NOTE: I composed this blog BEFORE the events of January 6, and it’s even more appropriate today.

Let’s continue our thinking on how to be more life-giving this year, especially in the area of politics. I wrote several times last year, as early as January 7(!), that we shouldn’t tie our Christianity to our politics in the sense that we know the will of God in how all Christians should vote. After the election, I published this blog containing links to articles or videos by committed Jesus followers with radically different opinions on how to vote.

Earlier this week, Mike Metzger wrote a marvelous blog entitled A Third Way? I recommend you read all of it, but here are some of the main ideas:

…And so I describe my politics as political in the best sense of the word: Seeking to achieve a consensus regarding what makes for a flourishing community through respect, accommodation, compromise, give-and-take; understanding it’s largely unachievable in terms of ever being complete. But it can form what the preamble of US Constitution calls “a more perfect union.”

In other words, better than before but never perfect. I like to think my politics runs along the lines of an ancient tension between things we ought to conserve and things we ought to change. The former is a hallmark of being conservative, the latter of being liberal. I believe Christians ought to hold to both, conservative and liberal, both/and, while recognizing we lean one way or the other.

I lean toward the conservative, as conservatives have a better grasp (or used to anyway) on the macro issues including economics (conservatives also have historically held to the sanctity of unborn life). But I have to come to see how liberals are better at the micro, touching human hearts with moving stories of, say, inner-city families devastated by crime…

He goes on to talk about opening and working in a food pantry for poor Hispanics in the inner-city neighborhood in which he lives. Hispanics adversely affected by COVID and the lockdowns. He continues:

So I describe my politics as conservative/liberal. But I recognize this doesn’t appeal to most Americans, as most are politicized. This includes Christians right and left who see their party as the end-all for making a better world. These believers tend to be deficient in respect, compromise, give-and-take. They’re poor at loving their neighbors.

Our politicized nation means hardly anyone today is conservative or liberal. Politicized conservatives tout conservatism, which advocates “trickle-down” economics (which hardly ever seems to trickle down to Hispanic families). Politicized liberals tout progressivism to help the poor, advocating government redistribution of wages (all while progressive leaders typically enrich themselves off the redistributed revenues that hardly ever reach everyday people.) In terms of political parties, this makes me Unaffiliated... –

He concludes with this provocative allusion to Ecclesiastes:

[A conservative/liberal approach] would correct what the writer of Ecclesiastes warns against: Do not be excessively righteous. Why would you ruin yourself? (Ecclesiastes 7:16) Politicized Americans, including Christians on the right and left, are excessively righteous. They’re ruining our country. A third way, one that’s conservative and liberal, would offer all Americans a way to not be excessively righteous. Mike Metzger, January 4, 2021

Mike’s language is strong, but I believe he is right. I wrote earlier to Beware Jesus and… The entire book of Hebrews was written to counteract that kind of thinking. Eugene Peterson’s introduction to Hebrews in The Message contains this sentence:

In the letter, it is Jesus-and-angels, or Jesus-and-Moses, or Jesus-and-priesthood. In our time it is more likely to be Jesus-and-politics,…

I’m trying to focus on being loving and life-giving rather than being divisive and death-dealing. I hope you’ll join me.

⁹  Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
¹⁰  Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
¹¹  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
¹²  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
¹³  Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
¹⁴  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
¹⁵  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
¹⁶  Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. (Romans 12.9 – 16, NIV)