I had a conversation (on facebook) with a friend the other day about all of the political happenings, and they had made a joke about moving somewhere because Obama was going to be the president. She said she was adamantly opposed to him because he's pro-choice, and pretty socialistic in nature, and the rumor's that he's the anti-Christ seemed to worry her as well.
I guess you could say it lit a fire for me, and this was right after the election. I was fried and totally not interested at all. And then I got interested really quick. I told her that to seriously consider moving away because the election didn't go the way she wanted was unAmerican & unChristian. And I hold by that statement.
Here's why it's unAmerican: if you leave when the vote doesn't go your way, then you don't believe in democracy. The reality of democracy is this: sometimes the vote doesn't go the way you want it to. Sometimes it does. But you can't talk about packing up and leaving when the vote doesn't go your way. That's not democracy, that's consumerism in politics. It's a pick & choose & have it your way method of looking at it all. If Obama runs the whole thing into the ground, I'll gladly accept responsibility for my vote and apologize. But on the other hand, if McCain had won, I wouldn't be packing up and heading for Canada. I'd do that just because Canada is beautiful. : ) But that isn't an American thing to do. Quite the contrary. Like I blogged the story about how not voting could be considered an act of violence, I'd say that running when you don't like the turnout is anything but patriotic. It's quite anti-patriotic. Think about it, what if every leader in the U.S. moved out of country when things didn't go how they wanted? We'd have a country of about 500,000 people. That just doesn't work. (SIDE NOTE: the really sad thing is that this is how people in churches act. When things aren't the way their agenda looks, they go elsewhere to the other church down the street. It's no wonder churches struggle. People have zero commitment to the Church. I don't mean their denomination, we have WAY too much of that. I mean that when things aren't the way they want them, rather than step up and lead, they leave and go elsewhere, and then continue the cycle when that church "fails" them too.)
Here's where it gets fun, why I think that whole attitude is unChristian: it's an issue of your faith, and your concept of God. I feel deeply, deeply sorry for someone who thinks that one man from Chicago could single-handedly destroy Christianity just because he got elected to office. See, in my mind, my concept of God is HUGE. I believe in a God that makes stars and planets and galaxies. He breathes out the words and water covers the earth. With just a thought, life exists. Birds, insects, fish, people. So how could one of God's creations kill him just by assuming a political post? It seems to me, to be a very shallow worldview, and if my perception of God was that small, I don't know that I'd believe in Him. I mean, if one man can shut him down, is he really the all-powerful God that everyone claims to follow?
The question was raised about whether or not Obama is the anti-Christ, and I can't get behind that at all. And if you're really interested in this whole thing, I'd recommend my friend Jimmy's blog. In case you skipped this blog, here's the cliff notes: people who buy into the "one anti-christ to ruin it all" idea tend to read too many "left behind" books, and probably haven't read what the Bible actually says about the anti-Christ. I think a lot of damage was done by the left behind books, and so we need to re-examine that whole thing. It's not what you think it is.
Ultimately, I think the thing you have to know who you are. And you have to know who's you are. For me, I'm a part of God's Kingdom before I'm ever an American. Do I love America? Sure. Do we do everything right? No. Where's my loyalty lie? God's kingdom, then America. See, it's all about identity. And knowing that regardless of what/where/etc things happen, God is bigger than all of it, so it sort of isn't as important as we make it.
Thoughts?
Live deeper.
