The election year is upon us.
You can tell because of all of the political cartoons and commentary, most often slanderous. To be honest, I hate election years. I hate the mud-slinging. I hate the division. I hate the bumper stickers. I hate feeling as though I have to make an extremely adult decision of more or less, in my opinion, picking the lesser of two evils.
I suppose I could be expectant of great things and change for the better, but my hopes for those sort of things just … well … aren’t very high. They never have been, even before I really gave myself to following Christ. Even before I pledged my allegiance to Yeshua, I’ve never trusted the politics of man.
Earlier in my life, I would have called myself a die-hard conservative. I espoused all of the values of the conservative party, with little to no room for compromise. Now that I’m a little older, I’ve become increasingly moderate–and libertarian, leaning still to the right. So I suppose you’d call me a “conservative-leaning, moderate libertarian.” If that makes any sense. And now, as I align myself with Christ and seek to become more like Him, it begs to question … WWJVF? Who Would Jesus Vote For? What are Yeshua’s thoughts on politics?
As a believer and follower of Messiah, I don’t recognize a separation of political beliefs and religious beliefs. Yeshua calls us into complete agreement with Himself. There is no secular vs. sacred … it’s one life. As such, I’m seeking to align my political beliefs with scripture … not the other way around. This has caused me to rethink some of my previously held beliefs, and has caused me to affirm others. I guess seeking the heart of God is what has caused me to become a conservative-leaning, moderate libertarian. And no, I’m not saying that God endorses my political label. More on that later.
I have noted a pretty longstanding and disturbing practice: aligning Yeshua to a political party. I’m referring to both of the main political parties, by the way. I’ve seen arguments for both “Republican Jesus” and “Democrat Jesus”. For us to think that either of our modern-day political parties would perfectly align to a first-century Jew who also happens to be God is … well … pretty silly. And here recently, I’ve seen a whole lot of “Socialist Jesus” emerging, to garner support for candidate Bernie Sanders. I guess as a red-blooded American, my gut reaction is repugnance. I recognize this is largely due to the general American distaste for Socialism, I’m sure. But I’m able to look beyond that. Is it true? Would Jesus have been a Socialist?
The whole question of this arose when I saw an image on a friend’s Facebook page. It emerged again and again, almost begging my attention. It was a picture of a painting of Christ driving the Money Changers from the temple, only Jesus’s face had been replaced with the face of Bernie Sanders. The caption on it read, “Voting for a Socialist Jew who Opposes Bankers: Literally the Christian Thing to Do.” I thought about it on the elliptical in the gym, in the shower, on the toilet, while cooking, in bed, while unloading the truck at work, while designing posters, while driving: Would Jesus have been a socialist? Is there some truth to it? Since I am conforming my life to Christ’s, if it were true, it would cause a revolution in my political beliefs. I am not a stranger to changing my life to conform to The Way: When I turned my life upside down to follow Torah, I felt peace. The implications of Christ being a Socialist made me feel a little sick to my stomach, so I took it as a cue to dig deeper. Something about it didn’t quite sit right. Thankfully, since Christ lives, I can ask Him.
The question lead me deep into one of the most immersive and fascinating personal bible studies I have ever engaged in. As a result, I feel like I know Yeshua better, know scripture better, and have a better idea of where I should stand as a follower of Christ in the dirty world of politics. I’m going to attempt to flesh out some of that here, in the next few posts–hopefully in a fairly coherent manner.
Open the Eyes of My Heart 