To all the purple states.

I wrote this blog back in November, after Obama was elected. I don't know why I never published it -- it's very clever. ;-)

But with all this health care hoo-hah I decided to go ahead and publish it with the same message. Obama is not God, but nor is he Satan.

Ha, enjoy.

--

God willing, I will do this in an unbiased manner. But I am human and I clearly have certain opinions that you may not agree with. That being said, I hope you all take what I say to heart.



Last night Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. Some of you are cheering, some of you are booing. That's fine. If all Christians were to vote the same way, I think we'd have a problem. There are certain issues I stand for that most of you might not. And vice versa. That's okay.

But please, now that our president has been elected, I ask that we put a few things into perspective:

One: Obama is not our Savior.

Two: Obama is not the Devil.



Maybe that's obvious to you, maybe it's not. But based off of some very dramatic Facebook statuses, I'm not too sure you all get the picture. (And maybe even I can put myself into the first category.) I'm trying to do this with the gentleness and respect that I can, but bear with me because my passion can get the best of me.

There's a problem when we think that we have elected a Savior as president. There is. If we are to say that we worship a Savior of the world, then bow our knee to a savior of our country, what does that say to the world? That we're idolaters maybe? That sounds a little extreme, but when Christ calls us to follow Him, He kind of make it exclusive.

And yes, we are supposed to obey our authorities, I'm not telling you to do otherwise. But don't say that Obama is the Hope for the world or anything like that because he is just a man.

Let's flip the coin.

So if we AREN'T going to worship Obama, does that give you permission to hate him, rally against him, hate those who support him, call him rude names, etc.? Since you are a follower of Christ, you answer right away should be "no." But I'll assume you need more proof than that.

Paul writes this to the Romans:

"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves." Romans 13:1f

Some interesting tidbits: Paul wrote this during Nero's rule in Rome. Now, Nero was notorious for killing Christians. Early Christians (and some modern historians) were convinced that he was the anti-Christ.

But Paul still urges the Romans to obey? And that Nero's reign was "established by God"?



Now, that verse has been thrown at Dems and Repubs a lot through the years, I know. And it never makes me feel too hot either way. Especially when you take that verse and apply it to jerky bosses or profs. Submission sucks.

So let me give you another story ...

Zedekiah was king of Judah just years before Babylonian captivity. Fifty-some years of captivity awaited them. And they all knew it. Jeremiah told them all.

So a lot of the people got mad. They hated Nebuchednezzar, king of Babylon, because he was going to take their freedom away. (Or maybe they called him a socialist!) Nevertheless, Jeremiah has a message for the people of Judah.

He tells them if they don't obey Nebuchadnezzar, they will be punished via plague, sword, famine, etc. Why? Because God CHOSE Neb to rule. Chose him. God even calls him His "servant" (Jer. 25:8). That's a pretty powerful title for a jerk of a king.

And think of ol' David who had an opportunity to kill King Saul several times, but didn't. He was the "Lord's anointed."



Perhaps I am being a little dramatic. None of you threatened to kill our president or anything, but I want you to understand the implications. God has a control in the election process just as much as you do. (Actually, with this electoral college thing, he has MORE of a hand than you. lol)



For all of those I ticked off, I'm sorry if I did. I just know that what's on God's heart right now is NOT lower property taxes or socialism-esque policies.

His heart is for the poor.

The mistreated.

The voiceless.

The dying.

The sick.

The abandoned.



Our passion and rage should be devoted to causes God cares about. Not just about who will work in the Oval Office for the next 4 years.

more community chatter.

I have been thinking about the idea of community for a while now, as you learned from my previous blog. I think the concept, pertaining to Christianity in particular, is fascinating. Yes, it really is.



In my last blog I also said that I was experiencing a "perfect" community but, as Sarah politely pointed out, my CLAM group (Austin, Matt and I) is not "perfect" because we are "imperfect" people-by man's standards and God's.



But I do want to look at the idea of a perfect community even though I don't truly know what that is by experience (you win, Sarah), but because I believe that's what God designed us for. But with sin, that community cannot exist.



PART ONE: Christianity is not a democracy.



The foundation of our youth group is centered on this one passage of scripture (ready, Tom?) "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." [Acts 2:42-47]



I love this passage because it solely proves my next point. Get ready for it folks:



Christian community is a lot like SOCIALISM. (Really, it's a lot like COMMUNISM with Christ at its head, but let's not push it.)



DEFINITION: Socialism refers to the goal of a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community.^[1] This control may be either direct-exercised through popular collectives such as workers' councils-or indirect-exercised on behalf of the people by the state. As an economic system, socialism is often characterized by state, worker, or community ownership of the means of production, goals which have been attributed to, and claimed by, a number of political parties and governments throughout history. [says Wikipedia.com]



Now I mostly said that for a reaction. Let me explain myself before you mutter Lauren is Stalin under your breath.

The basic principle of the Christian Community described in Acts looks like this: people work hard, and use what they have to give to others in their community. People "pool their resources" to make sure everyone had what they needed. They don't earn status through their paychecks, but use everything they have to serve others. (Really, I just restated Acts 2:44)

Isn't that the basis of a "good" socialistic society? Everyone works to provide for the needs of others. That's what Eugene V. Debs wanted, right?

I don't know enough about socialism to go into much detail, but you understand the point. The way the Bible describes the early church is a lot like the socialistic nations of yesteryear. BUT.

Those countries were screwed up, Laur. Especially when you start comparing the Christian Community to communism. God isn't Stalin either.

Well, yes. That is because (let us reiterate Sarah's point once more) WE ARE NOT PERFECT. Socialism doesn't work for godless countries, so we cannot help but assume it won't work for God-filled communities that are, at the root of it all, sinners.

Let me work backwards here again. We know politically that socialism doesn't work because it gives the wrong people power AND citizens never do their share of work. BUT what if they did?

What if everyone in the country did their share of work and the leaders did not abuse their power? I think socialism would be a fine machine, don't you? But we all know that doesn't happen, not for countries.

But what about for Christianity? Can it work?

I mentioned in my last blog how I was fed up with the imperfect Christian Community, the one focused on trivial drama rather than the interests of others. But what about CLAM? What if the rest of the youth group, the church, the city, the state, nation, or the Church herself became dedicated to others' needs instead of just their own?

We could make this "socialism" thing work. Rather, we could make this "Acts 2:42-47" thing work.

Sure there will be flaws. There can't be a perfect community here on earth but we sure should try. God gave us the early church's example for a reason.



I believe we shall follow it. :-)