There are many lessons that we as church, we as Christians, can learn from the USA elections. I’ll put some here, in no particular order, and you can add your own insights in the comments. I’m not going to let comments degenerate into polarising, adversarial heat. On Twitter if I even mentioned Obama, I received attacks questioning my integrity! I guess that leads to the first point:
- USA comes across as terribly polarised. Divided. Just look at the popular vote numbers. Mitt Romney gave an extremely gracious speech. The Chicago crowd booed. When Obama was similarly gracious, towards Republicans and Mitt Romney, his followers palpably dropped in enthusiasm, and you could see disappointment in the President’s face as he paused to give them a moment to follow his lead. It was only towards the end of his speech that his crowd warmed to his, “I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We’re not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America.” The church is also terribly polarised. We should be showing the world how unity is done. We should be the sacrament of unity. We may yet have to learn to pay attention to God’s Spirit working in the world.
- Church is a lot about words. Often too much and too many. Here are examples of how to give addresses. Are we paying attention in our seminaries? In our training and formation processes? I come across far too much we’ll train them after ordination, following an on-the-job training model. And so worship services that should sparkle are spoiled by poor training and formation in leadership. We don’t do it with doctors, we don’t do it with teachers. Continue training – of course. But train and form rigorously – then ordain. Again, pay attention to God’s Spirit working in the world.
- Many commented on the different crowds and supporters. Older and white. Younger and mixed. The younger and mixed are the look of the future. The older and white have their phones on cables. The younger and mixed have aps. Am I the only one who notices Mitt Romney only has 1,765,913 followers on Twitter. Barack Obama has 22,247,272. The old, white way of doing things is still here for a while, but the young, mixed, twitter, facebook is the face into the future. Church, here at least, is more old and white than young and tech-savy. What are we learning?
What other reflections do you have for us as church, as Christians?
Not so much a reflection on your post, Bosco, but prompted by your remark re Twitter/Obama, I have been very interested in the number of my conservative Christian friends and colleagues here in NZ who have clearly and volubly expressed support for Obama.
One thing that interested me: one of the winners this election was (once again) Twitter, Peter. Obama’s tweet and other tweets became the news. Blessings.
Kia ora Bosco. There is absolutely a lot for us to think about. Although of course Obama had plenty of wealthy and powerful supporters, it seems his victory was largely due to a coalition of the marginalised – single women, African American and Hispanic supporters who lifted him over the top. Seems like a Gospel moment to me.
If we were to apply some of those lessons to ourselves, then I wonder what formation would look like. For example Maori students are highly unlikely to leave St Johns and go into a full time position, and even when they do it is economically unsustainable and rarely lasts for more than a few years at most. So how do we form College students in a unified manner (under One Ring) when they leave for very different ministries?
Of course in my excitement I’m probably just conflating two unconnected issues 🙂 but perhaps what they have in common is how we deal honestly and realistically with change so that we are more effective in our proclamation.
Hirini
Tena koe, Hirini. There certainly is much that we could reflect on along the path you point to. At the same time as your point, there are others, who have not gone to St John’s, and have minimal training, who are in a stipended, full-time position. How do we meet the many cultures in our land, and keep faith with the Tangata Whenua? I have written about St John’s and formation for ordination in other posts also. Kia ora.
The US isn’t as divided as the media would have people think, we all work together, go to church and socialise together, even with different ideologies, though unfortunately the news stations are mostly right-wing and dogged with highly paid opinionated corporate propaganda-merchants constantly trying to stir people’s negative emotions.
It seems pitting people against each other is a good distraction and, I am guessing, a money-spinner.
The way President Obama has been treated here is tantamount to if Obama’s recent campaign had for example been based around anti-LDS propaganda about Mormons having multiple wives and marrying children…he’s called a socialist, a Muslim, not a born American…all lies of course. And all prejudice.
An article on the BBC today http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/20243574 says ‘By the autumn, the election was no longer a referendum on four hard and seemingly fruitless years of Mr Obama; it was a choice between two flawed candidates.’
Fruitless? Achieving healthcare for all- at least slowly, removing the world’s worst terrorist-leader, giving residency status to young people born here and a future for illegal immigrants who only want a chance to work and be full Americans…one may not agree with what he’s doing but it’s certainly not fruitless, especially when compared with the way other countries have been dealing with and weathering their part in what is a global recession and redistrbution of power and wealth.
The US Republicans are out of touch with so many Americans, women, young people, non-fundamentalist Christians, immigrants, gays.
Texas Republicans put out this document in 2012 http://www.tfn.org/site/DocServer/20…pdf?docID=3201
Yesterday they returned a ‘Tea Party’ ie. extreme right-wing candidate for Senator. It’s ironic to read his story, beause the climate which welcomed his father and helped him make a new life here would reject him today for something quite basic- immigrants have to be able to speak English to be legal.
Yes the church can learn from all this- reap what you sow. Sow hatred and lack of compassion and above all promote privileged status and lives for the few powerful- what do you think will happen?
The spirit of God will not be cowed by words or power or money or television. People know what is right or wrong based upon two things: empathy and kindness.
‘Traditional’ may often seem picturesque or nostalgic but do we really want to go back to a country of inequality, abuse, racism and bigotry? Not me.
When I saw Mitt Romney running for election I wondered just how many freedoms would be curtailed if he were successful, which of course is another machination of the corporate propaganda fear-machine: the US gets free-er all the time despite all this media hype. The truth is the President’s powers are also limited and curtailed by the democratic process.
But the stupidest thing I’ve seen here in a long time I won’t even comment on, an advertisement which has been shown over and over on several major commercial US tv channels lately http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTSQozWP-rM
My mind boggles at times, it really does.
‘Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.’
Several conservative Catholic friends were very definitely against Obama – one calling him “a liar” and “evil”!
The United States Catholic Bishops spoke vigorously against the President – they apparently preferred a Mormon to a more conventional Christian. Their objections were largely over health care issues, defence of marriage, and perceptions of threats to religious freedom.
I am personally delighted at the outcome of the election.
Yes, Ralph; some Christians react as if they are persecuted and oppressed by the State now in USA because of Obama. Blessings.
This comment will be allowed through moderation if the person who placed it here gives their ordinary name as required by the comment guidelines here. I have also removed the URL. As presented, it looks to be spamming a link to a how-to-get-paid-on-the-web site.
Blessings
Rev Bosco Peters (site owner)
I spent time responding to the original post which response seems to have disappeared into the etherial mist? Media control having a wide reach? No let’s not join in the paranoia.
My reply can be summed up thus, however.
As the US President’s re-election became apparent on Tuesday, right-wing tv rabble-rouser Bill O’Reilly made the following comment, which if course is what he’s paid for, and not that he’s someone I would choose to watch, but it was widely quoted afterwards.
It could be seen as merely the typical bigoted sore-loser response to the situation:
‘The white establishment is in a minority. The demographics are changing. It’s not a traditional America anymore.’
Except it was broadcast on a news channel, in response to a news report, and not one person/body responded with a factual correction:
America is currently 72 % whites of ‘traditional’ European descent…
Thanks for the second attempt, Tracy. Your first try got lost under piles of spam, so I managed to find it and put it through. Blessings.
Thanks Bosco!
Thanks Peter for your insightful comments and for kicking this off. These election results again demonstrate that truth will always triumph over prejudice – eventually. The trouble with hardline right wing position holders is not that they do not want to see Obama, the cannot see him. It is a disability that most people who are in the majority with regard to power and wealth have but are unaware of. All the predictions, media gurus, polls etc were affected by the same difficulty, Obama’s colour has made him invisible- period. Sadly the strength and power of the media in the west also means that Christians views and convictions get formed largely from the media rather than from the good old book – the Bible. They also are not free to see Obama. Sure, Obama crosses the good old book on several important points which I would like to scream about but it’s hard to believe that serious Christians would line up behind a mormon so easily. It appears that our God who sets up all governments and takes them down as well sees differently from his avowed followers on earth at least in the case of these elections. May our father keep opening our eyes so that we might have the freedom to see things increasingly as he sees them. To some extent, although I am aware of the risks of being charged with quoting out of context, I feel that we are looking at the outworking of a 1 Corinthians 1 matter here:
But For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 1 Cor.1: 19
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. (1 Cor. 1:25 NIV84). John Kpikpi.
Right…as similarly Joel Osten’s statement that Romney is a Christian, for Romney claims to believe in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
Hence, both Obama and Romney claim and believe they’re both Christians, the former (with his family) do not go to church (though Christianity goes beyond attending a church), while the latter goes to a pseudo-Christian church.
For being a Christian requires more than just “believing” in Jesus Christ…as the devil himself believes and shudders!
A Christian is one who has put his faith and trust in Jesus Christ, who has repented from his sins and lives a life in total surrender to Christ, who, by the grace of God, walks his life in Christ, is passionate about Christ, compassionate of lost souls…
A simple self-claim doesn’t make one necessarily a Christian.
But then, as many would argue, who are we to judge? Who are we to pointblank says that one is a Christian while the other is not? We only sees a glimpse of the person, while God sees the heart, the whole person.
But to have contrasting and opposing political views with God’s standard, His Word, is a seriously disturbing one. And so it’s natural for some to question or doubt…for Christians are naturally expected to live what the Word of God preaches, and where conflicting party ideologies and principles surface, we turn to God’s Word for the final authority, the final judge.
Let’s pray for the President, as we pray for the whole of American people. God isn’t through with him yet…let’s pray that God would intervene, miraculously open his mind and allow him to see the truly liberating Truth that’s found only in God’s Word, not in any Marxism or socialism dogma. I think that is our basic duty, to pray for our leaders, and love them, however we strongly disagree with their policies and agenda. While we stand up for our convictions and speak the truth in all issues that affect the nation, lest we be sidetracked, let’s back it up with love in action, with practical, specific deeds of love done to others. At times we don’t win an argument and convert them to our side by mere verbal argument, but more effectively showing them how it’s done…the Christian, lovingly, graciously, compassionately way.
Thanks, Pete. I’m not sure about your definition of a Christian. It’s a (surprisingly) difficult area. And if it really is, as you say, a person is a Christian if s/he “lives a life in total surrender to Christ” – well I suspect there’s very, very few to none! Blessings.