A Political Interlude

Recently we took a quick break from a morning of reading.  My 10 year old son picked up his guitar and  announced, "It is now time for a musical interlude."

Well, I've taken a break from writing while trying to get my new blog site up and running.  So folks, "It is now time for a political interlude." If there is such a thing.  I guess there is now.

I offer the viewpoints below, not as a personal political statement, rather as fodder to add to the bonfire of political thought.  Not as voices of absolute truth, but as opinions to be considered.  Not as a stance on issues, rather as a perspective on the posture of the heart...  

"Christians may be at times, 'cobelligerents' with the Left or Right, but never allies.  If there is social injustice, say there is social injustice.  If we need order, say we need order... But do not align yourself as though you are in either of these camps:  You are an ally of neither.  The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is different from either - totally different."  Francis Schaeffer

~ Although I have definite political opinions and leanings, can I acknowledge that there is some degree of truth to be found on both sides of the party line?  Do I think, speak, and live out of the truth that my membership in the Kingdom supersedes my allegiance to a political party? 

"A political programme can never in reality be more than probably right.  We never know all the facts about the present and we can only guess the future.  To attach to a party programme - whose highest real claim is to reasonable prudence - the sort of assent which we should reserve for demonstrable theorems, is a kind of intoxication."  C.S. Lewis 

~ Will I approach the issues, the candidates, and the proposed solutions with humility and admission that my viewpoint, no matter how informed, is still limited?

"For a Christian, Jesus is the one in whom it has indeed become manifest that revolution and conversation cannot be separated in the human search for experiential transcendence.  His appearance in our midst has made it undeniably clear that changing the human heart and changing society are not separate tasks, but are as interconnected as the two beams of the cross. 

Jesus was a revolutionary who did not become an extremist, since he did not offer an ideology, but himself.  He was also a mystic, who did not use his intimate relationship with God to avoid the social evils of his time, but shocked his milieu to the point of being executed as rebel.  In this sense he also remains for modern humanity the way to liberation and freedom."  Henri Nouwen

~Am I placing my ultimate hope in the government, or in the Author of all Hope?

"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out.  Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out.  Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out.  And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me."  Dietrich Bonhoeffer 

~Although I may focus on the issues that are most likely to impact me, can I make room in my heart to care about the concerns of others? 

May we stand firm in our convictions, but let us do so with humble hearts. 

Breathe Deep by the Lost Dogs