Do Elections Matter?

I am so grateful for the quiet and gentle rhythms of my life; marriage, family, friends, Middle Tennessee, good books, good food, and the pulsating possibility of touching eternity in life’s peaceful moments and places.

But, for some reason, in presidential election years I often turn away from all of that and indulge things that are accusative, hopeless, and deceptive. I seem to step into some kind of vertigo. Why is that?

Maybe it springs from our yearning for moral order. We need for life to make sense. But that desire for clarity and justice can so often and quickly lead to a moralistic view of the world that is ironically immoral. I think that is the birthing room for politics.

Of course, politics can be fine and noble. At best, it’s the way civilizations turn conflict into compromise; it’s how honest differences, even hostilities, get zippered into some kind of consensus, policy, and forward movement.

But at it’s worst politics becomes religion; a snarling, irrational, primitive, unforgiving and brutal battle between the forces of good and evil. That’s when conversation stops, friendships fade, everyone runs to their own bunkers, and firing commences.

Why do we all get caught up in that? When Americans move into the final weeks of a Presidential campaign, that polarization rises to flood stage. We all begin to see other ideas, agendas, movements, and leaders as incarnations of evil.

Arthur Miller famously said, “An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted.”[1] Sadly, it seems that our political bankruptcy has become a yardstick for our era’s exhaustion. Everyone faces the choice of going down with the dying era or simply walking away into a new future.

A Radical Life

Here’s the truth, Sweetheart: Life on earth always cycles. Today is no better and no worse than it has ever been. The “current situation”—whatever and wherever and whenever and with whomever it is—always breaks down (regardless of who wins elections). The old is always here, and passing away. And the new is always here, and arriving.

Jesus said, “I make all things new.” When the illusions and and ruins of the age are fully and hideously exposed, the Kingdom of God’s brand new order, that newness of life, will just keep unfurling.

When Daniel’s “current situation” in Jerusalem fell apart and he ended up in Babylonian captivity, God’s Kingdom just kept coming. History is full of those stories.

That is where I choose to stand.

And, because it defies the “normalcy” of a bankrupt and futile era, to live that way is oddly countercultural.

A radical life carries no deep affection for, or alarm about, what is passing away. Rather, it continually brings the “all things new” into the present. To live radically is to see and live now according to the new that is arriving. A radical life sees the things we fear and the things we hope (the bases of elections) as mere sand pebbles rolled back and forth by the tides of the old and the new.

I’m glad we live in a democracy; I know that voting is a great freedom and responsibility. And I know that some elections are important. But they are never as important as they claim to be.

Every one of the perceived victories this year—that wall, strong military, civil rights for LGBTQ, higher minimum wage—or losses (same list) are microscopic compared to the global and historic magnificence of the now-and-still-coming Kingdom of God.

So, yes, vote. Volunteer. Donate. But keep politics in perspective. Radical living does not allow politics to trade illusions for real life and it does not give politics any authority over personal relationships.

And radicals, like Daniel, never get confused about the relative power of tides and sand pebbles.

[1] Arthur Miller, “The Year it Came Apart”New York Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 1 (30 December 1974 – 6 January 1975), p. 30

 

16 thoughts on “Do Elections Matter?”

  1. As always, thoughtful comments, Ed. Thanks.

    I have been intentionally post-partisan for a number of years now. I will always vote, if I am able, as long as that freedom is our prerogative. But I refuse to get swept into the soul-wrenching maelstrom that is the election cycle. It is too hate-filled and violent for my simple little peace-loving heart and mind.

    I am inclined to believe these violent and fiery tendencies we see every time are somehow in our nation’s DNA. Wasn’t there a book a couple decades or more back called Taking Our Cities For God, (or some such)? Seems its thesis was the identity of the principality or spiritual being that held sway over a city could be discerned by examining that city’s history.

    That made a lot of sense to me and I suspect it applies to to nation, as well. If that is true, then not only are we governed and driven by the high ideals articulated in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, but also by the rebellious, and violently bloody path we took towards realizing those ideals. There are fierce passions in play and not all of them good and righteous, even among the well intentioned.

    That would be completely discouraging to me, except for the truth that you point out: Jesus promised, “I am making everytning new.” That’s the USA, North Korea, Brazil, Sudan, Finland, Haiti, everytning, all of it.

    I take much comfort in that and am encouraged by your words. Thanks for including me~

  2. So, all my fretting and blubbering and worrying and indecisiveness about where to cast my vote is for naught? I feel a huge weight roll off my shoulders! Looking at the big picture — the one where Jesus is clearly the Commander-in-Chief and is in charge of all that matters, makes for better sleep at night and peacefulness during the day. I hope I can hold that thought until after the election!

    BO

  3. love this: “A radical life carries no deep affection for, or alarm about, what is passing away.”
    I am often left out of conversations with my brethren and now I realize that my silence is radical. It’s just that as passions heat and the polarized juices are squeezed the insertion of a phrase like, “it does not matter…” gets carried away by the steam rising off of more important opinions. I’ve been tempted by thoughts that I must be ignorant or apathetic. Perhaps I am, but I’ll go with radical now. Thank you!

  4. “A radical life carries no deep affection, or alarm about, what is passing away.”

    Thank you for encouraging us to embrace seeing “all things new”.

    I visited a coffee shop today and saw a picture of a lone tree without its leaves alongside a wooden fence in a snowy wintry setting with the following familiar passage: “Be still, and know that I am God.” However, this is just part of the verse. The rest is, “I will be exalted among the nation’s, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalms 46:10). Your comments are asking us to be like this tree. Even if it looks barren without its foliage its roots maintain its life in environments not conducive to a vibrant expression of life. You ask us not to be seduced in thinking that this tree is short of life. Even in harsh surroundings our focus is not to be on that which we don’t approve of but on the pull of our heart to a call from Eternity that sustains us in all seasons. Thank you for this excellent writing.

  5. Thanks Ed. Very good.
    Probably the main thing that keeps me from taking a political vacation until Nov 9 is the fact that one of the current candidates will appoint 3 to 5 Supreme Court justices which will shape the court for the rest of mine and most of my family’s lives. Then again that is earthly and trivial compared to the pleasure of the eternal life we anticipate enjoying!

  6. Ed,
    This is so good. As I close out my political and law enforcement career, I have such a different perspective than I had in my first campaign 20 years ago. I listened to the candidates for my job and other offices this year and I heard the same sound bites I was told I needed. Nothing has changed, crime is still here, budgets are rising, and laws are changing. However, for me, I am blessed to go home, my wife is waiting, I did not lose her, my grown children still love me and we still trust in the Lord. Life is good!

  7. Good stuff Ed. We got rid of cable TV three years ago, I highly recommend it. But I’m unable to contribute many thoughts about the current polical circus. Gone are the days of this quote; ” Politics and government are certainly among the most important of practical human interests. “. P. T. Barnum
    Frank

  8. Ed, you’ve touched on one of my deepest convictions; believers are citizens of two different kingdoms and while responsible in both must keep their priorities based upon which is transitory and which is eternal.

    I believe with all my heart we must do what we can to benefit this passing world while living secure in the eternal kingdom. Nations historically last a few hundred years while we have inherited eternal life so our deepest commitment has to advance the eternal.

    So, to your first question; Do Elections Matter? Yes and No. I’m convinced and can argue solidly America has passed the point of no return; we are on the downhill side of our nation’s history and the direction cannot be reversed (short of a divine miracle changing millions of hearts). But each election determines the velocity of our unraveling.

    It’s funny Ed, although you and I are, I think, very near the same age, I recall every election two decades further back than you do. Were my parents that political? We listened to election stuff on the radio, my parents discussed the candidates, and I engaged in partisan arguments with kids in school who, like me, had inherited their viewpoints. I remember vividly the Humphrey-Kennedy election of ’60… and all the subsequent ones.

    And I know, in retrospect, none of them reversed the inevitable decline of our culture and nation. But it wasn’t the elections that were the problem, and it isn’t today. The election is really just a reflection of our society and our society is largely a reflection of the impact, or lack thereof, of believers upon their culture.

    I fear believers have forgotten that our Creator called us to be creators, to partner with him in creating culture. We are called to create a culture of life—“be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”. We are called to create a culture of work and productivity and stewardship—“subdue the earth and have dominion over it… the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” Because of the fall, man suffers the consequences of his sin, but the creation also suffers the consequences of the curse, though it did nothing wrong. (Romans 8: 19-22) But our call to be creators, partners with God in His work is renewed and repeated in our rebirth in Christ. We are still to be creators of culture.

    Instead of creators of culture, too many believers have become critics of culture or conformers to culture and abdicated the role of shaping the world around us.

    And thus we see a nation once identified by a culture of life and work and productivity now descended to a culture of death, manipulation and entitlement. And while it is way too easy for us, as critics of culture to point fingers at those leading the charge downhill, we do so while forgetting we failed to lead the charge uphill.

    But because we were seduced into a destructive course of criticizing and conforming doesn’t excuse what we choose to do tomorrow—we can still become creators together with Him, and whether we change an entire nation’s direction is largely insignificant if we change the direction of everyone with whom we come into contact.

    1. Thanks, Jack. I didn’t mean that Reagan is the first election I remember. The first one that grabbed my attention was 1960. JFK was elected President on my 14th birthday. I took it very personally! 🙂

      I do appreciate your thoughts here. I so love the great gem of productivity and stewardship.

  9. Thanks, brother. It’s good to remember to aspire to live a quiet life – often.

    Ahh sanity… I’m going to bed now. And as I do I give thanks for this place the tides have “washed” me into and those I will be carried on to

    Good morning, good evening and good night.

  10. As usual Ed, thoughtful and thought provoking. I believe
    elections have a degree of earthly significance. And,
    many people (majority?) don’t have or exhibit a connection
    to the Eternal that would put politics into proper
    perspective.

    I appreciate Jack’s comments. Over the past several years
    my attention has focused on Paul’s admonition in I Timothy 2:1-4
    “…giving of thanks” and “prayers.. for kings and
    all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and
    peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.”

    My faith is challenged when I consider the political/
    governmental context of this exhortation.

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