Fruitful Politics: Goodness

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

Some readers, if they haven't read my previous blogposts on missional politics, may have been wondering about the reason for the picture of trees. What does it have to do with the topic at hand?

It's all about goodness and what you're sinking your roots into.

From a previous blogpost, What Tree Would You Be?:

Like a tree being fed an uneven diet of toxic nutrition, the average Christian's powers of discernment are being slowly poisoned. We're consuming so much of a limited range of information, we can no longer recognize the validity or existence of alternative ideas. Like the beautiful red tree in the picture, we're proud to be the oddball in the crowd, the one is getting the good info and possesses all the right opinions about every topic. Worst of all, with constant feedback from our favored sources, continually reinforcing our confidence in the rightness of our views and our cause, we begin to listen to those voices more than we listen to that other voice inside us. The Holy Spirit voice. The one that keeps trying to pull us back to the Bible, back to our purpose as Christians, back to the fruit of the Spirit and humility and mission.

For the Christian who genuinely wants to let the fruit of the Spirit drive his involvement in politics, continually soaking up the goodness of God is essential.

As a writer who frequently writes about the intersection of Christianity and American culture, I read a lot about politics and the latest trends in cultural thought. I continually have to remind myself, though, that I can easily lose my way if that's all I ever read.

While I'm searching for yet another obscure piece about the cutting edge of post-modern American thought, I'm also intentional about reading the Word, to keep myself rooted in God's goodness.

I'm also constantly on the lookout for other writings that reflect and express the goodness of God as it applies to life in 21st century America. The truth of God can be found in unexpected places.

Examples of what is noble are always a treasure. I find nobility in those rare people who refuse to let their principles be dumbed down or compromised by the whims of pop culture.

I also look for examples of people, both believers and non-believers, standing up for whatever is right in the face of a tidal wave of wrong. I appreciate people like former Southern Baptist president Russell Moore, who has steadfastly refused to ignore the deep moral flaws of candidates on both sides of the political spectrum.

God is constantly inspiring a wide variety of goodness throughout our culture. It's only by keeping an eye out for that goodness that we can remain balanced in our approach to politics. Too often we latch onto the the worst of our culture, the sensationalism of the latest viral rumors, the never-ending negatives.

We're supposed to be salt and light, or, as Eugene Peterson puts it in The Message, we're to bring out the God-flavors and God-colors in the world. We should be actively looking for the glimpses of goodness and truth and nobility and rightness and purity and loveliness and everything admirable in daily life, in the news, and on social media. And THAT's what we should be sharing on our timelines, on the political message boards, and in our conversations at work and in the checkout line.

That will only happen, though, if our roots go deep into the goodness of God.

Psalm 119:159 I Love the Book

See how I love your precepts;
 preserve my life, Lord, in accordance with your love.
Psalm 119:159

Like David, I love God's precepts.

I love the Word the way I love other books that are my favorites. My favorite books are the ones that draw me into the world of the story told in the book.

I love the westerns of Louis L'Amour, in part because they pull me into the world of the Old West. I once took a vacation with  my family to central Kansas because my wife has relatives who live there. More than once during that week I drove off into the middle of the rolling plains and sat in the middle of a field surrounded by the native tall grasses. I read one of L'Amours novels set in that part of Kansas. Reading his description of riding across the plains on a horse, part of a cattle drive, I could easily picture myself right in the middle of the action.

When I read the Bible I like to use my imagination. When I read about David tending his sheep and playing songs to God on his stringed instrument, I can picture myself doing that very thing, only with my Alvarez guitar. I can even picture tending sheep because I've chased a few of my father-in-law's sheep over the years.

But even more than imagining myself into the action, I can live out the actions recommended by the Word. When I read Psalm 119, I can imagine David is writing directly to me. I can stop in the middle of reading and let my mind organize David's thoughts into a plan of action of my own. David's life becomes my life.

Which leads into another way that I love God's precepts. I love how it provides a window for me to see God's heart. It also provides a window into how David became a man after's God's own heart. And it provides practical guidelines for how I can live a life of joy and adventure.

When I read the Word I absorb God's love for me as expressed in His precepts. His Word lights a flame deep in my heart, to empower me to live a life filled with God's glory.

Psalm 119:158 Loathing

I look on the faithless with loathing,
 for they do not obey your word.
Psalm 119:158

Loathing seems like a pretty strong word.

Are we supposed to look on the faithless with loathing?

Other translations use other terms, but they don't really soften it any.

Seeing these traitors makes me sick at heart (NLT)

I look at the faithless with disgust (ESV)

I beheld the transgressors and was grieved (KJV)

Eugene Peterson uses an even sharper tone in The Message:

I took one look at the quitters and was filled with loathing; they walked away from your promises so casually!

Earlier, in Psalm 119:136, David describes the depth of his emotional response to seeing so many people choosing their own way instead of God's way.

Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.

I had two chief mentors in learning to counsel people who have sinned in "disgusting" ways. They gave what seemed at first to be conflicting advice, but I've learned there's a need for both ends of the spectrum.

Wayne Kessler, my counseling professor at Central Christian College of the Bible, said the counselor should never react to the big reveal of a counselee. Never show loathing or disgust in your physical or verbal reactions. The focus should instead be on examining the details and exploring a practical and effective plan for change.

Roy Weece, who taught me a great deal about counseling during my years at the Mizzou Christian Campus House, said it’s always appropriate to show shock and disgust at sin that is shocking and disgusting.

I once saw a mixture of the two played out in the office of a lawyer. I was there with a young man who had committed a crime, a misdemeanor. In the grand scheme of things, his offense wouldn't be ranked among the worst by nearly anyone. He had found himself tangled in a mess where the things others had done were far greater in their impact.

The attorney, after hearing the details of what happened, responded with a five minute tongue lashing, expressing his disgust and loathing at how his client had betrayed the trust of the community. He didn't hold anything back because knew this young man needed to know he couldn't just shrug this off as a minor decision with little long term impact.

But then the lawyer abruptly switched his focus to addressing the details of what to do next. The past is past and that can't be denied or changed. But the present is the key to the future, and there were things to be done, step by step, to return to a productive and purposeful life.

The same two-step approach is true when dealing with people who have faithlessly turned their backs on God's Word and God's ways. Their sin is indeed disgusting, and they need to own that fact. They also need to embrace the Word as their key to making each day a new day of turning back toward God's direction.

Fruitful Politics: Kindness

“Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign." Joshua 2:12

I've always understood kindness as the active expression of the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. So how does kindness work itself out in the political season?

Kindness listens. The worst sort of conversation is the one where you can tell the other person is not really listening to you. They're half-listening while they're waiting to respond with their much-more-important contribution to the "discussion". This happens all too frequently in political discussions. No one is really interested in a substantive dialogue. They're just taking turns spouting off their cherished opinions.

Kindness listens attentively and actually considers not only the content of what's being said, but the value of the person talking.

Kindness prefers dialogue to monologue. This is closely related to the previous point. Some people, when they're talking about politics, are so invested - or obsessed - with the brilliance and superiority of their own political insights, they'll talk your ear off. There's no room to respond, to ask questions, or even to agree.

Kindness loves a dialogue, reveling more in the personal interaction, in getting to know one another better, than in letting the other person know how smart you are.

Kindness answers softly. It's easy to become so wrapped up in the "right vs. wrong" narrative when it comes to politics. Reasonable people can and do disagree on the detailed application of principle to politics. Approaching every political statement or Facebook share as the opening volley in a war will motivate you to respond with a blast of indignant certainty.

Kindness values the other's right to their opinion as much as your own, and responds with a soft answer. That doesn't mean you'll always agree, but you'll answer gently, perhaps putting your riposte into the form of a question.

Kindness hesitates to judge motives. In my experience, responding to a strong partisan statement with a soft answer often prompts the other person to quickly assume I'm for the opposite candidate or position. Along with that comes assumptions about my motives for such a contrary viewpoint. Often those assumptions are not true at all. It's just that my goal is to keep political conversations constructive and missional.

Jumping to conclusions about someone's motives for their political stance or their approach is never conducive to having a productive dialogue. Kindness assumes the best motives from others, until proven otherwise.

Kindness doesn't pass along gossip. If kindness is treating others like I'd like to be treated, then gossip is at the top of the list of things I don't like. Gossip is unkind and is more a sign of the works of the flesh (hatred, discord, ... selfish ambition, dissensions...) than the fruit of the Spirit.

Gossiping about politicians and candidates is equally unkind. If you heard a salacious but unproven rumor about me, would you rush to post the details on Facebook? Would you share it with as many friends and friends-of-friends as possible? Would you turn it into a meme, hoping it could go viral and embarrass me in front of the whole internet? I would hope not.

Why, then, are so many people - and so many Christian people - so gleeful about passing along the latest viral smear about political figures? Is it because we don't think of them as people? Gossip is unkind in any setting.

Kindness sees individuals.  It's so easy to see the phrase #BlackLivesMatter and respond to the political statement, rather than seeing the wounded souls of the people who have been marginalized by so many. It's easy to vehemently oppose policies about immigrants and refugees and fail to respond with empathy toward the plight of the aliens in our midst.

Kind, Spirit-fueled believers may hold definite opinions about the politics of a situation, but they will always fall back on their default mode of empathy and compassion for the individual children of God enmeshed in a political quagmire.

Kindness offers help. If I'm struggling with my weight, I hope my Christian friends will help me by keeping me on track with my diet and exercise program, rather than just shaking their heads at the "fat pig"in their midst. If someone in the church has anger issues, I would hope his fellow believers would help him with his problems rather than talking about him behind his back. These are just common sense expectations of how the community of believers conduct themselves.

Why, then, do so many Christians respond to the poor, the drug addict, the convicted criminal, the transgendered, and the young woman who just had abortion - why do so many believers see these sinners and have a quick, automatic reaction of censure and political outrage? Spirit-driven kindness produces an automatic response of "what can I do to help?" Kindness sees them as people first, not as opinions.

Kindness gets involved. Kindness sees the individuals enmeshed in the issues and immediately wants to know how to help. Kindness rolls up its sleeves and gets involved.

It's easy to get in the habit of  "helping" in ways that enable me to carefully keep my distance. I'll give money to a group that helps "those people", but I really don't want to get involved with "those people."

It took me years to learn this lesson: You'll never know the full blessings of the Christian life until you intentionally become messily involved in the messy lives of messy people. More than your money, more than your political opinions, people who are oppressed by the world or oppressed by sin need to know you're willing to walk along beside them.

Kindness gets involved.

Psalm 119:157 Don't Turn Away

Many are the foes who persecute me,
 but I have not turned from your statutes.
Psalm 119:157

In both the Hebrew of the Old Testament and Greek of the New Testament, the words for persecution have at their root the idea of pursuit, of chasing someone down with hostile purpose. That pursuit, when the word is used in the context of persecution, is for the purpose of either punishing the person being pursued or dragging them away and turning them in a different direction.

In many parts of the world today, Christians are pursued and persecuted in ways quite similar to the persecution faced by David and by Paul. But American Christians seldom have to deal with that sort of actual physical pursuit and physical consequences of their faith.

Instead, 21st century American believers are pursued by the relentless onslaught of a culture that is at best seductively subversive to faith and at worst actively hostile toward Christianity.

That onslaught comes from the same source as always: people of influence who want to distract believers from their focus on God's ways and attack those who cling to faith. But in the new millennium, technology has empowered persecution to become more invasive and ubiquitous than at any time since Eve debated with the serpent.

The people with the most fervent devotion to the most extreme ideologies have found a megaphone in the mass media, targeted media, and social media. Ideas that used to exist on the edges of society now have a consistent and loud voice at the center of society.

While the majority of Americans still believe in a god, such belief is routinely ridiculed and undermined on public platforms. As a result, an increasing number of those who say they believe in a god have developed a diluted version of that belief (especially among young people). It's become more a generic belief in a generic idea of a higher power rather than faith in the God of the Bible and commitment to His Church.

Under such relentless pursuit, believers are turning from the Word as the anchor for their belief system.

This plays out in the lives of these misdirected believers in diverse ways. Some are opting for an emotional spirituality that latches onto personalized expressions, turning from scripture-based spiritual practice to a potpourri of lifestyles.

The humanistic spirituality of self-help and pop-psychology turns some away from Jesus' example of a mission-driven life to a self-expression lifestyle. It doesn't take long before their disdain of the legalistic religion of their youth becomes a complete discarding of the holy lifestyle described in the Word.

Other believers are distracted from Jesus' mission to the political mission of their preference. Some believers focus their priorities on liberal/progressive politics. Others direct their their religious activity through conservative politics. Both have allowed themselves to be pursued by the false power of politics and distracted from the one true power of the gospel.

Who - or what - is pursuing you? Have you already turned your focus away from the Word?

Psalm 119:156 Feel With

My life has been a continual switchback journey between desiring God and His righteousness and desiring my favorite forms of unrighteousness.

The experience of my six-plus decades tells me my greatest happiness comes when I align my heart with the heart of God, and yet I'm fairly confident not one of those 23,000+ days has passed without me chasing after the unrighteousness whims of my own godless heart.

Maturity has trained me to seek my greatest fulfillment through actively serving God's mission, and yet I've squandered hours and days - even months and years - of my life in active pursuit of trivia and folly.

Looking back on the path behind me as I get nearer to the end of my time on earth, regret pours from my eyes. I cry thinking about the opportunities I missed because I was preoccupied, the adventures I've avoided because I preferred leisure.

Your compassion, Lord, is great;
 preserve my life according to your laws.

Psalm 119:156

The word compassion literally means to "feel with". The Lord feels all these things, the joys and the regrets, with me. And yet He still offers me the best resource for aligning my passions with His and making my life shine with His glory.

Time spent diving deep into His laws, swimming in the wisdom of His Word, is the key to His heart and to my heart.

Fruitful Politics: Forbearance

Some translations call this fruit of the Spirit patience. I think the word forbearance is much more descriptive of what Paul had in mind.

Patience is a common word. In modern usage it often means nothing more than semi-willingly sitting around and waiting for something to happen.

God's forbearance, as described in His Word, is an act of mercy and grace.

The scriptures that talk about the forbearance of God frequently describe it as putting off judgment. It's like a probationary period, without the guarantee of a full pardon.

Forbearance also carries with it the important aspect of bearing with and bearing up the person who might otherwise be judged. God doesn't idly stand by and watch us flail about. He doesn't root for us to fail. To the contrary, he patiently bears with us, not wanting anyone to perish. He bears us up by providing Christ as a substitutionary sacrifice. He also bears us up by actively seeking and saving the lost, a mission pursued by Jesus and by the beautiful feet and vocal mouths of His Church.

His forbearance is only transformed from a temporary stopgap to a permanent withholding of judgment for those who accept Christ's offer to bear the punishment.

If we apply this understanding of God's forbearance to the frequent call for his followers to practice forbearance, it takes on a more complex meaning than simply being patient.

When someone is in the wrong, the forbearing Christian patiently waits, allowing them time to change. We also bear them up, rather than tearing them down. We're not trying to shame them or make things more difficult for them. Instead, we're getting involved, bearing with them, instead of sitting by idly, waiting for them to fail. And yet we know there are consequences in store if change does not occur.


So, how does the biblical concept of forbearance apply to the Christian's conduct during political season?

Rather than buying into post-modern concepts of tolerance and diversity, the Christian will instead choose forbearance. It's not our job to deliver judgement to people whose lifestyle is in opposition to our understanding of God's clear truth. Instead, we're to be patient with them and actively play a part in God's mission to let them know about Christ's sacrifice.

This will mean that instead of avoiding all contact with sinners, we will intentionally seek them out, going to the places where they are, befriending them. This shouldn't be difficult. Christians are already in the habit of hanging out with a motley group of sinners every Sunday morning. Simply extend that habit to the rest of your week, getting to know the people who don't come to church.

This missional attitude of forbearance toward people living ungodly lifestyles doesn't necessarily mean Christians will readily agree to laws that condone and/or enable those lifestyles. Some believers might see the granting of some legal rights and freedoms to their fellow sinners as part and parcel of forbearance. Others will not agree with that at all.

Reasonable Christians can agree to disagree on the politics of morality, but we surely can agree to agree that our primary task as the Church of the forbearing God is to be missionally forbearing to all sinners, even the ones who make us uncomfortable.

We'll also want to be missionally forbearing to people with whom we disagree about political issues.

My neighbor's opinions about illegal immigration might be completely opposite of mine. I might even think she's a political wacko. But I can still be forbearing with her, rather than confrontational. But only if I always see her - and her opinions - through the lens of the missional eyes God has given me.

My co-worker's insistence on loudly campaigning for a candidate I find repugnant might provoke me, and it can be difficult to not allow myself to be baited into arguments. Instead, her actions should remind me to increase the level of my forbearance toward her. After all, if my continual arguing with her over politics prompts her to distrust my judgments and opinions in general, she's unlikely to listen to me when I want to tell her about my Savior.

Spirit-prompted forbearance will always be motivated by and directed toward patiently drawing people to Christ, even during political season.