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From the Bible:

John 15
The Vine and the Branches
1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

From Swedenborg

God alone -- the Lord -- is love itself, because he is life itself.  Both we on earth and angels are life-receivers.
DLW #4 nce


 

GOD AND POLITICS


I was on my way to the Kennebunk Town Hall on Tuesday to vote. Then, I had an urge to pull the car over and spend a moment in prayer, asking for God’s guidance on this special privilege of citizenship. As I drove on to the polls, I realized that my brief prayer raised some profound theological questions. Was I praying for God’s advice on who to vote for? Was I assuming that God had a preference? Does God have a preference in elections? Is God more of a Republican or a Democrat? Or primarily an independent? Or perhaps an advocate of a third-party like the Green Party?

The questions just got more and more confusing. If God had a preference, did that mean that everyone who prayed for guidance in voting get the same answer? Did that mean that everyone who heard God voted for the same candidate?
I must admit that something in me has always assumed that whoever I supported in an election was also God’s choice. Yet, when I thought about it, I realized that that assumption could lead to fundamentalism. Even violent fundamentalism, like those on a suicide bombing who are convinced that they are taking their actions to please God.

Yet, that is not just a recent phenomenon. Throughout history, entire religious groups have believed that God was on their side. Including Christians! The Crusades came to mind. They were fought by Christians between about 1095 and 1272. They were fought against many religious groups, but focused primarily on Muslims and their control of Jerusalem. Many believed that participating in the Crusades was to fight a war that pleased God. Some believed that participating in the Crusades would erase their sins in God’s eyes.

That led me to think about Swedenborg. He only felt war was justified if one’s country was being threatened by another. He believed that all religious paths based on love led to God. Because of that concept, Swedenborgians have often been active in interfaith activities. The Swedenborgian Charles Bonney played an important role in creating the first Parliament of world Religions in 1893.
Which got me back to my question of whether God has a preference in a political election. If we believe that God supports any religious path that is based on Love, do we believe that God supports any political party or candidate that one is drawn to in one’s own spiritual journey?

God is the Divine Love that is flowing into us at every moment of our existence. The deepest part of us is that Divine Love. It is not about a God who judges, punishes, and rewards. It is about a Divine that loves humanity so much, that we have complete free will. Perhaps to think of God as a campaigner for one political party or another is to limit God’s limitless love.

Maybe even asking if God has a preference in our elections is to limit and misunderstand God. The Divine is ever-present with us, but perhaps in a way that conceptualizes our lives very differently from how we see our lives.

God is the energy behind loving actions, and is present in the smallest of efforts at love. God must be intertwined in the lives of everyone who has some opening in their heart for loving intentions. That would involve the Divine in everyone’s life at every moment. That perhaps is a context that makes it difficult to have an “all good” or “all bad” label for political parties and candidates. Perhaps God might simply be supporting each of us in working towards love within any party or any situations

By the time I got into a voting booth on Tuesday, the question of God having a political preference became too complex to grapple with –esp. on Election Day. So I just voted the way I was planning to before I prayed.

Of course, it wasn’t just Election Day that I wondered about God and politics. The question had certainly come up various times in this political season – esp. in terms of ministers and their impact on a candidate.

I couldn’t help but feel a bit paranoid at times during this election. What if you run for political office someday? Will the opponent go through records of my sermons, and pull out statements that sound politically controversial?

I must admit I was particularly concerned about the interpretations in the press of Liberation Theology. I’m no expert in this field, but I must confess that I did my Doctorate of Ministry in a “Feminist-Liberation Theology” program. We chose the name consciously to incorporate BOTH feminist theologies as well as the Liberation theologies that often emerged in other cultures. My theological concepts had been honed in that rich environment in the late 1980’s. I apologize if my doctorate in Feminist Liberation Theology could be a problem for you if you run for political office in the future!

These are complicated questions without clear answers. It makes sense to me that God’s love is intertwined with all aspects of our lives; including the political. Perhaps we make different political choices because we are expressing different aspects of Divine Love at any given moment. Our work for and with God can probably be in the context of most any political party or candidate.

Yet it seems to me that is some role for a community of faith to play in the political events of our lives and our world. This is especially true after an election – where spiritually-minded people have made very different choices. Even people who worship together on Saturday or Sunday make very different political choices during the week.

How can a faith community play a role in helping to heal the divisions and developing an attitude on respect for each other’s opinions?
I often get insight to such questions by reading God blogs. I especially value God’s Politics by Jim Wallis and friends. They represent Sojourners magazine that addresses issues of faith, politics, and culture in our times. It often expressed a wide range of views, and encourages bloggers to express their.

On Nov. 5th, Wallis blogged a letter to President-elect Obama.
In part he wrote:
I want personally to offer you my prayers as you embark on the enormous challenge of leading our country in a time of great crisis and crossroads. While our ultimate hope is our faith in God, we also have high hopes for your administration.
I am one member of a growing movement of Christians and people of faith who support a broad moral agenda that includes a deep concern for poverty, peacemaking, a consistent ethic of life, and care for creation. During the campaign, you said that, if elected, you would face powerful special interests trying to block change. You said you would need a citizen movement to support and push you.
Today, I am pledging to be part of that movement. It will be a movement that will both pray for you and hold you accountable to the things you promised.

There’s a lot I like about this letter as a way of healing a divided nation. He acknowledges that no matter how we voted, we all now acknowledged that the democratically-elected choice of our country is Barack Obama for President.
Wallis suggests that as a member of a faith community, these are important to him:

Prayer for the President
Reviewing Obama’s positions on matters of important to one’s faith community
Offering to help in those arenas
Indicating that one will also be watching for the actions of the new administration, and holding them accountable for positions they have taken. He especially targeted these items that are important to many faith communities:

Overcoming poverty
Seeking non-violent solutions to conflict
A consistent ethic of life, opposed to all threats to life and dignity.
Reversing the effects of climate change.


We will all differ on how to understand and implement these goals. But we can all come together now as fellow citizens to support and pray for our new administration. And to hold this administration accountable for how it addressed these concerns – esp. in light of campaign promises.

As we move closer to the next election in 2010, we’ll undoubtedly find ourselves making different political choices. It will be important then to again remind ourselves that God’s Love is expressed by most political parties and candidates in some way; and we will have many differences in expressing our sense of love and uses. Hopefully we will be able to support the political diversity in our midst --- just as we support our spiritual diversities.
Then again, after that election, we will unite again as a community of faith; praying for the newly elected leaders, helping to achieve common goals, and holding those in office accountable for working towards our common values.
This election season was filled with conflict and confusion. It raised many questions about the relationship between politics and religion; as well as the importance of one’s minister in one’s life!
I like that there are no clear-cut and definitive answers for Swedenborgians. I love that we support diversity and individual pathways to expressing our Divine Influx. I love that we will disagree about many of the questions I’ve raised … and I look forward to our discussions together.