I\u2019ve had a startling revelation\u2013I\u2019m conservative.<\/p>\n
At least, the elements of my life reflect conservative values. I am married to a partner of opposite sex. He is my first spouse, and the father of both our children. We have 2.5 kids\u2013meaning, two kids and a really sweet dog. We have very little debt. Heck, we don\u2019t even have a car payment. We don\u2019t have cable. One parent stays home with the children full-time. We do not let our kids watch inapproprate television, nor do we expose them to music containing bad language. In fact, the most unChristian content aired at our house comes in the vise of political campaign comercials. But that is a post for another day.<\/p>\n
Did i mention that we are a Christian household? And we go to church every.dang.sunday.oftheworld. We spend Sunday afternoons lounging on the couch watching football. We play frisbee and fly kites. We smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving (and that is ALL we smoke), we string lights on a Christmas tree, and we skype with the grandparents. I see some benefits of smaller government. I love the smell of laundry and frequently use a crock pot. For entertainment,\u00a0I enjoy hiking, reading, eating out, road trips, and local parks. I have family values in the most literal sense\u2013i value families.<\/p>\n
I mean\u2013if that\u2019s not fitting in the box, then boy, i don\u2019t know what is. But for all that, here\u2019s the point at which, according to the\u00a0some of the\u00a0rhetoric, i stop being conservative: I don\u2019t need my neighbors to fit in the same box. I don\u2019t need my political leaders to fit in the same box. I don\u2019t need for my kids\u2019 schoolteachers to fit in that same box, and i certainly don\u2019t need for the people i worship and serve with to look\u00a0like me. I don\u2019t think my gay and lesbian friends are any less human or holy than me; i don\u2019t think my congressmen or senators need to be Christian\u00a0like me; i\u2019m not\u00a0fearful of my neighbors who are Muslim or atheist, and i don\u2019t judge people who let their kids watch Honey-boo-boo and Jersey Shore (ok, i don\u2019t judge them much). <\/em><\/p>\n Follow me a minute\u2013if conservatism means that you want less regulation in your life\u2013why does it not also<\/em> mean wanting less regulation in the lives of your neighbors? I don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not expecting an answer, by the way.\u00a0It\u2019s just worth noting that who we think we are, and what we say we want, does not always neatly align with a party, a denomination, a \u2018value\u2019 system, or a certain news network.<\/p>\n A parable: Our church office runs on a program called \u2018powerchurch.\u2019 If you are part of a faith community, some version of this software probably contains your life stats\u2013your name and address, your birthday, your anniversary, the date you joined the church, the names of your children, whether you like to receive the newsletter by snail or email, your pledge amount, your leadership roles in the church\u2026all that good stuff is contained in a data base somewhere. It makes the world go round.<\/p>\n Thing is\u2026our version of Powerchurch does not know how to process a non-traditional family. It wants a head of household, and it wants there to be 2.5 children. Try entering a single parent; a same-sex couple; two people who live together but are not married; two people who are married but do not share the same last name; grandparents raising grandchildren, or children who come to church with grandparents but not parents; you name it\u2013if its outside the box, our system can\u2019t process it. It might as well say \u2018does not compute\u2019 for the mess it makes of our directory.<\/p>\n System upgrade, you say? Yes, we need one. In more ways than one.<\/p>\n As a metaphor for the traditional church, it is just too good. Churches everywhere fall into malfunction for just this reason\u2013they don\u2019t know how to process the stuff that doesn\u2019t fit in the box. Certain people are made to feel distinctly unwelcome and unfit for service, so the system can keep functioning as it always has, and well\u2026here we all are.<\/p>\n What is it about our religious history, or our political framework, that makes us think this box is the most important thing to our well-being? I know people\u2013and so do you\u2013who fit in the box in every way. And yet, they are without hope, without faith, without joy, in every way. I also know people who live, distinctly and intentionally, out<\/em>side of the box, and they are happy, healthy, fully-functioning, life-giving members of society.<\/p>\n Call me a liberal, or call me a conservative.\u00a0 I cannot, for the life of me, understand the energy, the time, and the resources, that have gone into making the \u2018traditional family\u2019 model the canon, the gospel, and the law of the land.\u00a0Such waste, and such fear, do not align with any\u00a0healthy religious life, or any productive form of government. It is poor stewardship, and it\u00a0is bad faith.<\/p>\n We are\u00a0too late\u2013far, far too late\u2013to change the conversation for this election cycle. But my hope\u2013in fact, my fervent prayer\u2013is that, 4 years from now, we will be talking about other stuff. We will be talking about the economy; and the education of our many (differently-gifted, differently-colored, differently-resourced) children; we will be talking about\u00a0our stewardship\u00a0of creation; we will be talking about healthcare costs; we will be talking about opportunity and sustainable growth and care of the poor; WITHOUT having an all-system shut-down over who is the head of the household, and who fits into the box.<\/p>\n I\u00a0value life\u2013I\u00a0value before it is born, and\u00a0as it grows and moves all through the world; I value families\u2013my own, and those that look nothing like mine; I value freedom of religion\u2013even for those whose religion is not mine. Whatever that makes me in the current climate, I say that I am a child of\u00a0God. I say that you are too. Powerchurch would have a hard time fitting all this into\u00a0one box; i have a hard time fitting it all on the ballot; and many churches would certainly not be able to fit it into the pulpit; but the Kingdom of God has room for all my stuff, and all yours, too, and there is still space at the table. So why are we so afraid?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve had a startling revelation\u2013I\u2019m conservative. At least, the elements of my life reflect conservative values. I am married to a partner of opposite sex. He is my first spouse, and the father of both our children. We have 2.5 kids\u2013meaning, two kids and a really sweet dog. We have very little debt. 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