Friends,

I know many of us are getting anxious about the election, which is less than a week away.  If you haven’t voted early, then I hope you vote on election day.  Maybe it isn’t a big surprise that Richard Rohr’s daily meditations this week offer thoughts from Rohr and his scholarly Center for Action and Contemplation colleagues on the timely subject of politics, religion, and seeking the public good.  In Monday’s meditation, the Rev. Wes Granberg-Michaelson reminds Christians “to begin with the personal experience of God’s overflowing love for the world.”  He warns that our “temptation is to begin with politics and then try to figure out how religion can fit in.  We start with the accepted parameters of political debate and, whether we find ourselves on the left or the right, we use religion to justify and bolster our existing commitments…” 

I found Rev. Granberg-Michaelson’s statement thought provoking, because I have often noticed, by and large, that we start first with our political orientation and perhaps find a church where most of the people think/vote like we do.   Maybe we will also comb the Bible to find a text here and there to support our political leaning on an issue.  Jumping around for prooftexts though is a rather shallow approach.  It is better, per Rev. Granberg-Michaelson, to start in the deep end by “intentionally contemplating what God’s intended and preferred future for the world is.” 

Indeed, we Christians must start at a deeper level than our own political orientation by first contemplating what God’s desire for the world is and what Jesus reveals most fully as God’s Son: His love for enemies, his non-violent response to evil, his embrace of the marginalized, his condemnation of self-serving religious hypocrites, his compassion for the poor, his disregard for boundaries of social exclusion, his advocacy for the economically oppressed, and his certainty that God’ reign was breaking into the world flowing from his complete, mutual participation in his Father’s love.” 

May all the votes we cast be done with our deepest Christian convictions.  If things don’t go our way, we are still called to do all the good we can: care for the window, the orphan, the immigrant, and the poor.  If we see any of those being oppressed, we are called to be prophets and speak truth to power while lending our legs to our conscience as we uphold God’s standard of justice.  If you want to read this particular Center for Action and Contemplation Meditation, please find it here: https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-politics-rooted-in-gods-love/. 

Grace and Peace,

Sandi