Bridgeway Christian Church

And now it's my turn to irritate a bunch of you,

And just so you know (one last disclaimer) many of you will likely disagree with my reasoning (just know that I have tons more to say but I can't type it all or my fingers would fall off).

Alright, let's get on with this...

I was asked about politics in an email the other day, by a new, great, kind, gentleman at our church. He is very involved in politics and wanted to discuss politics and Bridgeway (specifically 3 issues: will we set up as a polling place, will we hand out voter packets, & will we be informing our congregation on Prop 8?).

Well,...unfortunately, he caught me on a bad day. I had already had a million emails and discussions about this stuff, so I kinda blew up on him. That was completey unfair and I am publicly apologizing and admitting I'm a jerk. But, what the email did, was allow me to formulate a few of my thoughts on what's really bugging me about each political season and what happens around here at church. So, I'm going to cut and paste my email reply in process, for you to read (altering it only slightly to protect the innocent)...

"First of all, we don't get involved in politics as the church. I get involved a little as a personal representative of my nation and yes, I will be voting...and yes, I will personally vote to get marriage defined back to what God intended it to be. However you will rarely hear me mention politics from the pulpit or see it at church. We have tons of folks that want to do what you just mentioned you would want to do (offer Bridgeway as a polling place, register folks, pass out voter packets, etc.), but that's not likely going to happen.

I feel that not only is our political system broken and frustrating just as an American, but I feel that politics (as it stands today - in the two-major party system) has done tremendous damage to the church. We actually have whole denominations and people groups (usually predominantly white) thinking that Jesus is a Republican, for crying out loud! Are you kidding me??? And we have whole denominations and christian people groups (...have you seen stats on African-American Churches vs. Caucasian Churches?...) thinking that Jesus is a Democrat!! What??? Jesus is neither. But unfortunatley it's another line we can draw in the sand and fight over. It's another thing that we allow to divide us. It's another thing that makes one group feel superior to another. And it drives me insane.

And yes, we have been bombarded by Prop 8 information, weekly, sometimes daily. I get it. No, we don't have our heads in the sand. Yes, we have discussed it many times in our elder board meetings, but what is not being promoted is that there is a ton of protection language written in for churches in the legal language that already exists! We did tons of homework on it and there's a lot of panic for nothing. Yes, could we be dragged into court on something like this? Sure. In fact, we expect it to come in the future. But, we have solid ground to stand on and yes, we are going to put language in our docs that show clealry what we stand for as far as marriage is concerned as good stewards of our local church. But, really is this going to solve the problem? No. Am I happy about a rogue court screwing it all up??? NO, of course not. But if they did it against the votes and American popular vote then what makes people think that voting again is going to 'solidify the issue' again? No, we just walk calmly into the future and respond with what we have.

Do I encourage people to vote? yep. Will I continue as we approach the day? Yep. But that's about it.

The world already has us tagged as right wing radicals and going crazy and panicking, and launching literature wars is only going to deepen the problem. So, I have decided to take a bit of a different pathway, which is one of talking about the deeper issues of Christ and hoping that 'worldview' formation will take care of examining issues and making right choices when it comes to politics. Christ talked about the deeper issues instead of the political issues of the time (for the most part) and I want to follow in those footsteps.

If you consider our church as a microcosm of the greater community you see that...we have hardcore Republicans (very involved), and staunch (very involved) Democrats. Mostly things work well because no one is completely clear on what I am, some think I'm a Democrat, some think I'm a Republican. So, instead of making people feel marginalized, it has opened healthy discussion...I have people close to me who even in their marriage are opposite parties and for years it strained and damaged their marriage until they found a way to dialogue in a healthy way...praise the Lord!

Unfortunately, I feel that the current system is flawed so I'm having a hard time tackling what I'm personally supposed to do in light of modern-day politics. I don't like party line voting, because the Republicans are just as whacked and secular as the Democrats, so I try to focus on issues. But unfortunately to get elected, candidates can't state clearly what their stand is, so it's all a lot of fluff and double-speak trying to please the most people. Therefore, I can't even narrow it down. besides, the minute you win with one view (Rep. ex. pro-life), you lost on other parts of the ticket (ex. big business greed).

Sorry to sound so negative, it's just that I'm inundated with poltical stuff and panic from Christians about the election. Luckily I have lived long enough to panic through enough elections (i.e. Clinton v. Bush) only to realize it was one relatively lame duck after another with, yes, some major hits in the Supreme Court...and some policies..., but then the system rights itself again, all the while slowly slipping into more of a secular nation. Pessimistic? perhaps."

And then I tried to wrap it up apologizing for exploding on him and trying to be nice.

Listen, the thing is, is that my job is to help hurting people, and people are being hurt by the most common form of politics. In our very church, people are being offended and backed into corners because they don't view things like most of the other people. I hate that. Why can't we have polite, healthy, respectful discussions about issues and admit where we are wrong or ignorant (heck, I'm ignorant on a ton of stuff)?

On top of that, in a church, our goal is to minister to the deepest level of a human and we already have tons of obstacles to overcome. What we don't need is pre-conceived political notions adding to the divide.

It's not that we fear separation of Church and State or anything ridiculous like that. We would gladly fight that battle if we felt that there was a mandate to do so. So, it's not that. It's that it's not where we need to be battling. There are many places in the world where these battles can rage, I don't want Bridgeway to be one of those.

The main question for us is that we have limited time in a day, and limited emotional capital and access with our flock, what are we to be about, and what should we focus on. We have felt called to go a slightly different direction.

Ok, now I'm bored with myself. Moving on...

Lance.