Just as we've celebrated our nation's birthday again (can you believe in a mere 10 years we'll be 250 years old -- that'll be a great party!), I soberly remember that we are almost exactly four months from perhaps the most contentious election in U.S. history. This Friday will be the four month marker to November 8th. The glow of the fireworks and our unity in red, white and blue will soon fade to mud-slinging and name-calling. I wish it weren't true. But it is.
Pastors hold an interesting place in the political spectrum of America. I lead a congregation and seek to reach a community that is surely comprised of Democrats, Republicans and everything in between. My goal in ministry is never to sway votes because earthly elections seem so small in the face of my eternal calling. I'm trying to sway people to Jesus, not Trump or Clinton or whatever local leader that's up for election. That doesn't mean I don't have opinions. I just kind of pride myself in the idea that you'd have to have a crowbar to get them out of me. My political opinions are my opinions, and they're not much helpful to my cause as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus. Moreover, I'm increasingly convinced that I am grossly ill-informed and uneducated as to the depths of most political issues. I am inclined to not have strong opinions about things in which I know my knowledge is limited.
I am greatly concerned about the next four months, though, as it relates to the Body of Christ. I am troubled at how we might portray ourselves in these next four months. Church, can we please be the Church, at it's best, this election season? Can we live Proverbs 13:3,
"Those who guard their lips preserve their lives, but those who speak rashly will come to ruin."
If you are not a Christian, that's still some pretty good advice. If you're a Christian, it's in the book. We're supposed to do it.
A key concept for me to recall is that most of the political issues that any of us get all hot and bothered about are very complex. I recently starting reading John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage. In the foreword, his brother, Robert, says that any democracy exists "in the struggle for solutions which are very rarely easy to find." John Kennedy later writes, "There are few if any issues where all the truth and all the right and all the angels are on one side."
It's why speaking rashly comes to ruin. When we sit an think things through, we can at least see other angles to the story. Our 'side' in a political debate almost never has all the right on its side. We'd do well to recognize and admit that. We can understand that it's very complex. And we understand a bigger picture. For the Christian, the bigger picture is eternity.
Church, convincing someone to vote for your candidate will not secure their eternity. Convincing someone to follow your Christ will save their soul. But you and I won't do it with words. I'm not saying it's not an important election. I'm just saying there's something far more important at stake on which to focus our energies, so let's guard our lips.
*John F. Kennedy. Profiles in Courage. New York: Harper Collins, 2003.
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