{"id":616,"date":"2012-11-10T14:47:01","date_gmt":"2012-11-10T21:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/?p=616"},"modified":"2012-11-10T14:47:01","modified_gmt":"2012-11-10T21:47:01","slug":"some-post-election-thoughts-about-god%e2%80%99s-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/?p=616","title":{"rendered":"Some Post-Election Thoughts about God\u2019s Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

By Jim Wallis<\/p><\/div>\n

In the run-up to the election season, I gave a little talk based on Jim Wallis\u2019 book God\u2019s Politics, <\/em>extending his ideas about prophetic politics\u2014\u201cnot future telling, but articulating moral truth\u201d\u2014to big-issue organization in congregational and community life.\u00a0 That talk, including stories of the prophets in my own life, is available by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the election is over, and musing about God\u2019s Politics will take place within the context of the results.<\/p>\n

This was a turning point election, like Roosevelt in 1932 or Reagan in 1980, which defines the country and its direction.\u00a0 Even more than 2008, it illustrates that beneath the money-fueled hate speech and engineered paranoia, the United States is a vast, tolerant, and reasonably forward thinking country.<\/p>\n

The diverse winning electorate represents a new dominant force in public life, perhaps a long lasting coalition that will rival FDR\u2019s without the taint of the old Southern Democrats.\u00a0 Social and demographic change was the key to the election.\u00a0 It was not that Governor Romney failed to energize white voters; he did as well as any Republican.\u00a0 But they were not enough.<\/p>\n

Obama\u2019s win was remarkable on several fronts.\u00a0 He had a lot going against him.\u00a0 The economy has been sluggish, and the President bore some responsibility for that.\u00a0 No incumbent president has been elected with unemployment as high as ours.\u00a0 He faced intense ideological backlash in 2010 that was not effectively countered until this year\u2019s campaign was in full swing.\u00a0 Even then it came at the self-destructive hands of his opponent, who scrambled so far to the right to win the nomination that he couldn\u2019t Etch-a-Sketch it away.\u00a0 Even his autumn rebirth as a moderate could not erase the \u201c47%\u201d and \u201cself-deport\u201d statements that were an accurate reflection of the values of his base.<\/p>\n

Through all this, God was invoked frequently but I am not sure our heavenly parent was well listened to.<\/p>\n

Poverty got an airing, but not a real one.\u00a0 The economy faces real and persistent structural problems that neither party has addressed well.\u00a0 Both the engine of the economy and its distributional equity need fixing.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just jobs that are important; our children and grandchildren need good jobs, <\/em>those that will allow them to marry, buy a house, and raise a family.\u00a0 These are real family values.<\/p>\n

Protecting the planet morphed into a discussion of who\u2019s drilling what oil.\u00a0 I do not believe that there is a stronger Christian imperative than to care for the planet.\u00a0 If that is the case, it\u2019s also an imperative to craft workable solutions and to win friends for them.<\/p>\n

Health care became a referendum on Obamacare and reproductive rights.\u00a0 Untouched were the more substantive issues about how the country actually keeps healthy.\u00a0 No one said much about obesity and diabetes, the twin plagues of affluence.\u00a0 (These are topics that the Inland Empire Sponsoring Committee is wrestling with.\u00a0 For more, talk to Chuck.)<\/p>\n

Finger pointing about big money politics turned into a \u201cwe can play this game, too\u201d exercise.\u00a0 In one of his few recorded acts of anger, Jesus, did, in fact, chase the moneychangers from the temple.\u00a0 He did not seek a franchise for his <\/em>moneychangers.\u00a0 We cannot have a democracy when access to power requires endless fundraising.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got other pet issues that I\u2019d like to think that God would care about, but I\u2019m not sure.\u00a0 Radio and television bandwidth is public property.\u00a0 It\u2019s time for the Federal Communications Commission to reintroduce the fairness doctrine.\u00a0 Initiative and referendum in California were designed as a way for citizens to act when their government wouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 It\u2019s become a playground for special interests and the gadfly rich.\u00a0 Proposition 13 was sold as a way to keep widows from losing their homes.\u00a0 It\u2019s become a highly inequitable anchor on government that has destroyed town and school district grassroots democracy by removing the right to raise taxes for the uses that people see as the most immediate.<\/p>\n

Finally, Mr. Jefferson\u2019s barrier between church and state was one of the most important beliefs of our founders.\u00a0 For the sake of the church as well as the state, it needs to be reinvigorated.\u00a0 God\u2019s politics and partisan politics are not the same.<\/p>\n

God is not a Democrat or a Republican.\u00a0 Keep saying that over and over again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the run-up to the election season, I gave a little talk based on Jim Wallis\u2019 book God\u2019s Politics, extending his ideas about prophetic politics\u2014\u201cnot future telling, but articulating moral truth\u201d\u2014to big-issue organization in congregational and community life.\u00a0 That talk, including stories of the prophets in my own life, is available by clicking here. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[98,99],"tags":[100,29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":618,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions\/618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}