could care less about them.\u00a0 What we can\u2019t do though is blithely, sipping our lattes, ramble on about how much we hate the current political scene and how we would rather talk about our dogs, cats, or children, the latest movie, music, vacation spot, cocktail or wine.\u00a0 Let\u2019s be clear.\u00a0 What one is saying in those moments is: \u201cI don\u2019t like all this stuff put in front of me because now I have to choose whether or not I\u2019m going to respond like a decent person and faithful Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n
History is littered with moments where the powerful crushed the vulnerable, and, it would appear, like background cosmic radiation, is something always with us.\u00a0 And in such a world, there are always opportunities for us to speak up for the less powerful.\u00a0 Still, there are moments that cry out with an even greater sense of urgency, of crisis, of a pivotal turning point in time, where the outcome could be grave, and the gravity of the decisions made, felt negatively, for generations.\u00a0 In my opinion, we are in one of those moments<\/em>.\u00a0 We could play the, \u201cbut what about\u2026,\u201d game all day long, and it would not change the fact what we are currently seeing play out as a result of this administration\u2019s words and actions is not normal and something not seen in most of our lifetimes.<\/p>\nWe must speak up for the vulnerable and that means speaking against<\/em> this administration.\u00a0 And, when we do so, it has nothing to do, or shouldn\u2019t, with being political or religious.\u00a0 It has everything to do with being a decent human being.\u00a0 We are not donning a role, putting on a hat, acting, or stepping into another realm, being partisan, or favoring any modern political ideology over another.\u00a0 We are not speaking out, or acting out, of a \u201creligious\u201d commitment to the political as salvific or saying any solution must be a modern political one.<\/p>\nWhat we are doing is lifting the vulnerable, the \u201cleast\u201d of these up before a watching world and letting the principalities and powers know their efforts to grind the less powerful (which, by-the-way, is not white, Western, evangelicals) to dust will not go unchallenged or unnoticed.\u00a0 Call doing that whatever you will\u2014I don\u2019t care.\u00a0 I call it being a decent human being and a faithful Christian.\u00a0 Let\u2019s hope when we hear people tell us they are \u201ctired of politics,\u201d they don\u2019t really mean they are just tired of being decent people and faithful Christians.<\/p>\n
I have a Patreon<\/a> Page\u2014please consider supporting my writing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I want to take a quick moment, to extend my deepest sympathies and condolences to Dan Evans and their children.\u00a0 I believe Rachel Held Evans will be seen, in the future, as a pivotal person God used to bring people out of fundamentalism-evangelicalism, into something much more love and mercy driven.\u00a0 But also, justice driven.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3524,"featured_media":1247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[716,722,140,706,719,281],"class_list":["post-1241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-character","tag-decency","tag-ethics","tag-government","tag-integrity","tag-morality"],"yoast_head":"\n
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