10 Faith Insights from the Election

If I’d never paid attention to anything in the bible I wonder what my faith would be like?  When kids are little, they learn how to live by watching the big people. That’s how they learn things like trust, fear and distrust, and when to make a fuss about being hurt. What the big people do inspires the little people to imitate until it becomes part of their automatic response to life. This election has given me new insights!

I’m learning how to live life as a new Christian. I look at the “big people” and see what they do.

10 Things I Saw This Week:

1. I saw a whole lot of Christians (at least the ones who say they attend church weekly) spitting outrage that Romney isn’t president of the United States. I  wonder why a Mormon with no fixed views would be the preferred President over one with a history of Christian church attendance, but I quietly add “rage and anger” to my “preferred Christian behavior kit.”

2.  I  also add “freedom to disrespect Government (aka anarchy)” to my kit. Apparently “honoring those in authority” has a lot of useful fine print and it’s one of those Scriptures that has hidden sophisticated meanings – it doesn’t mean what it seems to say at all.

3. I  saw that democracy is only a good thing when my candidate wins.

4. I  saw that democracy is the system of government that recognizes the will of the people when they agree with me but, when they are so stupid as to choose some other path, I have the God-given mandate to hurl angry comments and to criticize (even so far as to exercise civil disobedience) at everything I fear. I have a lot to fear.

This Is It: The Best of Faith No More (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

5. I saw that God moves to appoint candidates of my choice but that God never puts in place the candidate I didn’t vote for (evil people do that.) Apparently God’s power gets disrupted so I need to watch this one more in future – it all seems a tad complex and random but that must be because I still have such a lot to learn.

6. I  saw that praying for those in authority might involve praying they will have a nervous breakdown or at least long and sleepless nights until they decide to do the things I think they should do (fortunately my list is identical to the list God has in mind.) I should not pray for their well-being nor for them to be given wisdom, or guidance, or protection. I do not pray for God to reveal himself to them, and I  avoid sounding even the tiniest bit positive about anything they do.

7. I  saw that it is okay to be outraged about abortion as the only social issue that matters, okay, maybe same-sex marriage matters a bit too, but beyond these two, there is nothing our faith requires us to do. The message of good news for the losers who are having a struggle in life is to tell them the money is drying up! It’s time to stop being lazy dependents and get out of the 47%er category on their own. No more handouts.

8. I saw that God’s plan for changing this nation is through legislation and politics. The plan got a nasty set-back this week and now we are committed to struggling through four years of unrelenting assault on everything Christian so that all the things I fear most will happen and the nation may even collapse.

9. I  learned about incredible faith but  I will have to wait four more years to get the chance to see it in action. It goes like this: candidates of the right political persuasion get transformed when they get voted into office, they stop doing nasty things (or they get an immunity pass so it no longer matters what they do). We have faith that, despite years of actually doing the opposite, they will become fearless defenders of righteousness and the ways of God will flourish under their capable leadership. God will be pleased with our nation because these men (they should be men since we all know that God doesn’t do his most important work through women) will be tirelessly working for righteousness without even a thought for themselves. Apparently that is the problem with the Republican dominated congress: because the right people don’t have control over the nation, they are powerless to receive their transformation and so are limited to desperately trying to block every legislative measure until the day comes when they gain control and receive their transformation. Then they will spring to life and make amazing differences for our nation. It just takes faith. Faith can be delayed when the nation makes evil political choices. [Foolishly, I was thinking we paid to work for our benefit no matter which party controls the nation but now I realize my anger about them taking the money but not doing the job is unrighteous anger since they are still waiting for their transformation - they have served us well by doing nothing.]

It’s Kind of Fun to do the Impossible. (Photo credit: sleepyjeanie)

10. I saw that Jesus showed us the way to live but we have now found how to improve on what he showed us. He forgot to launch his political campaign (guess he was just too busy and never got time since he didn’t have the advantage of social media) and so his nation suffered with the rich clinging to their money to avoid taxes instead of creating jobs and wealth for everyone. He evidently saw it since he told a parable about a rich guy who kept on building bigger barns to hoard his wealth, but he never explained that the real reason the guy didn’t share his wealth was because of repressive taxes. We know better. We know that human greed is replaced by amazing generosity and civic-mindedness when taxes are lowered. Jesus sent his Spirit to help us change the world but we’ve found a superior way – politics.

I have so much to learn so there will be many other items I will add to my list of insights from this election but I am grateful that these mature Christians have advanced my understanding to this amazing point. You can bet that the unsaved people have begun to see the Good News in a better light, just like I have, through the events of this week. We might need extra chairs this Sunday morning.

Related articles with great insights to offer:

• The Election, Satan & the Sovereignty of God (daviddflowers.com)
• Let’s Believe (Not Grieve) for our Nation! (searchforme.wordpress.com)
• Honoring the President (russellmoore.com)