Fragments, Fallout, and Freedom--Part 8

Mary's Challenge

On this day marking the beginning of Lent, my friend and former neighbor Mary posted this on Facebook:

I have a challenge I would like to present to everyone.  Whether you observe Lent or not, would you consider committing to this challenge and sharing it to be practiced by as many possible? There is strength in numbers and God hears and answers prayer.

Regardless of your political, religious or philosophical leanings: would you commit to forty days of praying for the upcoming election? Would you pray that despite any divisiveness over our fears, convictions, beliefs...we would pray that the best person to lead this country for the next four years will be brought forward?This means not asking God to bless your candidate, not feeling in our hearts that we already know who that would be, but rather praying earnestly that despite our human frailties, we will trust and ask God to bring the right person to this position. And further opening our hearts to God asking Him to give us an open mind, a humble spirit and a receiving attitude that allows Him to lead us rather than our own desires? Pray each and every day that God will give each one of us the ability to be wise about who we vote for, that He will honor our desire for peace and unity in this country and that we will be unbiased and open to hearing His words to us. My trust is in the Lord, not in any man or woman. But I do desire that this country not be divided any more and that God will bring us unity not only because of who our president is but rather despite it, if needed.This will be a true fasting of our pride, our need to be right and our trust in any political powers. If you are bold enough to join me, to commit to this, please share this post. God Bless.

I'm passing this on, in hopes that others will join this prayer challenge.  Mary says she would love to see many others join the effort and pass on the prayer challenge.  So would I.

Observing what is coming out of the oval office or what is observable in the current trajectory in presidential campaigns, I personally don't see reasons for hope.  Although common sense occasionally makes a cameo appearance, righteousness seems to be in short supply all around.  Truly our hope is in God alone.

In 2016 and following, I believed this hope-only-in-God idea would become clear to all my fellow-Anabaptists.  That optimism was apparently misplaced, but the current situation offers another opportunity.

*******************

One of the motivations for writing this series is a response to the helplessness I've felt from being completely misunderstood.  Never was this more clear than when I was asked in a private message from a friend if I really want "this?"  "This" was a link to an article promoting abortion--or more likely (can't remember for sure), warning that abortion is being promoted by leftist political figures or policies.

My response began with "Of course not."  I went on to say that I have no desire to promote any political candidate or party. By the end of the conversation, I believe some level of understanding was restored.  More importantly, I hope the friendship was salvaged.

That has not always been the case.  One such private conversation was followed by a public comment on one of my posts saying "Mariam, why do you keep posting such hateful . . . "  The misspelling of my name wasn't the biggest problem here.  This time I searched for and found the "unfriend" button. I had attempted several "containment" measures prior to this.  First I merely unfollowed him to avoid seeing his "triggering" posts and being tempted to comment.  Then I deleted a two-word condemnation he posted in a comment on one of my posts.  Then when I deleted a subsequent offensive comment, he resubmitted it, this time having apparently found a way to prevent my deleting it.   I took down the entire post.  That's when I sent him a private message that I intended as an invitation to a truce, or at least further private dialog.  No response--until the "Mariam" comment above on a public post.

I do give this person credit for showing me one thing:  Not all self-identified non-voting Anabaptists "get" what I'm about to spell out in excruciating detail below.  In this case, entrenched conservative political loyalties--to the point of running for and winning public office in the past in his case--seems to have survived into his present non-voting stance.  I wish for this person to have forsaken political loyalties entirely.  Such is apparently not the case.

I believe the "false dilemma" logical fallacy is revealed in the thinking behind both of the above exchanges.   In other words, this error in logic assumes that there are only two possible options, and if opposition is expressed to one of the options, support of the "only" remaining option can be assumed.

Certainly, opposites do exist, but they're difficult for most of us to identify and define in real life, outside of God, electricity, and mathematics.

When people are used to thinking in terms of two political parties, for example, it looks like protesting what one sees in an individual of one party means that all that is part of the "opposite" party is being advocated.  If one sees only two options--love and hate--not showing love for one candidate or position means that what you are showing is hate instead.  No.  Just no.  A world of nuance between two opposites is possible.

Also, it's possible that one perspective can be applied to two matters at the same time.  In order to be perfectly clear, let me spell it out now:  Calling out Trump's ungodliness or imperfections does not mean that I'm advocating for Bernie Sanders. Imperfections and ungodliness no doubt are found in both of them.

I am talking mostly about Trump right now because he is president, where who he is personally is on display at every turn.  In this position he enjoys the adulation of many Christians who should not be defending him or his actions (while overlooking glaringly sinful words, attitudes, and actions), much less advocating for him or adoring him.

Note that I have never said that Trump should not be president.  I am happy to leave the determination of who should be president to a sovereign God. I am happy to pray for him.  I will never, however, advocate for him, vote for him, or adore him publicly or privately.  The judgement of God rests on sin--always, and this president not only commits sin egregiously, but he flaunts his sins. Many Christians seem blind to the sins because he finds ways to ingratiate himself to them.  God forbid that we should ever excuse sin, defend it, or justify it, even if it's present in the leader of our favorite political party or country.

I'm mentioning the next issue preemptively, in hopes of avoiding potential confusion:  Sanders' Democratic Socialism. I'm sure that nearly all my readers will be happy to know that I am not here to defend Bernie Sanders or Democratic Socialism.  Just for the record, I believe that some of what Sanders is advocating would be disastrous for all of us.  What I hope is also understood is that I will never defend Capitalism as being wholly righteous.  I believe that Trump's record and policies reveal part of what goes wrong when this is held as a "righteous" economic system.  While I am not confident that all my readers will be happy to know my position on this, I maintain that Scripture does not confer "righteous" status on Capitalism and neither should we.  Scripture and the life of Christ show a third way.

Elaboration on this will need to wait, but suffice it to say that the third way is not accurately represented in the platform of any political party or individual.  Neither is it routinely represented in non-Anabaptist Christian school curriculum.  I believe this is where some Anabaptists have found the "off ramp" leading to a departure from traditional Anabaptist ideals on economics that do--more closely at least--align with the third way.  For whatever reason, I believe that Anbaptists have increasingly lost sight of the third way, in favor of full-on support for capitalism and reflexive demonization of socialism.  The reality is that the life of Christ and a study of the Biblical record includes elements of both.

Forty days of turning to God in prayer has the potential for aligning our hearts more perfectly with the will of God.  I can't imagine anything more needful for all of us--not only because we're in a political mess and need help, but because we need hope.  God is our hope.

****************

If you are willing to accept Mary's challenge, I'd love to know about it--either in the comments or by some other means.

I hope to write out these prayers, both to keep myself accountable to follow through and to stay attuned to whatever is happening currently that should be brought to the Lord.   




.