Create a your best caption for this picture…

“Democratic Party tries to court the Pentecostal Right.”

Can you do any better?

Continue to enjoy a laugh at expense of American politicians. Hey at least we can laugh, right?

[youtube= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPC-1iUrw2k]

When thinking back upon Palm Sunday and Easter, I began to think about Jesus and His views on politics. Christians have long tried to figure out which side he would be on. I read this great quote about “American Jesus” and his beliefs (not sure who said it).

“Several times during the week, I thought about telling my family what’s happened to Jesus in the United States - how he’s been kidnapped by politicians and preachers who decide what he does and doesn’t think. They speak for him, and it doesn’t always make sense. They say Jesus is ‘pro life,’ but he doesn’t seem to have a problem with the death penalty. And he thinks stem cell research - something that would save lives - is no different from murdering babies. They say he’s the embodiment of kindness, love, decency and compassion. But he hates gays, lesbians and Muslims. And he’s not too crazy about Buddhists, Hindus and the rest. Jews? He can put up with them if he has to.”

If you really boil politics down it is simply the pursuit of power and authority. Christ was pretty clear who has the power and authority: God. It’s his authority and power we should concern ourselves with. What happened to “seek ye first the kingdom of heaven…” Do we do that? How many times we use Jesus as a platform for our own agendas.

So it comes to this: is your life driven by an agenda or a calling?

We are called to follow Christ. Anything short of that is an fallible, self-serving agenda. It’s it about ’my way vs. your way’. But what about His way?

All I know is this - He’s less concerned with any of the political issues of the day and more concerned with the state of our hearts. 

 Will politics save our country? Nope. They never will.  Our only hope is prayer and a pursuit of Christ. His way will always lead to the hurting people, not towards picketing or pushing policy. That was his way. Jesus didn’t concern himself with politics, only people.   

Are we a Christian nation? Ha ha. Don’t even get me started on that one…

Expectation and Anticipation (Palm [A])

Over the weekend, in a talk Jerry Falwell insinuated that Hillary Clinton was the devil (Lucifer). Now, I’m not putting any validity into Faldie - he’s a joke into himself. But he does bring up an interesting question: is Hillary evil? Christian conservatives have long demonized her (and some times for good reason). She’s liberal and morally left… and she’s a Clinton!

But comparing her to the devil, in my opinion, actually underscores the capacity of Satan and falsely establishes our opinion of what evil actually is. As Christians we engage daily in spiritual warfare against an the enemy of the cross and our Lord. There is a formidable enemy. Hillary is not that enemy. As Christian we know that victory is already won, Christ has come, died on the cross and conquered death. So we know that evil doesn’t win. That’s something to put our hope in, but that doesn’t get us off the hook or pull us out of the battle that we find ourselves in.

To see Hillary (an anyone else on this earth) as the ultimate enemy is foolish and wrong. All it means to do is take our eyes off the calling, our Lord, and the one who opposes it. It forces us to focus on the wrong thing. That’s one thing that makes me sick with conservative Christians. The focus on the wrong thing. I’m not saying that abortion and the plethora of other causes that liberals push are good. What I am saying is that you can choose to fight the symptoms or the source. Fighting the symptoms leads to an endless race of putting out fires. It’s kind of like playing whack-a-mole. You squish one and then another pops up.

Now, to fight the source that’s another story. Once we focus on this, then our perspectives change. Then we find our true selves and calling and see that we are set into a battle that’s been raging on for centuries. Then we truly realize that this story isn’t all about us. Sure we’re apart of it, but it’s about our Lord. Once we have this perspective our outlook on life changes.

If we were to spend our time focused on our Lord and what he has for our lives and less on poloticizing our faith our country would be transformed. But, we would rather follow enlist a program or picket a clinic than spend time with Jesus. We would rather do things in on our own power, in our own strength, as opposed leaning on the strength and power of our Father and walking in faith. Do we even know what that is anymore?

Your thoughts?