Nouwen quote
My friend and co-conspirator Denise Van Eck passed on this beautiful quote from Henri Nouwen today.
A New World Is Yet to Come
Henri Nouwen
You are Christian only so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in, so long as you emphasize the need of conversion both for yourself and for the world, so long as you in no way let yourself become established in the situation of the world, so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come. You are Christian only when you believe you have a role to play in the realization of the new kingdom, and when you urge everyone you meet with holy unrest to make haste so that the promise might soon be fulfilled. So long as you live as a Christian you keep looking for a new order, a new structure, a new life.
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Faith, Politics, and Voting … Part 3, Process and Product
I know that most people think only in terms of the product of the election. Only one question matters: Who won?
But I think the process of the election is tremendously important to. It raises an even more important question: What are we becoming?
For example, if someone wins through dirty tricks, we have become a dirtier nation in the process. If someone wins through dishonest or superficial arguments, we have become a less honest and shallow nation in the process. If someone manipulates us with unrealistic promises, we have become a more gullible nation in the process. If someone wins through vicious rhetoric or fear tactics, we become a more divided and frightened nation.
A friend sent me an email this morning which suggested one of the more positive possibilities in this process. He and his wife are enthusiastically supporting Barack Obama in this election, and they have been shocked by the negative responses they've received from some relatives and friends at church. Among the responses that have saddened them most have been overt and covert expressions of racism.
After an uncomfortable conversation with a family member that turned into a good dialgoue about race, my friend's wife sent this email to her relative (shared with permission):
I've been thinking...and since it's 4.30am and i can't sleep, thought i'd write...
re: "why does God make different races?", your question on the beach.
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Faith, Politics, and Voting … Part 1
To vote or not to vote?
Some folks I've talked to are not going to vote in the 2008 elections. Some are disillusioned. Some don't like either candidate enough to vote. For some, not voting is an act of protest against the whole system, which they believe is hopelessly corrupt. Some believe that their citizenship in God's kingdom means they shouldn't become involved in "earthly" citizenship.
While I respect my friends who aren't going to vote - especially those who have prayerfully thought the decision through from multiple vantage points - I will vote in this election for several reasons.
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Faith, Politics, and Voting … Part 2
All of us who choose to vote must base our vote on something.
For some people, it's party. They're Democrats or Republicans and from election to election, they support whomever the party serves up. For others, it's a litmus test issue - abortion, homosexuality, war, whatever. For others, it's fear or hope or some other "gut level" appeal - whoever scares or inspires them the most gets their vote. And for still others, it's a "group thing" - they belong to a group (a race, a religion, an interest group, trade union, a social class, or whatever) that issues a statement on which candidate is most attractive to their group, and that's who wins their vote.
For many of us, none of these factors are satisfying.
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Faith, Politics, Voting … Introduction
Recently I needed to set the record straight about an AP article that had a misstatement about my relation to the Barack Obama campaign.
This week, a CNN story had a similar statement that requires some clarification:
Brian McLaren, a former pastor who spent 24 years in the pulpit and is now an informal adviser to the Obama campaign, believes that a significant portion of evangelical voters are ready to break from their traditional home in the the Republican Party and take a new leap of faith with Obama.
A few friends contacted me and said they were afraid the article gave the impression that I left a 24-year pastorate in order to become an Obama advisor, which isn't true. I left the pastorate in January 2006 - long before the campaign began - in order to devote more time to writing, travel, and networking. If I am an advisor to the campaign at all, it is very informally - probably nothing more than the fact that at least one campaign staffer has read some of my books.
The article accurately reflects my belief that increasing numbers of evangelical voters have become increasingly alienated from the Religious Right and are moving toward Senator Obama. I'm certainly one of them. While I was never a fan of the Religious Right, for many years I sat on the sidelines and didn't speak out publicly that the leaders of the Religious Right didn't speak for me. Looking back, I'm ashamed of my inaction and I believe my silence unintentionally empowered "the powers that be." Since leaving the pastorate, I have felt more free to speak out as a Christian and private citizen about my discomfort with the agenda of the Religious Right, and my hopes for a better way of relating faith, politics, and voting. I plan to be more involved in this election than any in my life ... and that includes offering whatever advice I can to whomever might find it helpful.
Over the coming months, I'd like to share on this blog a few thoughts about the way I see faith, politics, and voting to be connected. I'll post under this heading, using Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, etc., if people want to follow the thread.
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