Christianity and Culture in Politics

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Abstract

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What about Jesus? So where does Jesus fit into all this? For the majority of Americans who identify as Christian, you’d think his life and teaching might have some bearing on their ideology and political involvement. But Christians are quite divided politically, and like everyone else, they seem to be encouraging an atmosphere of constant disparagement of political counterparts.

One thing is perfectly clear: Jesus was not a line-drawer but a line-eraser. As the Jesuit writer Richard Rohr put it in Jesus’ Plan for a New World, “It was not because he walked around saying ‘I am God,’” that Jesus was crucified, but because his teaching, healing, and miracles “were a rearranging of social relationships and therefore of social order.”

Jesus honored the poor, declared the last would be first, and privileged peace-makers over power-brokers. His proclamations made plenty of folks wince at the possibility that God was passionate about those at the bottom of humanity’s infamous heap — the desperate and despised — and was actively doing something about it.The divine changemaker The unassuming peasant from Galilee upended the ideological world of his day. He welcomed the ostracized into divine favor by tearing down culturally-constructed walls of exclusion. Every facet of his life and teaching was marked by radical inclusion.Previously despised and disgraced “others” — Samaritans, prostitutes, lepers, tax-collectors — were welcomed as “one of us.” Such social rearranging posed a huge threat to every civil and religious structure built on power, pride, and privilege — and continues to do so today.

The very lineage of Emmanuel (“God with us”) shouted inclusion. There was a harlot, a murderer, a Moabite foreigner, and his own admixed and the one-time ostracized tribe of Judah.

The God-man was poor, rural, “uneducated,” and infuriatingly uncontrollable by the social and religious hierarchies he challenged. His life and teaching boldly announced that the old-world order with its self-serving favoritism and tribal allegiances had been put on notice. A new order had come and, in time, would completely take over the corrupt and immoral old one.

Back to the future So how does that new vision figure into our contemporary politics and the divisive and demeaning squabbling that is engulfing Americans? People of faith must step up and hold both ourselves and those who endeavor to lead our country to higher standards. That entails dropping our own prejudices, grievances, and self-serving agendas.

Now is a prophetic moment in our nation’s history, and believers are called to prophesy.

It is incumbent upon people of faith — both citizens and politicians — to inspire one another to embrace a central tenant of Christianity and other religions: the glorious notion that we are all children of one God, in whose ineffable image we are each lovingly fashioned. Such an acknowledgement merits unstinting love and respects toward one another, in politics and the rest of life. No exceptions tolerated.

By contrast, when we define ourselves by what we are against, we unwittingly jettison faith, writing off God. For Christians, it breaks every command Je

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sus issued about loving self, neighbor, and enemy. An identity formed in opposition to others will generate fear, hatred, violence, and soul-deadening calls for retaliation toward everyone beyond “the line.”

Patriotism easily becomes a cheap mask for xenophobia. Pride and arrogance parade as strength and resolve. And God becomes domesticated into some trivial tribal deity whose sole purpose is to legitimize human shortcomings.

Christianity overtly teaches that one can love one’s country without hating others. As the inimitable Spanish cellist, Pablo Casals put it, “The love of one’s country is a beautiful thing. But why should love stop at the border?”When we endeavor to love beyond “our people” and our border (and that includes our declared enemies), we come to realize that the darkness we wrongly imposed upon them has been inside us all along.

Faith and culture For faith and culture to happily coexist, faith must unfalteringly lead the way. American politics has obviously got it the other way around, to the detriment of the political process and every American caught up in it. A vision of America’s greatness, which so many politicians hollowly promise to deliver, must take on a radically different form.

For Christians, the perceived greatness of our country must never be measured by its military and economic strength, but by how it treats the most vulnerable and powerless in our midst. That includes minorities, people of other faiths, opposing political parties, other genders — indeed, all “others.” It necessarily includes those beyond our borders and those who, with great struggle and sacrifice, come to this country borne upon tragic pasts remolded into faith-filled hopes for a better future.

As with the natural world, we will find strength in our diversity. Our country’s real greatness lies in our collective celebration of that diversity and our kind and generous treatment of one another. To embrace such a vision not only makes us more fully American, but more fully human — all the while honoring the One whose luminous presence is visible in one and all. The hallmark of God’s Kingdom is unstinting love and acceptance.

If our politicians, who perfunctorily ask God’s blessing on America, fail to understand the importance of this truth, we the faith-infused electorate, for the sake of the country and God we purport to love and serve, must, with unflinchingly resolve, insist that it become part of the narrative of this otherwise profoundly discouraging election campaign.

Adapted from Patheos, June 14, 2016. <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionnow/2016/6/christianity-and-culture-in-the-2016-election/">http://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionnow/2016/6/christianity-and-culture-in-the-2016-election/</a>Jim Rotholz, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist, ex-missionary/aid worker to Nepal and East Africa, and board chair for two non-profits. He’s written three books on the convergence of faith and culture and is now “out to pasture” in SW Virginia with Louise, his wise and talented wife of 40 years. More blathering at <a href="https://jmrotholz.wixsite.com/apilgrimsjournal">https://jmrotholz.wixsite.com/apilgrimsjournal</a>.</article></body>

Christianity And Culture In Politics

How faith can change the 2020 presidential election campaign

Along with a tumultuous hurricane season, this year’s election season forecast is a stormy one. Following the lead of national figures, my social media friends (I thought we were friends!) are growling and clawing at any who defy their personal choice of candidates. I wish it was all just COVID anxiety release, but I fear there’s more to it — much more.

Election years always reveal much about American culture that otherwise lies hidden from view. The 2020 presidential contest will be especially revealing as it exposes a contemporary form of tribalism that afflicts Americans across the political spectrum. Tribal affiliations insist on strict social borders delineating “us” versus “them” and “our people” against “not our people.” In the American political arena, it develops into nasty and distasteful campaign smears that purposely vilify opponents in shameless campaigns of self-promotion. The pompous posturing is as tiresome and repugnant as it is effective. Their posturing reflects the “culture wars” being fought around the country. Enlisting support from a gullible and disaffected public with their own versions of what would make America “great” (again?), politicians blast away at opponents they characterize as either unpatriotic or just plain bad people (liars, crooks, elitists, anarchists). What about faith? People of faith get sucked into the fray because religion and culture so easily intermingle, becoming indistinguishable to all but the vigilant. Religious culture always and everywhere equates God with one’s own country, politics, and way of life. It just so happens that He/She/It sees things the same way as “our people.” Who better than the Almighty to legitimize private agendas? The delusion emerges from deep within the recesses of human nature, where we are all vulnerable to dutifully lining up behind clan-based alliances that see the world in terms of “me and my good people” versus “those other bad dudes.”

Exactly where we draw the lines — geographic, political, religious, or racial — is determined by our often unexamined ideologies. And those ideologies are a direct by-product of our cultural heritage and personal preferences. Shoving people into categories is definitely practical. It helps us negotiate our way through life. However, when we also attach negative values to those “others,” it justifies treating them badly, even inhumanely.

History is laden with a host of tragic examples. One traditional Bedouin proverb captures the mindset: “Me against my brother; me and my brother against our cousin; me, my brother and my cousin against the stranger.” What about Jesus? So where does Jesus fit into all this? For the majority of Americans who identify as Christian, you’d think his life and teaching might have some bearing on their ideology and political involvement. But Christians are quite divided politically, and like everyone else, they seem to be encouraging an atmosphere of constant disparagement of political counterparts. One thing is perfectly clear: Jesus was not a line-drawer but a line-eraser. As the Jesuit writer Richard Rohr put it in Jesus’ Plan for a New World, “It was not because he walked around saying ‘I am God,’” that Jesus was crucified, but because his teaching, healing, and miracles “were a rearranging of social relationships and therefore of social order.” Jesus honored the poor, declared the last would be first, and privileged peace-makers over power-brokers. His proclamations made plenty of folks wince at the possibility that God was passionate about those at the bottom of humanity’s infamous heap — the desperate and despised — and was actively doing something about it.

The divine changemaker The unassuming peasant from Galilee upended the ideological world of his day. He welcomed the ostracized into divine favor by tearing down culturally-constructed walls of exclusion. Every facet of his life and teaching was marked by radical inclusion.

Previously despised and disgraced “others” — Samaritans, prostitutes, lepers, tax-collectors — were welcomed as “one of us.” Such social rearranging posed a huge threat to every civil and religious structure built on power, pride, and privilege — and continues to do so today. The very lineage of Emmanuel (“God with us”) shouted inclusion. There was a harlot, a murderer, a Moabite foreigner, and his own admixed and the one-time ostracized tribe of Judah. The God-man was poor, rural, “uneducated,” and infuriatingly uncontrollable by the social and religious hierarchies he challenged. His life and teaching boldly announced that the old-world order with its self-serving favoritism and tribal allegiances had been put on notice. A new order had come and, in time, would completely take over the corrupt and immoral old one. Back to the future So how does that new vision figure into our contemporary politics and the divisive and demeaning squabbling that is engulfing Americans? People of faith must step up and hold both ourselves and those who endeavor to lead our country to higher standards. That entails dropping our own prejudices, grievances, and self-serving agendas. Now is a prophetic moment in our nation’s history, and believers are called to prophesy. It is incumbent upon people of faith — both citizens and politicians — to inspire one another to embrace a central tenant of Christianity and other religions: the glorious notion that we are all children of one God, in whose ineffable image we are each lovingly fashioned. Such an acknowledgement merits unstinting love and respects toward one another, in politics and the rest of life. No exceptions tolerated. By contrast, when we define ourselves by what we are against, we unwittingly jettison faith, writing off God. For Christians, it breaks every command Jesus issued about loving self, neighbor, and enemy. An identity formed in opposition to others will generate fear, hatred, violence, and soul-deadening calls for retaliation toward everyone beyond “the line.” Patriotism easily becomes a cheap mask for xenophobia. Pride and arrogance parade as strength and resolve. And God becomes domesticated into some trivial tribal deity whose sole purpose is to legitimize human shortcomings. Christianity overtly teaches that one can love one’s country without hating others. As the inimitable Spanish cellist, Pablo Casals put it, “The love of one’s country is a beautiful thing. But why should love stop at the border?”

When we endeavor to love beyond “our people” and our border (and that includes our declared enemies), we come to realize that the darkness we wrongly imposed upon them has been inside us all along. Faith and culture For faith and culture to happily coexist, faith must unfalteringly lead the way. American politics has obviously got it the other way around, to the detriment of the political process and every American caught up in it. A vision of America’s greatness, which so many politicians hollowly promise to deliver, must take on a radically different form. For Christians, the perceived greatness of our country must never be measured by its military and economic strength, but by how it treats the most vulnerable and powerless in our midst. That includes minorities, people of other faiths, opposing political parties, other genders — indeed, all “others.” It necessarily includes those beyond our borders and those who, with great struggle and sacrifice, come to this country borne upon tragic pasts remolded into faith-filled hopes for a better future. As with the natural world, we will find strength in our diversity. Our country’s real greatness lies in our collective celebration of that diversity and our kind and generous treatment of one another. To embrace such a vision not only makes us more fully American, but more fully human — all the while honoring the One whose luminous presence is visible in one and all. The hallmark of God’s Kingdom is unstinting love and acceptance. If our politicians, who perfunctorily ask God’s blessing on America, fail to understand the importance of this truth, we the faith-infused electorate, for the sake of the country and God we purport to love and serve, must, with unflinchingly resolve, insist that it become part of the narrative of this otherwise profoundly discouraging election campaign. Adapted from Patheos, June 14, 2016. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionnow/2016/6/christianity-and-culture-in-the-2016-election/

Jim Rotholz, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist, ex-missionary/aid worker to Nepal and East Africa, and board chair for two non-profits. He’s written three books on the convergence of faith and culture and is now “out to pasture” in SW Virginia with Louise, his wise and talented wife of 40 years. More blathering at https://jmrotholz.wixsite.com/apilgrimsjournal.