Behind the Curtain

There is nothing for Christians in government or the political process. If we were even supposed to invest significant energy in this process, there is such little difference between policies and people, that it would take a gnat strainer to determine what candidates really stand for and who to support. The most compelling problem with the United States is that the myth of our Democratic roots overshadows the fact that a small cadre of powerful economic groups, representing multi-national corporations and big money, run the Country.

Elections are 18 month ordeals that give people the impression they make a difference in how the nation is run. They bring hope to the moderately disenfranchised, who are buoyed by the experience of casting what they are sure is a meaningful ballot. What they really are is a continuing testimony that the state maintains the faith of its members. The act of voting indicates that people still believe that there is a particular path that leads towards continuance/change, a path (the party line insists) that can be achieved by a particular way of voting.

Knowing that the government of this nation depends on the idea that people really run things, perhaps “rendering unto Caesar” as it applies to voting can be seen for what it really is, participation out of the reasonable expectation of the nation we live in, not some spiritual responsibility carried deep in God’s will. In fact, the key to understanding the Caesar/God tension, is to see that so many things Christians value so deeply are relatively meaningless to the God who reigns not only over the 200 nations in this world, but the many rooms in His mansion somewhere in a hidden dimension. Our God is so terribly small. We insult God by investing praise and worship into a particular symbol (like a flag?) of past wars, conquests and colonial dominance, thinking that the symbol is more valuable than some other nation’s symbol.

As I have said a number of times, the most important thing American Christians have to overcome is their belief that they are especially anointed by God, who has revealed the mysteries of democracy to a sliver of people, who are to pass it to their descendants, who will honor it in perpetuating the franchise and the special place of religion in The United States and Canada.

Christians live from the cross to the throne, and everything in between is about the love of Jesus and the Kingdom of God. Christianity is an international religion that should be addressing cultures in similar ways around the world. What does the political agenda of any nation matter: democratic, autocratic, Marxist, socialist, monarchy, republic or plutocracy? The grinding wheels of the country demand different things from religious groups. Problems arise for the Church when Marxists insist that Christians can’t meet together. They are stealing a “render to God” area, which Jesus said wasn’t their’s to steal.

In religious democracies, the problem is blending the mechanism of governing with the values of the religion. The United States is a Theocracy: the values of the New and Old Testament saturate the documents the country is built on. God’s order is separation. He doesn’t want to be Lord of any nation’s institutions, and He is not interested in imperialistic efforts to make the world a series of countries all modeling a particular expression of Christianity.

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