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navigating politics as a christian


Politics and my faith are two things that I am very passionate about, and I think that they should go together. As Christians, we are to follow God's word in every aspect of our lives, which includes our political views. A lot of Christians tend to want to stay out of politics because they're worried they'll offend people or don't want to cause arguments, and I can definitely see that. As someone who absolutely hates conflict and is always worried I'm going to offend someone in the slightest way just by disagreeing with them on something, I can totally relate to this. But recently, as the country gets crazier and crazier, and I see people sticking up for things that don't at all line up with Scripture on a daily basis, I've really felt God calling me to be more brave in my faith and in sticking up for His Word that constantly seems to be under attack by the main stream media, politicians, celebrities, and even some people who identify as Christians themselves. The thought of this is terrifying to me because, like I said, I hate conflict and disagreements. If I could go through life agreeing, or at least pretending to agree with everyone, I would be content. I can sit back and hold my opinions in when it comes to things that really don't matter, but once my God and His word are being fought against, or my identity as a Christian and a conservative woman are judged, stereotyped, and falsely labeled then I struggle staying quiet. The Bible calls us to stick up for Truth no matter how the world reacts. Jesus also told us that the world will surely hate us for this, just like they hated Him. Recently, I've felt God reminding me of this again and again. And that's exactly why I started this blog; to teach people about God and to share the things that He has placed on my heart. So as scary as this is, I'm taking the leap of faith and trusting that God has a plan for me in this big step out of my comfort zone. He's taking the reigns and laying things on my heart, and I hope that I can do my job well in sharing it with you all. 

Like I said earlier, I think it's important for Christians to get involved in politics, or at least know what is going on and what the leaders of their country stand for. But I also think it can be easy to make politics an idol. If it's something you're very passionate about, I think it can be easy to start to put your political ideologies above what God calls you to think and believe, but it should be the other way around. Instead of going to the beliefs of our political party when we're trying to form opinions on certain issues, we need to be going to the Bible to see what it says regarding those issues. 

I'm currently reading the book Peace Talks: The Good News of Jesus in a Donkey Elephant War by David Drum. Over and over he keeps reminding us that we, Americans, tend to put our identities in our political party before we put it in Jesus, and we see others in that same light. Instead of seeing our brothers and sisters in Christ, we see the "enemy," especially in an election year like this. David met with Rev. Dr. Celestin Musekura, who was a pastor in Rwanda before the country's genocide in 1994, and some of the things he shared were so powerful. At the time of the genocide, stats indicated that as many as 90% of the country had been baptized into Christianity, but not many lived out that faith. About this, Musekura said, "We were a country of baptized pagans. We were Hutu or Tutsi first, and Christian second." Immediately after the genocide, he founded ALARM (African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries), and it is still making a large impact in multiple East African countries twenty six years later. He's shared his story in the United States several times, and each time he ends with this warning: "In America, you have tribes too, it's just that they're called Republican and Democrat instead of Hutu and Tutsi. And your tribes here are at war, too, it's just that you use words instead of machetes." Dang. If that did not convict you and make you think about every seemingly-innocent political argument you've had in your life then I don't know what will. For someone to compare our country to his, a country that was ruined and completely shredded to pieces, is not only eye-opening, but also absolutely heart breaking. 

I had originally planned to make this into one post with two parts. The first part would be me trying to give some biblical insight into some big political issues of this time, and the second would be me explaining ways that Christians should get involved in politics and why that's important for us to do. But like I said, I'm very passionate about politics and Jesus so once I start talking or writing about one of them I can't stop, let alone both at the same time. Needless to say, the post was already way longer than it should've been and I wasn't even halfway done yet. I was also trying to rush through my explanations and breakdowns of the topics and I really felt like I could do better. I was overwhelmed by all of the topics and information I was adding, so I couldn't imagine how overwhelmed you guys would be reading it. So I'm going to break that one giant post down into multiple posts over the next few weeks/months. For this first post I'm going to share how we can get involved in politics as Christians and why it is important. 

How to Get Involved: 

One ///// Be Informed 

    Paying attention to politics and what's going on in the country is stressful, but it's so important to be paying attention because our futures can depend on it. Don't obsess over what's going on to the point that you're anxious all the time and lie awake at night paralyzed with fear. Take breaks from it if you need to (I do this at least once a week in order to stay sane). But try to make a point to at least be informed in one way or another what's going on, who stands for what, and why things are happening. 

Two ///// Do Your Own Research 

    This may be one of the most important things that we can do. Actually doing research on your own to learn more about different issues will make such a difference in the way you see things. So many people get all of their political information from main stream media or, even worse, just from social media. I share more about why this isn't good later on, but basically the news is very biased, and not a lot of people on social media understand politics and government even though they advocate for certain issues. Sometimes they don't even know much about the thing they're advocating for and share false information with people. When it's something as important as a political election at hand, it's best to just research things on your own. Look up statistics, what the organizations and politicians stand for and have done, and, most importantly, understand how the government actually works. I've seen so many people share false information about the virus and the riots simply because they don't know the difference between the roles of the Federal Government and the State Government, or the difference between the roles of each branch of the government. But media and celebrities will continue to share false things because they know most people will just take their word for it because they don't want to do any research themselves. 
    
    If you haven't realized this already, Hollywood and the media hate Trump, so they only share stories that make him look bad. This is probably because he's not afraid to bring the lies of the media and of government politicians to light, and because he personally knows how corrupt Hollywood is. Does it seem suspicious at all that the three presidents- John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and now Donald Trump- that were/are trying to reveal the lies and corruption of the media and the government, were/are also three of the most hated presidents by that very same media and government? And the people believe it with no second thought. Trump's not perfect, and there are some things he could've done better, but I think if you did some research you would realize that he's actually done a great job for this country, especially for our religious liberties. 

Three ///// Check the Bible

    Before anything else, always go to the Bible when you're trying to decide your opinion on political issues, or any issue for that matter. Some political topics are talked about in black and white in the Bible, but others may take a little searching, digging, and interpreting to determine God's heart on the matter. And then there may even be some issues that could go either way depending on the context, like immigration versus illegal immigration for example. Like I said earlier, we need to put our identities in Jesus before we put them in our political party, and we need to remember that we are called to be His hands and feet here on earth. Because of that, we need to try our best to put our own judgments and opinions aside and first think about how Jesus would handle this and whether or not He would agree with this issue or not. 

Four ///// Pray

    We need to be praying that God will give us the wisdom and discernment to form good, Biblical opinions. Praying that He would open the eyes and soften the hearts of those that are blind to the truth and those that are dividing and bringing evil to this country. Praying that He will protect us and guard our hearts from Satan's evil schemes. And praying for our leaders, no matter their political party or whether or not we like or agree with them. 

Five ///// Stick up for Truth

    People are constantly pushing for things in our country that go against the Word of God, and a lot of times they aren't nice about it. They call us names, don't let us get a word in, cheat the system, and do things that aren't even legal just to get their way. But if we want to save our country and bring God back into it, we need to stop being afraid to stick up for what we believe in. One of my favorite podcasters, Charlie Kirk, said in an episode that the other side already calls us names and hates us, so what do we have to lose in sticking up for our side. If we don't stick up they'll still be calling us names and hating us, but we'll also have no country left to defend. Even Jesus said in John 15:18-21:

        "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the
           world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose
           you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you:
           'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
           If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on
           account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me."

Jesus knew the world would hate us for following God because they hated Jesus Himself. If they hated our Savior, who is perfect, peaceful, and way more loving and selfless than we'll ever be, what makes us think they won't hate us too? I think its possible to stick up for our beliefs while still loving those who don't agree with us. One of the things that has caused this great divide is that nobody is able to have a conversation with someone from the other side of the political aisle without getting defensive, judgmental, and intolerant. If you're old enough to vote, you should also be mature enough to have a conversation with someone you don't agree with. You don't have to change your opinion, but you need to at least see where they're coming from, because if you don't then they won't want to see where you're coming from either. Arguing won't change minds, but talking and sharing may. 




Why to Get Involved: 

One ///// Religious Liberty

    The government plays a fairly big role in our religious liberty. The First Amendment says that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," but considering a lot of Democrats want to abolish the Constitution and already seem to be disregarding this amendment during the virus, this could change in the future. This should be our first priority when looking into who we want to vote for because our first authority is to God. If our leader doesn't believe this or doesn't prioritize our religious liberty, then we have a problem. 

Two ///// The Future 

    Voting, especially for our president and governor, greatly impacts our future. This should be obvious because they will be our leaders for the next four or eight years, but some people still seem to not take elections very seriously. Who we vote for will determine our economy, our jobs, our safety, our freedom, our taxes, and pretty much everything about our lives. Even if we vote them out instead of reelect them, if they do a bad job, it could greatly impact the well-being of us and our country. When deciding who to vote for we need to really examine and take our time making a decision. We can't just vote for somebody because we agree with one of their stances but know nothing about the rest, or just because we don't like the other candidate(s). 

Three ///// The News is not Trustworthy

    I talked a little about the media in this post, but to briefly summarize, news channels are businesses. They're doing their job to get money, and, sadly, the stories that are read the most, and therefore get more money, are the ones that instill fear or anger in people. Good news doesn't sell very well because it's not super exciting, so the media tends to fabricate things so their stories will induce fear. Or they will word the headline in a way that makes the reader believe one thing, the thing they want them to believe, but then with further explanation in the actual article, you'll see that the headline left out a lot of information and context. But many people just read the headline and believe exactly what it says. Information and context are so important. Without context, a sentence can mean a completely different thing than when it is heard with context. Media can also only choose to write articles that agree with their stance or political agenda, no matter how unopinionated they say they are. They may not share opinions, but by only sharing the things that make the people they don't like or disagree with look bad, and the things that make the people they do agree with look good, they're making people agree with their opinions whether they share their own or not. I started listening to NPR's podcast at the beginning of the summer because they're supposed to be an unbiased news source that only shares the facts without opinions. But after a week or so, I realized that even though they tell the story with no additional commentary, they were mostly sharing stories that made Trump and conservatives look bad. This doesn't just happen within the news. People choose what things they broadcast or share wisely in order to control what the people see and believe to be true. I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday, and couldn't help but notice they had very few books by conservative authors in the Current Affairs section, but plenty of books by liberal authors. And the conservative books they did have only had one or two copies, while most of the others had way more, and were displayed in a way that the shoppers would notice them. Even though Barnes and Noble isn't coming straight out saying they support the left, its obvious in the books they have and how those books are displayed. They're only offering the books that agree with their stance so people don't see the other side of the story. This is why it's so important to do your own research. No matter how unbiased a media source claims to be, they still can't be trusted. Both conservative-leaning and liberal-leaning sources. If you don't want to stop listening to the news, at least start listening to multiple stations, or always double check things on your own. But also be aware that google tends to also only show liberal media and articles on the first results page, so you may have to do some digging to get both sides of the story. 
(After posting this, someone I follow recommended using www.duckduckgo.com instead of google because they don’t hide articles or track you!) 


Four ///// Social Media is not Trustworthy 

      Social media is an even more untrustable source because a lot of platforms will just delete posts that don't agree with their stances so that people only see the things they want them to see. But most people that they agree with and are advocating for things really have no idea what they're talking about. They don't pay attention to politics until big things like police brutality and a pandemic happen, and then they just take the word of other "social media influencers" and celebrities to form their opinion. I know this isn't the case for everybody advocating for politics on social media. Some of them actually do their research, know what they're talking about, and have solid arguments. But I've also come across so many people that have no idea how the government works, which is something you should know if you're going to be advocating strongly for something. But you still have to be careful that the ones that are knowledgeable in politics and government aren't sharing biased information that only agrees with their side, so still do your own research and use your own judgement. 

Five ///// Vote

    I saw something that said that 25 million evangelicals are not registered to vote and this is a big problem. I think if more Christians voted, the state of this country would change and we would start seeing Jesus among our leaders again.


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