Last week between Monday afternoon and Thursday at midnight I had no fewer than eleven friends mention that they were worried about this upcoming presidential election to a large enough degree that it was disrupting their lives. People aren’t sleeping well, they have diminished appetites and they are frayed by nerves.
Every last one of the people making this confession–whether to me directly or on their blogs or in the general cat-scented ether of Facebook–is a professed Christian. Other professed Christians have sent me emails about this being the Scariest Election of Their Lifetime.
Needless to say, I’m more than a little bit angry about all of this, because it profanes the sacrifice of Christ.
In order to become a Christian you must do one thing, and that one thing is to profess your belief in Jesus as God become flesh, God crucified and God resurrected. This sacrifice of God is the blood magic that cleanses us from sin and having partaken of that blood magic those who profess the faith are literally the adopted children of God.
I’ve seen these same worried, not-sleeping, not-eating people argue for days about how God is the Creator of all the earth and Evolution is either total BS or a tool that God used in the act of creation. I’ve seen these same people argue a great many other things…all of which boil down the fact that the I AM is the creator of all things and the saviour of mankind.
So why are they all so worried? How can you believe that your God is so sovereign as to CONQUER DEATH but then think that one country of finite people and its choice of finite men to fill one bureaucratic office for the relatively brief span of four years’ time is going to be the cataclysm that brings apocalypse?
The older I get the more convinced I am that political engagement is the bait of Lucifer. Yes, that’s strong terminology. So I better explain it. I am in no way saying that Christians should NOT be politically astute and politically active. I think as a Christian you have a responsibility to educate yourself about the choices and then vote accordingly. God calls us to engage this world responsibly, and first among those responsibilities in a Democracy is educated voting.
But there is a difference between being an educated participant in the electorate and lusting for power and control. No matter how often we tell ourselves that we must have our political way to end abortion or to keep the freedom of religion intact and that it is for those very Christianish reasons we care so much about who is President the fact remains that if you are in a place where you cannot clearly hear the words of God you have lost your way. Jesus Himself–this fellow we have foresworn our lives to–said that we do not need to worry about earthly concerns because God is in control. (Note that he never said there wouldn’t be concerns, only that we don’t need to worry about them.) If you are worrying about this election you are letting Lucifer and his original sin of wanting power to hold sway.
You have squandered the freedom that Christ died to provide you and sold yourself into bondage.
Well said. More Christians need to realize this.
I’m here from a link on Facebook. Apologies for how long this got.
Now you can hear from a pagan who considers this a terrifying election.
The economy is on an upswing, but a return to the policies that put us into the Recession will kill that. Putting money in at the bottom of the economy lets it flow up. Putting money in at the top just makes it evaporate. Read _The Richest Man in Babylon_.
My daughters’ ability to control their reproductive lives, through cancer screenings and vaccination and accessible contraception is under attack. Their ability to find a doctor who can perform an abortion when a miscarriage goes bad is in jeopardy. There are laws proposed that they must carry dead fetuses until natural expulsion, no matter how great the risk or be jailed for miscarriages.
I have been hearing from at least three loud Republican voices, two major pundits, that women should not be allowed to vote and the country was better when we didn’t. Am I going to have to re-fight battles my great-grandmother won?
I’ve been hearing from elected officials that my faith is unacceptable and only Christians should be considered citizens. 25% of the country is not Christian or no longer Christian.
I’m told that if my bisexual daughters and I are open about our sexuality, we should be made second-class citizen, if not be “cured” (i.e. driven back into the closet until suicidal) or tormented until we “change.” Never mind that I pass for an average suburban wife and mother.
My 20 year old is on my insurance because of Obamacare. She cannot afford the medicine she needs without it. And Romney, WHO AUTHORED AND IMPLEMENTED THE EXACT PLAN IN MA, says it’s evil and should be repealed.
The Paul Ryan budget wants to dump my parents off Medicare, which they worked for all their lives, and hand them a voucher to buy insurance. I don’t see that working. And it wants to dismantle Social Security, so my husband and I will work all our lives and never see a red cent of the money we paid in.
Let’s not even talk about fair pay, or workers’ rights or outsourcing, although all that affects me too.
Basically, one side wants to keep moving forward. The other wants to roll back every advance of the 20th century.
I’m sorry, that got very long.
Politics affects everything from the pay I get to the quality of life I have to the food I eat. (Federal law dictates how much sleep I must get per night)
Lest you think I’m a flaky old witch-dyke living in lala land who never did a day’s work, I am a truck driver. I drive a semi, I unload it, windshield wiper blade to 400lb engine. I come home, cook, clean, take care of kids and house and husband. I know the value of a dollar. I also used to be a fundamentalist Christian. I used the faith to hide from who and what I was. I understand your concerns. But my concerns are the exact opposite of them these days
Angelia,
Kat’s post was more or less directed at the Christians who are hand-wringing and completely freaking out. Kat is not saying that this election isn’t important or that even being politically aware and active isn’t important.
Consider: “But there is a difference between being an educated participant in the electorate and lusting for power and control.”
The problem that many have with the modern Christian (typically American) church is that they feel someone whats to keep them from something; tell them to do something; tell them NOT to do something and so on because that “someone” wants to be the boss of you.
This post is about the motivation for action – not the action itself.
Thank you, Katherine, for injected a welcome and much-needed breath of fresh air into the fear-filled miasma of these last weeks before the election. One of your very best posts, IMO.
We look for a city whose Builder and Maker is God?
Or not.
Too often we act like Tourists, not Pilgrims.
Well said, K.
Thank you. Thank you.
[…] Coble wrote a terrific piece on this subject last week entitled Have You Sold Yourself Into Bondage? I’m guessing I was part of the crowd that inspired […]
[…] Katherine Coble writes You Have Sold Yourself Into Bondage. She says […]
excellent. You summed this up so well, and your title is exactly how I would describe it!