A Christian Response, pt 2

This is part two of our series related to voting and being Christian. As we move into the second piece, lets quickly remember part 1, where we decided that the Christian life at its core is about following Jesus. This following Jesus is about letting Christ have control of all aspects of who you are and learning to follow Jesus' example. This qualification reminds us that faithfulness to Jesus is our primary concern, and means of determining successful Christian living. Because faithfulness is primary, arguments for voting centered around effectiveness and responsibility are left wanting.
As all of us know, we are not particularly good at this "following Jesus" stuff. There are a myriad of ways we trip ourselves up, or get tripped up along the way. One of the major ways we get tripped up is called idolatry. Idolatry in essence is making something that is not God into a god- letting something besides God, try to be what only God can be. Scripture is littered with stories of idolatry and countless admonitions against it, mainly because we are so prone to idolatry. Idolatry, though, can still be a bit abstract, so lets unpack it a bit. In Scripture, one of the first pictures of idolatry is the first sin, wanting to become like God, particularly in knowledge. Shortly after this we read the story of the tower of Babel, where humans got together and decided to try to build their way to God. Soon after this we discover that the people of Israel who had spent a generation in Egypt had discovered how to worship foreign gods. Two of the first three commandments are meant to keep God's people from idolatry (have no other gods and do not make idols). No sooner than this command is given, then the need for it becomes obvious by creating a golden calf. The people of Israel wonder if Moses is going to return, and in their impatience decide that having a tangible god is more important than following the real God, who rescued them out of Egypt. As we move forward through Scripture we discover that idols are not simply carvings or foreign practices, but can even be our desires. Our own desires can take us captive, particularly sexual desires and the desire for power. In really broad strokes, it seems that there are several important characteristics about idolatry:
1. God despises it.
2. We are prone to it as people.
3. Idolatry tends to feed off of our impatience, lust, and desire for control.
4. Idolatry often stems from our desire to "be like the other nations."
5. Idolatry tends to be more comfortable than the faithful following of Jesus.

Lets take just a bit to examine how voting might pair up with this broad list in terms of idolatry. Let's take these in reverse order. Number five, how comfortable is voting as a Christian in the US? Quite. The alternative is far more uncomfortable, having to tell people you don't vote, and then walk them through why following Jesus may mean you shouldn't is way harder than researching a candidate and making an informed decision. This however is not a litmus test for whether or not voting is idolatrous, its simply important to be aware of how easily we assume voting is a normal Christian act. Number four, how does this voting help Christians relate to the state and then to other nations? Voting is a very simple way for Christians to be "active" and "involved" on the world's terms. We can express our Christian "values" exactly the same way Muslims, Jews, Atheists, and everyone else can express their values, through the liturgy of election (Part 3 of this series will unpack this point in more depth). Number three, does voting look/feel like lust, desire for control or impatience? It seems to me that voting is easily characterized by these descriptions. Voting becomes a short-cut for us to attempt to gain control. As we talked about in part one, this gaining control, or becoming effective, is directly opposite of our call to follow Jesus with our whole lives. Nonetheless, it is widely assumed that voting is our responsibility, because it is the way we can change the world. We have repeatedly been told, even from the pulpit, that voting is how we create change in the US. We vote to change laws, we vote to change officers, and now even Obama has utilized this as a campaign slogan. In short, voting is how we attempt to control our world. While we all may agree that voting is probably a better way than military upheaval to bring about change, it may be idolatrous to assume to assume that we are called to bring about such change. In fact, following Jesus and being characterized by his cross and resurrection may stop up from attempting such a project on the grounds of idolatry. When signing a petition is more significant than praying, when sending missiles makes more sense than sending missionaries, and when voting is more responsible than dying to ourselves and our desires, than at exactly this point we have gone too far and are at least flirting with idolatry.