Whose side are you on?

It wasn't long ago that our President (not the current, but the former) used the phrase "if you're not with us, you're agin' us." He was actually quoting Jesus of Nazareth, just... in a different context: the spread of Democracy vs the spread of the Gospel.

I happen to be on the mailing list for Organizers for America, the remnants of the Obama presidential campaign. They routinely send out letters asking "supporters" to rally for one cause or another of the current President's. And the tone of these emails is remarkably similar to that of the former President. If one disagrees with the President on a policy agenda issue, that person is an "opponent", and "stands in the way of progress".

Ideological fervor on BOTH sides of an issue, from both ends of the political spectrum, can take on religious overtones of zeal or duty or rightness. The problem is, we rarely consult God on the matter. We prefer to "baptize" our already closely held positions and make them holy.

It hearkens back to the words of another President, he of Emancipation and Civil War fame, when speaking of the blood shed between our fellow countrymen:

"Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes."

-----Abraham Lincoln, second inaugural address



No foolin' there, Abe. God definitely has His own purposes, and most of the time they ain't ours. This is the reason that I NEVER sing along when "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" is played in church. It too easily invokes the name of God to justify the slaying of our neighbors in a cause of our own anointing.

This whole business reminds me of the Bible passage when Joshua was getting ready to make war on Jericho and start taking the Promised Land. He definitely had an "our side / their side" mentality working for him, and a conviction that God was on his side in the upcoming conflict. However, as he was walking about privately and praying, he had a remarkable encounter with an angel of God:

"Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?"

"Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?"

The commander of the LORD's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.

-----Joshua 5:13-15



Would that all of us, when we take up a cause with righteous fervor, would remember to fall on our face and ask God for direction before we criticize our neighbors. A little humilty would get us a lot further in public discourse.