pat loughery

My high school friend Ron Sanders (‘Spud’, which tells you how much we loved basketball and Ron’s height back then, for those who have ears to hear) just had an excellent article published at Relevant Magazine.  Ron is ministering with his family in Campus Crusade for Christ at Stanford University and is working on a Ph. D. at Fuller in Social Ethics.  Not bad for a Montana kid, right?

Please take some time to go read Right, Left or Center?.  Ron’s thesis is that people of faith cannot be single-issue voters, because the world is complex, just as Jesus is complex:

The beauty and frustration of Jesus’ moral life was that it complicated the status quo. Which is better, to keep the strict laws of the Sabbath or to heal a man disabled for life, to stone a woman caught in adultery or redeem her from the wake of her lifestyle? Jesus was crucified as king and criminal precisely because He placed people over policies and popular theologies. He entered into the narrative of people’s lives, and people are always messy. Nothing has changed in 2,000 years. We are still messy.

Seeking the welfare of the city means entering into that mess. But it means getting dirty in a different kind of way—in the way of Jesus. We get dirty through our service to the city, not through our path to power. Instead of reacting to the social decay around us, we get dirty by trying to pioneer new solutions to social problems. We get dirty by living out our faith in public life by doing good deeds—the kind of deeds that the world recognizes as good (Matthew 5:13–16). As a community of faith, we are called to set our hope on the sovereignty of God, not on the promise of politicians. Resting in God’s care allows us to be free to make mistakes with our best political decisions. And it allows us to enter into the hopes, dreams, fears, problems and frustrations of people’s stories.

Here’s that link again: Right, Left or Center?.

If you’ve hung out around here much, you’ll know that I’m in deep agreement with Ron’s challenge:  We, as the community of God’s presence, must embed ourselves in the work of God’s presence for the sake of the entire planet.  We can’t choose to side with one mudslinging group over another; we can’t dismiss the politics of others with such offhanded quips as “there’s only one pro-life candidate; how can you image voting for anybody else?” or “if you’re not willing to consider equality in marriage rights, you’re a hypocrite” (both of which we’ve heard, haven’t we?).

Great story, Spud.  May it stir up an understanding that live is complex, as our Christ is complex.