(Note: this is an email sent to our church on November 7, 2024.)
As we come off another presidential election there's plenty to reflect upon. (What do the emerging voting patterns say about broader changes in America? How did Trump win so big? How did the polling data get things so wrong again? What are we to make of the ever-widening gap between the media and everyday Americans? And on and on).
I'd like to provide a word of caution for Christians as it relates to politics:
The temptation for American Christians is making too much of politics, thinking it the end all be all. For Christians in America, political idolatry usually begins by reading the "holy nation" language of the Bible, language that's referring to Israel (and now the Church), and misapplying it to America.
This is not to say we do not love America or are thankful for our freedoms (though, as a previous email explains, we're generally confused on what freedom means). The few times I have returned home from being overseas, for example, one of my happiest experiences is getting back on American soil. Our country is special. Serving the nation is a good thing, including those serving politically - we need more Christians serving in the political sphere not less.
But the kingdom that ultimately matters and will last is Christ's, not America. America will be shelved alongside the other once-great kingdoms of this world as Christ's Kingdom overwhelms them all.
And his Kingship is acquired not by the bombast, mud-slinging, and flexing required of our political candidates, his Kingship comes via meekness. I am afraid this is lost on too many Christians.
So let's be good citizens, pray for our leaders, the president, our nation, and strive to lived quiet lives, work hard, and mind our own affairs (1 Thess 4:11). Let's keep the cross and its power (deemed weak and foolish by the world) the orienting center of our lives, not the political sphere.