i've been thinking a lot about religion and politics lately. and the more i do, the more i just get BUMMED out. i am so so so SOO sick of listening to people bring jesus into their political agenda's and rhetoric. stop it. jesus would not vote republican. jesus would not vote democrat. jesus probably wouldn't vote at all if he lived in this country, given the rampant corruption and lies that every politician, regardless of party affiliation, seems to innocuously share. let me get into some gritty details.
the senate race in massachusetts last week. dear lord. i can't count the number of facebook status' i had to read saying something along the lines of "another victory for us!" the us, of course, referring to the "christian" populous in general. i use the word christian in quotation marks because i tend to get the feeling that these people have no idea what jesus ever talked about, aside from the part of the gospels where he specifically told everyone to vote republican (which clearly never happened). the biggest problem i have with these neo-conservative people who claim to represent my savior, is that they only perpetuate the "us vs. them" mentality which has been the singular cause of every act of hate, violence, malice, or war in the entire history of humankind. i believe the new testament makes it clear over and over again that there is no more "us and them." we are all one. mankind is one. jesus came for all. he came to save all and to love all. and several times, he boiled down his entire philosophy into two commandments, "love god and love other people." and yet the separation and resentment that i see running so wildly in the "christian political" commentary, completely goes against everything that jesus stood for.
i've been listening to a lot of interesting commentary on that subject lately. it's interesting that the "christian" population in this country who claim to be republican, what i will refer to as the "christian right", are so interested and invested in "taking the country back for god." they are so active in politics and so vehemently believe that their only goal in life should be to make the laws of this country reflect their moral convictions. which is ridiculous. what's so fascinating, is i read recently that in china, where being a christian can result in imprisonment, torture, and death, this attitude doesn't exist at all. and christianity is spreading like wildfire in that country. there are definitely enough christians there that they could rise up and change things if they wanted to. but oddly enough, they don't want to. apparently they're more concerned with fellowship with other believers and praising god, and living out the teachings of jesus in their everyday lives. hmm. interesting.
i wonder if the problem could possibly be that people in this country are so accustomed to getting what they want all the time, that they're scared of the slightest possibility of any kind of suffering or injustice. and i think that problem is especially prevalent in the attitudes of the christian right. they're so active in politics because they're so scared of the possibility that something might happen that would make them leave their comfort zone. despite jesus' words to his followers, "in this world, you will have troubles" and "you will suffer on account of me", they're so stoked on getting their own way all the time, they had better take the necessary political action and put the specific people in office who believe what they believe so they won't ever have to worry about any kind of opposition or suffering.
and so, quite relentlessly, jesus' beautiful name is dragged through the mud, over and over again, and attributed to some of the most atrocious people and things i have ever witnessed. i'm starting to think it's time that people stopped stuffing words into jesus' mouth and pretending that he said them, and just start following the things he actually said and talked about. none of which had to do with politics. jesus didn't care about politics. jesus didn't care about the occupation of his people's homeland by the most brutal military empire in the history of the world. he didn't care about alleviating that occupation, or changing the laws of the empire. in fact he once said "give to caesar what is caesar's, and give to the lord what is the lord's". it would stand to reason that he saw the two as completely separate entities, and he didn't care one way or the other what happened with the one that was based in this world.
i wonder what would happen if the people in this country who claim to follow the teachings of christ stopped caring so much about what happens in washington, and started caring more about what happens to the poor and underprivileged people in their neighborhoods, cities, and around the world. because if one thing is clear to me from the time that christ spent on earth, it's that he cared about people. not about empire, not about laws, not about morals and the moral majority. he cared about spending time with the poor, the broken, the needy.
i wonder what would happen if we all started to listen to jesus, rather than constantly speaking for him.
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