left or right?

I had breakfast the other day with a man who was a social activist in the 1960s. He marched in the civil rights movement. Now that he's come to faith in Christ, he's a little confused. He wants to align himself as a disciple of Jesus, but he's not so sure about aligning himself with the religious right.

Here are a few things I learned by listening to a Manhatten pastor, Tim Keller, and here's what I said to my friend. "If you present a biblical view of marriage to a group of Muslims, the Christian worldview regarding marraige will seem very, very liberal. If you present a biblical view of marriage to a group of feminists, the Christian worldview regarding marriage will seem very, very conservative.

"So, what does this mean? It means that Christianity doesn't come from the right or from the left. It comes from above. You can't put Jesus or the Bible into some kind of ideological box. On some issues, the Bible will seem that it comes from the left. On others, it will seem that it comes from the right. But never forget. It comes from above, from heaven, from the heart of God.

"The issue is this: Will we let God's word shape us? That's what a follower of Jesus does. Jesus upsets any ideology that has its roots in any of these world systems.

"So, am I a liberal, a conservative, a progressive, or a radical? Well, I'm for liberty for all - for liberty of conscience and for freedom of expression. So, in that sense, I'm a liberal. And I want to preserve some basic values - the sanctity of life and a traditional view of marriage, for example. So, in that sense, I'm a conservative. And I want spiritual, economic, and relational progress. So, in that sense, I'm a progressive."

I think that my friend kind of liked at least some of what I said. So, he added, "Did you know that "radical" is from a word that means "having roots"? I didn't know that. I said, "Well, I want to be a revolutionary who gets back to the roots and the origin of our existence. From Him and to Him and through Him are all things. To God alone be the glory. Jesus has called us to be radicals/revolutionaries for the kingdom. So, in that sense, I guess I'm a radical."

I just don't think that followers of Jesus should be so easy to put into a box.

It's frustrating to me that, for the most part, the Democrats and the Republicans are so very, very partisan. The candidates of both parties usually just follow the party platform. I guess they do it to get the money and, hopefully, get elected. And we believers are left with choices that cause us to end up voting for people who don't line up with at least some of what a biblically informed voter should hold dear.

Followers of Jesus should care about very, very many issues:
supporting free enterprise;
calling for human rights around the world;
valuing work and workers;

strengthening and preserving the family and the biblical view of marriage;

caring for creation;
protecting religious liberty;
addressing the problems of racism in America;

bringing justice to the poor, the orphans, the elderly, the sick, the prisoner, the hungry, and the widows since each person has dignity because he or she is made in the image of God;

seeking fiscal responsibility and accountability in government and in corporate America;
providing accessible and affordable education;
keeping the peace in our communities and, if possible, around the world;
identifying appropriate limits for governmental agencies and policies; and
defending the rights of the most defenseless among us, the unborn.

Do you have a biblical view of all these issues? I'm thinking that most of us have some homework to do.

One or two issues might outweigh the others for us. But at least we ought to be biblically informed about them all. And we should be careful if and when we do elevate one or two moral issues over the others. We must be progressive/conservative/radical/liberal when it comes to our understanding and activity concerning a whole range of moral issues. Remember, biblical truth comes from above.

I was at the American Policy Roundtable fundraising banquet on Friday. And I was happy to see that the president of APR, Dave Zanotti, presented public officials that the APR supports. They were Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Nice. Zanotti also reminded us that we should not over-react regarding this presidential election.

Zanotti reminded me of the words that the Chicago professor, Scot McKnight, wrote on his blog, Jesus Creed, about this current election:

"On November 5 I will get up and go about my business no matter who gets elected. There will be people who need to hear about Jesus; there will be people who are suffering from systemic injustices; there will be people abusing power; there will be good reasons to drink coffee and eat lunch with colleagues and prepare dinner...

"Changing Presidents will not end those needs and those problems and those parts of my life. So, my task as a Christian is to follow Jesus by loving God and loving others as well as I can. Changing Presidents won’t change that one bit. I don’t see that either candidate has the intent of depriving us of these things.

"I put this another way: I won’t go to bed deliriously happy with the President I want or wake up deliriously happy with the President I want. Nor will I go to bed depressed or get up depressed if it happens to be the candidate I did not want. I’ll get up the way I do any other day and simply know that in a little over two months we’ll be doing these very things and working toward the same kingdom goals no matter who is President. In fact, we’ll be doing these things with a new President. That in itself will make 2009 a bit different.

"Now one more way of saying this: my eschatology, or my hope, is not in who will be the next President. I hope in the power of the gospel that flows from God’s good graces toward us humans. I hope in the God who designs that gospel; I hope in the Christ who embodies that gospel; and I hope in the Spirit who empowers that gospel. And I hope also in the Church whose task it is daily to live out the gospel and draw all into its saving graces. I don’t hope in the next President. I think that is idolatrous. In fact, hoping in the next President is the first step toward idolizing empire.

"So my friend, I approach this election as a Christian who finds it important, significant, and incredibly fascinating, but who also finds it not as important as the task Jesus has given to us as his followers."

I wish I had written that.

I finally told my friend at breakfast that I'm proud to be an American. I love this country. I stood and sang "God Bless America" with 100s of other people on Friday night and I meant every word. But I hope that I don't bleed red, white, and blue.

I hope that I bleed "Jesus." "Our citizenship is in heaven," the Bible says in Philippians. We pray, "Thy kingdom come."

So, let's join Jesus in the most revolutionary mission in all the world - following Him and making disciples in all the nations... including the USA.