tomspug
Absorbant
If there's one major flaw with American Christianity (pff, one flaw) it's how poorly involved it is within its own communities, with its neighbors, friends and family. I strongly believe that it is a church's responsibility to care for the needs of anyone that comes to it and be a city on a hill for its community. What does this mean? Be more pious and impressive than everybody else? No, it means that if the church were to ever leave, the community would MISS it. It would leave a gaping hole where a pillar of the community once was.
Instead, we like to live vicariously through missions to other countries (which aren't bad in and of themselves, but...) we miss all of the needs of people that live next door to us. Yes, they may not all be impoverished, but they might be spiritually and emotionally in need. But we assume, since so many Christians embrace the idea that wealth is necessary as much as any non-Christian (have you SEEN those mega-churches?) that we are somehow NOT NEEDED at home, that we focus almost entirely on our own spiritual development, waiting for GOD to prompt us to action, rather than the spirit that is supposedly constantly within us.
What does this have to do with politics? Everything. Christians make themselves feel important by attaching themselves to political issues. We feel that if we vote, we are making a difference for a cause "greater than ourselves", as if large issues, because they affect more people, are more important to God than the ones that affect less people.
We like to say that making a difference to one person is more important than making a small impact on the lives of thousands, but we don't believe that, do we? We don't care about the soul nearly as much as we like to pretend. We like to see HARD, PHYSICAL RESULTS. We like to see larger church attendance, bigger churches, and yes, we like to see our candidates win. ;-)
Of course it is important to vote, but for the same reasons that everyone else votes: to have your voice heard, not to help God win elections. Let's say that this new push for Roe v. Wade being overturned fails. Did God lose? Think about that.
Instead, we like to live vicariously through missions to other countries (which aren't bad in and of themselves, but...) we miss all of the needs of people that live next door to us. Yes, they may not all be impoverished, but they might be spiritually and emotionally in need. But we assume, since so many Christians embrace the idea that wealth is necessary as much as any non-Christian (have you SEEN those mega-churches?) that we are somehow NOT NEEDED at home, that we focus almost entirely on our own spiritual development, waiting for GOD to prompt us to action, rather than the spirit that is supposedly constantly within us.
What does this have to do with politics? Everything. Christians make themselves feel important by attaching themselves to political issues. We feel that if we vote, we are making a difference for a cause "greater than ourselves", as if large issues, because they affect more people, are more important to God than the ones that affect less people.
We like to say that making a difference to one person is more important than making a small impact on the lives of thousands, but we don't believe that, do we? We don't care about the soul nearly as much as we like to pretend. We like to see HARD, PHYSICAL RESULTS. We like to see larger church attendance, bigger churches, and yes, we like to see our candidates win. ;-)
Of course it is important to vote, but for the same reasons that everyone else votes: to have your voice heard, not to help God win elections. Let's say that this new push for Roe v. Wade being overturned fails. Did God lose? Think about that.