{"id":38223,"date":"2024-09-05T23:48:26","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T06:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=38223"},"modified":"2024-09-05T23:48:26","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T06:48:26","slug":"a-christian-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-christian-president\/","title":{"rendered":"A Christian President?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Christian for President! Vote!<\/p>\n

This is the signpost many of my neighbors and family may want to put up or the flag they want to fly during this season of presidential elections.\u00a0 It leaves me with the question, can you be a Christian President in the United States of America? I grew up in a home where I never, ever heard politics spoken of in front of us.\u00a0 I never knew who my parent voted for and they never discussed it.\u00a0 I found out later this was for the sake of their marriage, for they often voted for opposite parties.\u00a0 While not having this discourse led to a more peaceful election time in my house, I often wish I could\u2019ve witnessed them talk about how each of them voted and why.\u00a0 My parents are amazing, in a lot of ways, but they missed a real opportunity to teach civil discourse.<\/p>\n

N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird attempt to address the role of Christians in politics in their book Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies.\u00a0 <\/em>I felt challenged by their words, to find ways to speak of my faith in political and public spheres.\u00a0 If I am pretty silent about something, it usually means I have very deep feelings and no words.\u00a0 My husband\u2019s family often brings up politics and proudly displays their leanings and I often have to leave the table to go \u201cdo the dishes\u201d.\u00a0 I am just not equipped for debate.\u00a0 What is surprising to me is that if you asked them and myself the same question \u201cWhy do you vote the way you do?\u201d We would say the same thing, I vote the way my faith tells me to, and we vote very differently. \u201cIf Jesus\u2019 kingdom is of such an order, not from this world but for this world, then keeping out of politics is impossible.\u201d[1]<\/a> This is hard, I am very comfortable with the separation of church and state.\u00a0 I vote, but you won\u2019t find me on a soap box with the sign for the candidate.\u00a0 I don\u2019t put any on my lawn intentionally, to me, as a Chaplain for all people regardless of faith, I do not \u201csignpost\u201d my politics.<\/p>\n

Wright and Bird quote Reinhold Niebuhr who \u201cfamously said, \u2018Man\u2019s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man\u2019s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.\u201d[2]<\/a> One of the biggest worries I have is how all of America\u2019s will go if it stays on the same trajectory. \u00a0I\u2019m not saying that Christians stormed the capital, however, I do think some individuals stormed the capital who are Christians and did what they thought was right.\u00a0 I just don\u2019t get it. When writing through a Hong Kong lens, \u201ctheologian Kwok Pui-Lan, tells us about the warning signs that democracy is being undermined.\u00a0 \u2018The worrying signs that democracy was being undermined included sabotaging constitutions, sidelining legislative bodies in the name of representing the people, packing courts with loyalists, delegitimizing opponents and the election processes, attacking the free press, condoning or encouraging violence and threatening to take legal action against political rivals.\u201d [3]<\/a>\u00a0 This is a very disturbing quote from this book, and it sounds familiar.<\/p>\n

Jesus and the Powers <\/em>is an enlightening and readable book.\u00a0 It combines Biblical history and current affairs and brings them together in a way that almost anyone can understand.<\/p>\n

Do I believe in Christian Presidents? NO.\u00a0 Do I believe a President can be a Christian? YES. Micah 6:8 says, \u201cHe has shown thee, oh man (and woman) what is good and what the Lord requires of thee, but to do Justice, and to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God\u201d.\u00a0 This is what I believe the highest office of our land requires, and also what is required of me. Whatever their faith, may God bless our next President with a will towards Justice, a heart of mercy, and a spirit of humility!<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> \u00a0Wright, N.T and Bird, Michael F. Jesus and the Powers; Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies. <\/em>(UK, Zondervan, 2024) pg 36<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Wright, N.T and Bird, Michael F. Jesus and the Powers; Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies. <\/em>(UK, Zondervan, 2024) pg 162.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Wright and Bird, pg. 169<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Christian for President! Vote! This is the signpost many of my neighbors and family may want to put up or the flag they want to fly during this season of presidential elections.\u00a0 It leaves me with the question, can you be a Christian President in the United States of America? I grew up in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3211,2489,3210],"class_list":["post-38223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bird","tag-dlgp02","tag-wright","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38224,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38223\/revisions\/38224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}