The Awkward Dance (part 2)

I came across a video from Dr. David Jeremiah, (http://vimeo.com/52163082), a prominent pastor in the evangelical world who spent a Sunday morning encouraging his congregation to get out and vote for the November 6 election. His main arguments guided his congregation beyond the action of voting, but into the ideology on which to base one’s vote. His arguments funneled parishioners into only one option. Dr. Jeremiah does not typically preach politics but did so for this election because he sees the urgent nature of the state of the American republic.

He outlines what a leader must possess to lead the country down a good path. They include:

1. Leader must have a reverence for God. Dr. Jeremiah states that voters should cast a ballot for the president of America and not the pastor of America. That’s a fair point, but then he outlines verses in the Old Testament about what a leader for Israel is to look like. “The person must be just, ruling in the fear of God.” He then compares and contrasts Obama and Romney by stating that Obama claims to be a Christian but has not shown in it during his term as the president. He asserts that Romney, who is a Mormon and not a Christian, has a fear of God within him.

Jeremiah’s litmus test for knowing the heart of a man is through his actions.  What is the fruit of a person’s life? Jeremiah lists several examples that show Obama distances himself from God. While making a speech at Georgetown University Obama ordered that a monogram stating Jesus’ name be covered up. Also, Obama did not attend prayer breakfast, but did hold dinners for Iftar (A celebration during the Islamic calendar). Another example cited indicates that Obama omitted the word “creator” from the declaration of independence on seven occasions over the past four years. The final example comes from the party that Obama represents. At the democratic convention they voted to remove God from their political platform.

2. Leader should respect the unborn. This issue is regarding abortion and the number of unborn children who are terminated each year in the US. Dr. Jeremiah states that this is the central issue of this election.

3. Leader is to reinforce family values. He goes on to say that Obama and Romney both appear to love their families (of course they appear to, they are politicians!). This premise in his argument has to do with homosexuality and what a traditional marriage entails. He stated that Romney supports marriage as a heterosexual union, while Obama has publicly stated his support for both types of marriage.  

4. Leader is to be faithful to the state of Israel. The crowd cheered when Dr. Jeremiah brought up this point. He quoted the verse that is often quoted in evangelical circles: “I will bless those who bless you.” Obama has supported a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders and does not endorse Israel’s current boundary lines. Jeremiah is emphatic: “Israel has been our friend in the region, so why would we want to throw them under the bus?”  He also claims that most Israelis would support Romney as President.

 A few thoughts on Jeremiah’s message to his congregation:

A) The USA is a secular country and it is not a theocracy. It would be nice to have a person who has a reverence for God, but is that 100% necessary to effectively lead the country? If we look at the last evangelical leader, President George Bush Jr., he lied to the country and led them down a path of two wars that have costs millions of lives (afghan, Iraqi, US/coalition forces) and trillions of dollars. The US is now overlooking some fiscal cliff, which has been exacerbated by the bailouts led by Obama.

The majority of the evangelical Christian block puts two issues at the top of their political decision making process: abortion and homosexuality. From my vantage point there are so many more issues. They include working to help the poor find stable jobs, punishing the wall street criminals who have robbed the American people, and treating other countries with dignity and respect for their sovereignty. It would seem that Romney is not going to deliver on some of these other important elements of what makes a society that is governed with strong moral values. That said, Obama hasn’t done that great of a job either and many people are disappointed that the hope they were encouraged to have did not lead to the change we can believe in. Obama helped to create unrealistic expectations.

B) Why are family values only seen as marriage between a man and wife? What about some of the issues driving the huge rates of divorce? When a nation has 50-60% divorce rate that indicates a significant problem in the fabric of that society. Can we address some of these core issues that are causing marriages to split up? Perhaps we need to look in the mirror as voters and think about the consumerist tendencies we have. How can we jump off the treadmill so we can live for what is important. Can the government put laws in place that curb the power of corporations and advertisers?

C) What does it mean to support Israel? Do we need to condone Benjamin Netanyahu’s belligerent attitude towards any attempts at peace by encouraging the building of settlements in the disputed territories? If we consider Israel God’s chosen people should we not hold them to a high moral standard? It appears to me that there is a great support for Israel’s policies irrespective of their consequences for Palestinians. The situation in Israel and the Middle East is far too complicated to throw blind faith behind the government of Israel and give them a carte blanche for all of their actions.

D) Jesus was never political. His push was to love people and to minister to their brokenness within society. He knew that the political machine can never satisfy our needs and that morality cannot be dictated from above. He knew that power is so easily corruptible and that it leads to exclusion and persecution. The Kingdom that he spoke of was about inclusion. To change a society it must always come from the bottom up.  

Let us keep wrestling with these thoughts,

Marcel