I wrote the following in response to a Facebook wall post by a friend of mine who questioned my spiritual walk because of my decision to support Barack Obama in the upcoming election. I am glad to live in a country where we are allowed to have differing opinions and talk openly about them. So, the following blog is my chance to explain why I am voting for Obama. By the way, I want to point out that having a difference of opinion does not mean a loss of intimacy in ones walk with God. I'm just saying...
I want to first state that I completely agree that we need to do what we can to end abortion. However, I do not feel like abortion is the ONLY issue in this election, no matter how much "Christians" want to act as though it were. Abortions are at a 30 year low, is it low enough? NO! But, I do believe that we have had the decrease because Christians are not only standing around waiting for their elected officials to enact some policy to make it illegal, they are ACTING to see it come to an end. The church is finally sticking to a cause and loving people to the truth. Regardless of Obama's decision to say he is pro choice, he has stated clearly that it is a grave decision and not one to be taken lightly. He also said it was a decision to be talked through with ones Pastor/Rabbi/etc... The only way we are realistically going to stop abortion from happening is not by making it illegal; because millions of babies were killed before Roe v. Wade, we just don't have the official numbers since they weren't recorded. We, as God's children, have to continue to seek out the hurting people in the world and love them. We can't blame a lost world for acting lost; we love them as Christ would love them! We hope, by God’s grace, they will realize their state and seek redemption from it because they have met the person of Jesus IN US not just heard about Him. There have been positive changes in laws but they can be easily changed again. Rather than trying to change the law, why not try to make the law unnecessary? We need to create strong families so our daughters don't even consider abortion an option; so they aren't having sex before marriage. If we, the church, would work on building strong families girls would not have to look to boys to find their identity; they would not have to find acceptance and love through sexual attention.
Let's be honest, we are a country who talks God but we don't often live it. As a whole we live independent lives never caring for our neighbor or the hurting that we pass everyday. I can't do that anymore. My belief in God urges me to give all that I have to meet the needs of those around me. Scriptures like Matthew 25:31-45 and James 1:27 give the mandate to those who love the Father to provide for those in need. I can't give healthcare away, because I have none. I can't afford it. I have been back in the States for 3 months and couldn't get a job until a couple of weeks ago; not for lack of trying but, no one was hiring (even with my college degree and career experience.) I provide what I can to those God brings me but I can't provide for everyone. What I can do is prayerfully seek political representatives who will make decisions to better the lives of hurting Americans rather than pad the pockets of the elite. I am not saying that only Democrats are the ones who make decisions for the everyday man but I can tell you that, in this election, the one not taking money from lobbiest is the democratic nominee. My heart is at peace with where my ballot will be cast.
I believe that Obama knows the Lord; I also believe that he wants to see us, the CHURCH, rise up and take our place as the rightful caretakers of our nation and the world. I have held babies that have soon after passed away from malnutrition and AIDS; I have been through the killing fields in Cambodia and seen what happens when our government turns a blind eye. I have even sat in bars night after night and watched foreign men take home Thai prostitutes while the Thai church sits back and pretends it doesn't happen. I cannot sit back in my own country and pretend that we don't have children who are going to school hungry and at night sleep in the streets. I can't pretend that most girls who sleep around, get pregnant, and either end up aborting, on welfare, or contracting an STD aren't missing people in their lives to tell them about their worth. I can't sit back while women and children are sexually and physically abused but won't leave because the only place to go is a shelter. The church has got to rise up and start meeting these needs as well. I don't think we need welfare reform; I think that Christians should start being their brothers keeper again and make a need for welfare nonexistent. I believe strongly that we have got to wake up and allow the lost and hurting world to see Christ in action through us as we love one another and love others. He said they will know us by our love...but where, in today's church, do they honestly see that love? For the most part, we shoot our own wounded. Until this awakening occurs I must vote to give lawmakers the ability to fill in where we are not getting the job done. I hope for a better day in America; I hope for an awakening in the church where Fathers take their rightful place as Godly heads of their homes and in turn bring a revival to our country. I look forward to a day when we truly live as an Acts 2 & 4 church giving all we have to each other. (And on a "selfish" note; I'd like to be able to go to the doctor or get my teeth cleaned without having to save up for it. It would be nice to be able to get a check up after having lived the past year in some of the poorest living conditions in the world.)
I can only hope that your decision on where your ballot is cast is taken as seriously as I am taking mine. I hope that you do not discount a candidate without information about him or her and without seeking God's direction in it. Please know that I am doing my research and am praying about God's continued guidance. Thanks for allowing me to share my perspective.
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7 comments:
excellent post, Jen. You know I've got your back, woman of God!:)
much love,
em
Jen -
I can understand where you're coming from. In fact, I agree with much of what you said. However, the church will never rise up and do Her duty as long as the government takes over. At one time people DID bear each other's burdens, but not since the government stepped in and created systems where people can beat the system. I believe the most loving thing we can do is make people provide for themselves. Honestly, most people on welfare don't care to do this. They're glad for the government to do it for them.
As for healthcare, I can understand your desire to not have to save up to cover expenses. But have you seen what government healthcare is like in other countries? Have you been to a government health clinic or hospital lately, here in America? The service isn't the same as that of private care. Why? Because in private care, people have a financial "dog in the fight" - the very essence of capitalism. Without that competition, the system rots.
Respectfully disagreeing.
Sean Gossett
Amen sister!!!
Hey Jennifer -- I appreciate your and Emily's interest and research in this political debate. I agree with much of your philosophy.
I have no desire to judge someone's salvation, but I have to comment in light of you stating that you believe Obama knows the Lord, especially if people are saying so in order to influence a Christian to vote for him. I am not necessarily looking for a candidate who claims to be a Christian. But to those who are applauding Obama for his claim, I have to say that a true follower of Jesus would believe that Christ the only way to become a child of God.
A link:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Election2008/Default.aspx?id=73553
Unfortunately, this is not true Christianity according to the bible.
Again, I agree with the church's responsibility to help the hurting (which we don't seem to do very well, and even as a family we are working on). But I don't think it is wise to involve the claims of his salvation in this political debate.
Just want to clarify that when I said "this is not true Christianity," I was referring to Obaman's quotes on the link...
Hi Sean,
I would agree that when the government began stepping in the church stopped meeting each others need. However, I would argue that the government only stepped in when the church had already stopped meeting others needs and something had to be done. I know people who are currently making use of the governmental net that is welfare and they are not proud of the fact. They use it only because they must to feed their children. They have not abused the system and gotten pregnant time and again in order to bilk more money from the government; nor do they use their food stamps for items such as alcohol, cigarettes, or lottery tickets. I will agree that there are SOME who abuse the system; those who act just as I have given examples...BUT, I do not agree that "most people on welfare don't care to provide for themselves." I challenge you to get to know some families on welfare,in case you don't already know any, I mean really get to know them. Know their children and their work situations. Understand their reasoning behind the need for governmental assistance and allow them to feel comfortable enough to talk about their dreams of, one day, not being on welfare. I think you will find that MOST on welfare are hardworking individuals who hope to one day be free of the need for assistance.
As for your question about the public healthcare system; yes I have visited numerous healthcare clinics. Of course the care is different; the funding is different. Private healthcare is funded by the racket that is the insurance business, not to mention pharmaceutical companies who give perks for pushing one product over another, regardless of price or effectiveness. Our healthcare system has taken advantage of the sick and the elderly by charging astronomical rates and then choosing not to deliver when the need for insurance coverage actually exists. This is an outrage! It is this very essence of capitalism to which you refer that has allowed greed to cheat the little man. I am not saying Socialism is the answer but I am definitely saying that Capitalism is not the answer either. A man should be paid a wage equal to the work he does. Right now, hopefully we can agree, that wages do not always reflect difficulty of work or effort put toward ones job.
"The vision of Jesus is not spread through organizational structures, but through touch, breath, shared life. It is spread through people who have discovered love.
Not long ago, I sat and talked with some very wealthy Christians about what it means to be the church and to follow Jesus. One businessman confided, "I, too, have been thinking about following Christ and what that means … so I had this made." He pulled up his shirt-sleeve to reveal a bracelet, engraved with W.W.J.D (What Would Jesus Do?). It was custom-made of twenty-four karat gold.
Maybe each of us can relate to this man — both his earnest desire to follow Jesus and his distorted execution of that desire, so bound up in the materialism of our culture. It is difficult to learn to live the downward mobility of the gospel in this age of wealth. For the most part, those of us who are rich never meet those of us who are poor. Instead, nonprofit organizations serve as brokers between the two in a booming business of poverty management.
I believe that the great tragedy of the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor, but that they do not know the poor. Yet if we are called to live the new community for which Christ was crucified, we cannot remain strangers to one another. Jesus demands that we live in a very different way.
I recently surveyed people who said they were "strong followers of Jesus." Over 80 percent agreed with the statement, "Jesus spent much time with the poor." Yet only 1 percent said that they themselves spent time with the poor. We believe we are following the God of the poor — yet we never truly encounter the poor.
About five years ago, I became part of a community called the simple way, a group of Christians literally born out of the wreckage of the church. Dozens of homeless families and children had moved into St. Edward's, a cavernous, abandoned Catholic church in one of the most struggling neighborhoods of Philadelphia. A small group of us who were students at Eastern College, a suburban Christian school, decided to move in with them as a gesture of solidarity. From that initial step, one miracle followed another as those families mentored us in community, worship, and love.
Eventually, we settled in a rowhouse in Kensington, a few blocks from St. Edward's. It is the poorest (but most beautiful!) district in Pennsylvania. There is no place we'd rather call home. Here, we play and dance. We plant gardens. We feed people. We cry. We have a community store. We help kids with homework. We live, and we spend our lives joining folks in poverty as they struggle to end it. Because we know that we cannot end poverty without ending wealth, we also spend time talking with Christian communities about our work and hosting visitors.
Before moving to St. Edward's and then Kensington, I had worked in Calcutta, India, first at Mother Teresa's home for the destitute dying and then in a leper colony. A week after returning to the United States, I began a year at Willow Creek Community Church, one of the largest, wealthiest congregations in the world — where a food court graces their worship center. Talk about culture shock!
This contrast brought me face to face with Christ's radical love, a love strong enough to bring us together across chasms of difference. I longed for the two worlds to meet, for the lepers to know the landowners. I committed my life to trying to make that a reality.
Over the years I have come to see how charity fits into — and legitimizes — our system of wealth and poverty. Charity assures that the rich will feel good while the poor will remain with us. It is important that the poor remain with us, because our capitalist system hinges on it. Without someone on the bottom, there is no American dream and no hope for upward mobility.
Charity also functions to keep the wealthy sane. Tithes, tax-exempt donations, and short-term mission trips, while they accomplish some good, also function as outlets that allow wealthy Christians to pay off their consciences while avoiding a revolution of lifestyle. People do their time in a social program or distribute food and clothes through organizations which take their excess. That way, they never actually have to face the poor and give their clothes, their food, their beds. Wealthy Christians never actually have to be with poor people, with Christ in disguise.
If charity did not provide these carefully sanctioned outlets, Christians might be forced to live the reckless Gospel of Jesus by abandoning the stuff of earth. Instead, thanks to charity, we can live out a comfortable, privatized discipleship.
But when we get to heaven and are separated into sheep and goats (Matt. 25), I don't believe Jesus is going to say, "When I was hungry, you gave a check to the United Way and they fed me" or "When I was naked, you donated to the Salvation Army and they clothed me." Jesus is not seeking distant acts of charity. He is seeking concrete actions: "You fed me, … you visited me, … you welcomed me in, ... you clothed me.…"
If we are to truly be the church, poverty must become a face we recognize as our own kin"
-Shane Claiborne
What I seek is balance. We are at a crucial point in time. The world is struggling right now; all of its work is crumbling before our eyes. They are looking somewhere for the answer in the way to live and we, the church, have that answer. It is our time to step to the front of the stage and stand in the spotlight living missional lives as examples to the struggling, hurting, needy world around us. We are at a crucial turning point in our nation and our world. I believe that if the church does not step up America will continue the route that Europe has taken and we will soon refer to ourselves as a "Post Christian America".
May it never be God. Have mercy on us and may we begin to seek Your way for living, even if that means we live on less and give away more. Even if that means we go hungry for a night so that someone else won't go to bed hungry. Even if that means we search through the pile of donated shoes to find the worst pair so often that our own feet become deformed, like the feet of Mother Theresa. Break our hearts for our dying world and show us we cannot survive alone! AMEN!
Anna,
I only made mention of Obama's religious affiliation because most of the fear mongering created about Obama is to say that he is a Muslim. He has stated clearly that he asked Jesus to be His Savior and yet, I receive on a weekly basis some ill educated ridiculous email about Obama being a terrorist and a Muslim who will take over.
The truth of the matter is that my vote hinges on the issueS. I also would not vote for someone just because they said they were a Christian. I believe God can use any man or woman regardless of their relationship with Him. Throughout the Bible evil men were used to accomplish God's task. Today's world is no different. Our God is in control and He has called us to arms. We must be ready to act through selflessness and love.
Thanks for your input, I appreciate your taking the time to respond. I love that you, & Sean, have been actively participating in conversation about this vote.
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