Don't vote for Jesus

Shortly after Ted Cruz announced he was running for president last week, I heard something in passing on Fox News at work. (I will only ever hear something in passing on Fox News because I will never watch it. I don’t do partisan news coverage [and there’s a study that proves watching Fox News makes you dumber]. So no MSNBC either. And I don’t have cable at home, so I’m lucky to avoid most of the almost laughable 24-hour cable news cycle anyway. But Fox News is on a TV at work sometimes.) I don’t remember exactly what it said, but it was to the effect of, “Ted Cruz wants to rally conservative Christians to regain political power.”

I dry heaved at that a little (which I find to be my reaction to a lot of things I’ve seen on Fox News) because there was so very, very much wrong with it. I actually know very little about Ted Cruz. I generally avoid presidential politics until I have to pay attention to them, which I think is around primary election time every four years. But the idea of trying to thrust religion into politics is always bad. Always. And I say this as a Christian (albeit not a “conservative” one, whatever that means). A Christian who thinks legislating morality always has and always will be a bad idea. Because you know who legislates morality really well? Countries ruled by sharia law. Countries where women can’t read or support themselves and are treated like chattel. Countries where you can be imprisoned or put to death for reading or believing something that isn’t in line with the national religion. (Countries “conservatives” claim to despise, by the way). Trust me, we don’t want that here.

And if you claim to be a big fan of Jesus, you should probably know he wasn’t a big fan of political power. Or religious power, for that matter. You might recall it was those in political and religious power who killed him. He also was always pointing out how those in power were going against the will of God and treating their fellow humans like crap. And then he was like, “I’m going to go have dinner with all those meek sinners, so deal with it.” He spent most of his time those folks. As far as I can tell, pretty much the only time he spent with the powerful was to tell them they sucked and occasionally offer them a shot at redemption.

A few months ago, our pastor said, “Jesus didn’t come as a moral crusader. He came as a grace crusader.” He came to bring this radical idea that your life and eternal destiny didn’t amount to a tally of what you did wrong and what you did right. That he was going to take care of all that through his death and resurrection. All you had to do was believe he did. For someone who has screwed up more times than I care to think about and still fails a lot at following Jesus, do you know how liberating that is? It’s so crazy different from what we’re used to here, where we’re judged almost solely on our merits. For anyone who ever has messed up (and to be clear, I mean everyone), that should be wildly appealing. People should be flocking to Jesus and Christianity by the bajillions. 

But they’re not. In America, at least, they’re running away from it in droves. And I think the people who are sending them sprinting are those who call themselves Christians. Those who will wage a loud public fight about making a cake for a gay couple or not being able to erect a statue of the Ten Commandments at the courthouse. Those who fight for tax structures to protect the wealthy. Those same people tend to remain pretty quiet about making sure poor people can get medical care or providing food and a good education for impoverished children. 

Philip Yancey, one of my favorite Christian authors, wrote that most people know more about what Christians are against than what they’re for. I just can’t put into words how tragic that is. It’s like a direct defiance of Jesus’ command to “Go and make disciples of all nations.” It seems “conservative Christians” have taken that to mean, “Make it sound like Christianity is about a bunch of intolerant, holier-than-thou pricks who care only about themselves and their agenda.” 

I’m sorry this isn’t a funny post. But my heart has been aching ever since I heard that stupid report on Fox News earlier this week. It breaks to think that the amazingness of Jesus is being reduced to nothing but political mud. And then at church this past Palm Sunday, I was reminded that the people who welcomed Jesus on the original Palm Sunday and treated him as a king were the poor, oppressed and powerless. Those who arrested him that Thursday night and put him through six different trials were an entirely different set of people. They were the political and religious elite. 

For some more thought-provoking material on this, check out this post on the God's Politics blog (which I found after I originally wrote this, but man, you'd think I'd plagiarized a little. I'm just glad this weighs on the heart of others).