{"id":5604,"date":"2017-09-14T14:36:51","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T20:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=5604"},"modified":"2017-09-17T13:25:32","modified_gmt":"2017-09-17T19:25:32","slug":"stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html","title":{"rendered":"Stop Blaming the Politicians – We Are the Reason Washington is Such a Mess"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"dcpic.001\"<\/a>There\u2019s a theory that contends\u00a0politicians don\u2019t lead the culture. Politicians reflect the culture. Washington isn\u2019t\u00a0leading so much as following what they see in us.<\/p>\n

I keep having these conversations with people in which they trash politicians. At the mere mention of Trump or Pelosi or Washington they immediately wash their hands of all personal responsibility and run down the politicians. It\u2019s Schumer, McConnell, Pelosi, and Ryan\u2013they are the problem. What a bunch of snakes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to face reality: Our politicians\u00a0are not the problem. They are the symptom.\u00a0We are the cause.<\/p>\n

We elected these people<\/h3>\n

Every time someone starts ripping on\u00a0politicians I want to shout: We\u00a0elected them. We\u00a0voted for them. We\u00a0put them in office and continue to reward their bad behavior.<\/em> Our politicians are a reflection of us. When we point out their lack of integrity and character we are exposing ourselves to the same critique.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u00a0has made it a policy to lie to the American public. The New York Times<\/em> has been keeping a running list<\/a>. In August The Washington Post<\/em> reported that the list of documented lies Trump\u2019s told had already topped one thousand<\/a> in number. \u00a0It\u2019s clich\u00e9 to say\u00a0the president lies with impunity. You know what impunity<\/em> means? It means \u201cexemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why does Donald Trump lie all the time? Because his supporters never make him pay for it. His brag that he could shoot someone in the head in the middle of 5th Avenue and his supporters would never leave him is spot on.<\/p>\n

Why is it like this?<\/h3>\n

We are in this situation\u00a0because\u00a0on the whole Americans don\u2019t want a functional government. They just want their side to win. Or at least they want their side to win more than they want a functional government.<\/p>\n

I promise I don\u2019t mean this to be cynical, but I think it\u2019s true. We have divided into warring political factions. We listen only to news that confirms the beliefs we already hold\u00a0and the choices we\u2019ve already made. We are so sure that our side is right that we view our side with rose colored glasses, and the opposition with contempt and suspicion and outright hatred.<\/p>\n

We despise each other. Is it any wonder our politicians do the same? We excuse\u00a0the liars because they are our<\/em> liars, and we want our side to win.<\/p>\n

Washington is not the problem. We are the problem. We did this.<\/p>\n

This could be good news<\/h3>\n

If we did this, then surely we can undo it.<\/p>\n

The problem is that in order to undo it we are going to have to change. We are going to have to stop giving blind allegiance to political parties. We are going to have to let go of conservative or\u00a0liberal ideology in order to work together. By the way, this is the essence of the kingdom of God. This should be what Christians desire more than Republican dominance.<\/p>\n

More than anything else, especially as Christians, we are going to have to change our voting patterns. We need to stop electing\u00a0politicians who have a pure\u00a0ideology, and instead elect\u00a0politicians who show a willingness to compromise and work together with the other party. Evangelicals in particular\u00a0need to jettison our commitment to conservative ideology, especially where it runs counter to the gospel (and it often does).<\/p>\n

I live in Kansas. Our Republican Governor Sam Brownback\u00a0has basically bankrupted our state. He put us in a financial hole that will likely take two generations to climb out of. What did Kansan\u2019s do? Re-elected him. Why? Because he is ideologically conservative, and a Republican.<\/p>\n

The best thing that could happen in Kansas is for the state to throw Republicans out on their cans and elect a full slate of Democrats\u2013not because Democrats are more virtuous, but because any political\u00a0party deserves<\/em>\u00a0to be\u00a0thrown out when they run the state into the ground for the sake of ideological purity.<\/p>\n

There should be consequences for Brownback and the Republican party. They should lose big in the next elections. But you know what will probably happen instead? \u2026 Governor\u00a0Kris Kobach.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t unprecedented<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve seen\u00a0people\u00a0do this before. There\u2019s a long list of Republican national security experts who lined up before the election to say they would not be supporting their party\u2019s candidate. They signed a letter saying that Trump\u00a0\u201cwould be a dangerous President and would put at risk our country\u2019s national security and well being.\u201d They said, \u201cMr. Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be President.\u201d\u00a0They had the courage to tell the truth and vote for an opposition or 3rd party candidate. They\u2019ve still got their lunch money.<\/p>\n

Contrast that with evangelicals, who claim to care about moral issues. 81% of us voted for a man who has five children with three different women, owned casinos with strip clubs, bragged about grabbing women by the P\u2014- and seducing married women, who bullies people, defends white nationalists,\u00a0and who never attends church, not even for show. He shares few\u00a0of our values. But he ran as\u00a0a Republican and we treat that party as if it\u2019s\u00a0our true Lord and Savior. We continue to worship Republicanism with our tithes and offerings. Our lunch money is gone.<\/p>\n

I know my argument is one sided<\/h3>\n

Some of you are probably already steamed by this post because I\u2019m only talking about President Trump and the Republicans. There are good reasons for this.<\/p>\n

First, evangelicals are overwhelmingly committed to the Republican party. In other words, no one is concerned about evangelical Christians and their blind allegiance\u00a0to the Democratic party.<\/p>\n

Second, the Republicans hold all the power right now. There\u2019s a Republican President. The\u00a0Republicans hold majorities in the House and the Senate. The chief justice and majority of the Supreme Court are\u00a0Republicans. Republicans control most of the state legislatures, and they have 34 Republican governors, compared to the\u00a0Democrats\u2019 15. They hold the power.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not advocating for one party over another here. I\u2019m saying that if we want things to change we have to hold the powers to account, and right now the Republicans are the powers. I\u2019m not saying Democrats are better than Republicans. I\u2019m saying that\u00a0the leaders of the Republican party think they can do anything they want and get away with it because evangelical Christians are blindly committed to them.<\/p>\n

And you know what? So far, they\u2019ve been right.<\/p>\n

If we don\u2019t like the culture of Washington we need to look in the mirror. They are not the problem. We are. They take their cues from us. When we change, then Washington will change.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a theory that contends\u00a0politicians don\u2019t lead the culture. Politicians reflect the culture. Washington isn\u2019t\u00a0leading so much as following what they see in us. I keep having these conversations with people in which they trash politicians. At the mere mention of Trump or Pelosi or Washington they immediately wash their hands of all personal responsibility […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":5636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1680,1197,1525,484,1195,1682,1681,47,101,340],"class_list":["post-5604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chuck-schumer","tag-conservatives","tag-donald-trump","tag-evangelicals","tag-liberals","tag-mitch-mcconnell","tag-nancy-pelosi","tag-paul-ryan","tag-religion-and-politics","tag-sam-brownback"],"yoast_head":"\nStop Blaming the Politicians - We Are the Reason Washington is Such a Mess<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There's a theory that contends\u00a0politicians don't lead the culture. Politicians reflect the culture. Washington isn't\u00a0leading so much as following what\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stop Blaming the Politicians - We Are the Reason Washington is Such a Mess\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There's a theory that contends\u00a0politicians don't lead the culture. Politicians reflect the culture. Washington isn't\u00a0leading so much as following what\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Paperback Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-14T20:36:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-17T19:25:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/230\/2017\/09\/dcpic.001.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Tim_Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html\",\"name\":\"Stop Blaming the Politicians - We Are the Reason Washington is Such a Mess\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-14T20:36:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-17T19:25:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6\"},\"description\":\"There's a theory that contends\u00a0politicians don't lead the culture. Politicians reflect the culture. Washington isn't\u00a0leading so much as following what\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Stop Blaming the Politicians – We Are the Reason Washington is Such a Mess\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/\",\"name\":\"Paperback Theology\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6\",\"name\":\"Tim Suttle\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tim Suttle\"},\"description\":\"Find out more about Tim at TimSuttle.com Tim Suttle is the senior pastor of RedemptionChurchkc.com. He is the author of several books including his most recent - Shrink: Faithful Ministry in a Church Growth Culture (Zondervan 2014), Public Jesus (The House Studio, 2012), & An Evangelical Social Gospel? (Cascade, 2011). Tim's work has been featured at The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Sojourners, and other magazines and journals. Tim is also the founder and front-man of the popular Christian band Satellite Soul, with whom he toured for nearly a decade. The band's most recent album is \\\"Straight Back to Kansas.\\\" He helped to plant three thriving churches over the past 13 years and is the Senior Pastor of Redemption Church in Olathe, Kan. Tim's blog, Paperback Theology, is hosted at Patheos.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/@Tim_Suttle\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/author\/timsuttle\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Stop Blaming the Politicians - We Are the Reason Washington is Such a Mess","description":"There's a theory that contends\u00a0politicians don't lead the culture. Politicians reflect the culture. Washington isn't\u00a0leading so much as following what","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Stop Blaming the Politicians - We Are the Reason Washington is Such a Mess","og_description":"There's a theory that contends\u00a0politicians don't lead the culture. Politicians reflect the culture. Washington isn't\u00a0leading so much as following what","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html","og_site_name":"Paperback Theology","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438","article_published_time":"2017-09-14T20:36:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-09-17T19:25:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/230\/2017\/09\/dcpic.001.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tim Suttle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Tim_Suttle","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tim Suttle","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html","name":"Stop Blaming the Politicians - We Are the Reason Washington is Such a Mess","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-09-14T20:36:51+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-17T19:25:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6"},"description":"There's a theory that contends\u00a0politicians don't lead the culture. Politicians reflect the culture. Washington isn't\u00a0leading so much as following what","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2017\/09\/stop-blaming-politicians-reason-washington-mess.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Stop Blaming the Politicians – We Are the Reason Washington is Such a Mess"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/","name":"Paperback Theology","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6","name":"Tim Suttle","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tim Suttle"},"description":"Find out more about Tim at TimSuttle.com Tim Suttle is the senior pastor of RedemptionChurchkc.com. He is the author of several books including his most recent - Shrink: Faithful Ministry in a Church Growth Culture (Zondervan 2014), Public Jesus (The House Studio, 2012), & An Evangelical Social Gospel? (Cascade, 2011). Tim's work has been featured at The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Sojourners, and other magazines and journals. Tim is also the founder and front-man of the popular Christian band Satellite Soul, with whom he toured for nearly a decade. The band's most recent album is \"Straight Back to Kansas.\" He helped to plant three thriving churches over the past 13 years and is the Senior Pastor of Redemption Church in Olathe, Kan. Tim's blog, Paperback Theology, is hosted at Patheos.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438","https:\/\/twitter.com\/@Tim_Suttle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/author\/timsuttle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}