Ain’t no politician like this guy…
Just a Thought...
THE drubbing inflicted on the Donald Trump-led Republican Party in last week’s Midterms was a clear rejection of shallow-rooted political populism’s frailty.
Voters rejected him for failure to honour two of his biggest promises - affordable living costs for ordinary Americans and no more involvement in others’ wars.
The magnitude of defeat led Florida’s Republican Governor, Ron DeSantis, to describe it as having been an “extinction-level event.”
It is also significant that Baltimore-based broadcaster, Jerry Rogers, highlighted: “For decades, evangelical voters have been an important component of the Republican coalition. Yet political participation cannot be sustained simply by assuming that voters will turn out because of their religious identity or longstanding partisan loyalties.
“Churches are not political organisations, nor should they become extensions of either Party.
“But they have historically played an important role in cultivating civic responsibility, community involvement, family stability and an understanding of the moral foundations of American society.
“And that responsibility does not disappear on election day.”
The titles attributed to Jesus - whom so many members of America’s ‘evangelical Right’ claim to follow – include ‘Prince of Peace’.
And right now, in the midst of events in Iran, Donald Trump - despite his claim to Nobel Peace Prize entitlement – is no peacemaker.
Here it’s worth noting the words of South Africa’s first post-apartheid President, Nelson Mandela, who – with Frederik Willem de Klerk – jointly won that prize in 1993 “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.”
Afterwards asked what advice he would give any would-be recipient, Mandela replied: “The first thing is to be honest with yourself; you can never have an impact on society if you yourself have not changed.”
He also pointed out: “As well as being people of integrity and honesty, all peacemakers are people of humility.”
On another occasion he stressed this: “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived; it is what difference we have made to the lives of others that determines the significance of the life we lead.”
Jesus was not ‘a politician’ in today’s accepted sense of the word. But using Mandela’s words as points of reference we can see Christ certainly had/has an impact on others’ lives and was/is the personification of integrity, honesty and peace-making.
His unprecedented Sermon on the Mount teaching provides one very obvious example of the last of those three virtues: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5: 43-44).
Can you imagine a politician of whatever persuasion advocating any such policy? No, neither can I…
But, ideologically, Jesus ticks every box, with everything He ever did or said having been for the redemptive well-being of mankind as a whole, enemies included.
In ‘Jesus’s Manifesto: The Sermon on the Plain,’ author Roman A. Montero wrote these challenging words: “The commandments of Jesus, no matter how seemingly radical, were not distant ideals for the first Christians; they were commandments to be obeyed, and on which to build their lives and communities.”
To the best of my knowledge that’s still very much the case…
Jesus’s counter-cultural life and teaching were – and remain – totally at odds with post-Fall humanity’s ‘me and my best interests first’ orthodoxy.
Jim Wallis’s ‘On God’s Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned About Serving the Common Good’ is a similarly themed book, well worth exploring.
Rather than policies, Jesus was/is about changing the hearts and minds of men and women, for which reason anyone claiming to follow Him is called to reflect the glory of His light in a dark and broken world, the problems of which dwarf political solutions.
Rather than changing policies, Jesus was/is about changing the hearts and minds of men and women. So in C.S. Lewis’s words: “We must show our Christian colours if we are to be true to Him.”
Just a thought…