I’ve been mostly minding my own business for the past two months, but I got posterized on Facebook on Monday and wanted to share the moment with you all:
Discuss?
Forgive Us Our Sins
October 17, 2012 in Culture with 15 Comments
About J. R. Daniel Kirk: Professor at Fuller Seminary, resident of San Francisco, consumer of dark chocolate, brewer of dark beer, reader of Flannery O'Connor, watcher of the Coen Brothers, listener of The Mountain Goats.
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15 Responses to “Forgive Us Our Sins”
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I think your quote illustrates what it means to be reformed versus anabaptist.
How so?
As I have experienced it, anabaptists have tended toward a more unqualified allegiance to the Kingdom, eschewing actions that might compromise witness to that allegiance. Reformed folks sense a call into the messiness of engaging in culture, even in ways that put them in the position of making suboptimal decisions.
Thanks, Michael. That’s helpful.
Agreed. You either choose the lesser of two evils or vote for a third party, none of which are righteous. I’ll vote third party but i don’t have much more in common with Johnson or Goode than i do with Robamna. Or you could not vote, which is certainly an option but i believe it to be a bit too easy and makes far less of a statement than “wasting” your vote for someone other than a democrat or republican.
I remember back in 2008 being in the voting booth trying to decide between the McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden ticket. The voices from my “Christian Right” heritage were telling me to vote the McCain/Palin ticket because of the issues of abortion. But I was struggling over the war-mongering, American civil religious idolatry they had been using to make America God’s instrument of righteousness for the planet. I recalled Jesus having much harsher words towards those who would do this kind of thing – remake God over to “bless” all things of a worldly kingdom, than towards all the “sinners”. But, I also could not bring myself to vote for Obama for those same “moral” reasons.
Then I noticed the “write-in” option. All of a sudden those voices that shout “you are wasting your vote” came flooding in.
I left the voting booth with “Jesus for president” in that option, wondering why I even came that day to vote.
Just as I was at the brink of despair, a group of pre-voting age students came up to me, asking if they could interview me on my vote. They were doing this for their civics class. For the next half hour or so I got to share with them about Jesus and His kingdom and how it provides the confidence to discern all the banter of the world’s competing voices, leaving it as the only “unshakable” option in which to depend.
Maybe that “write-in”, while in the world’s conventional wisdom (and the eyes of so many of my fellow Christians) only think of it as a waste and irresponsible, can be used as that subtle way of subverting the world’s wisdom and opening eyes to that kingdom that gives all the certain hopes we long for. Maybe, just maybe, those kids learned something that will lead them there that day. It certainly would give a vindication to that despair I was feeling up til that time.
I’m not into American politics but I love this story. God has better ideas than any politician and this shows how we can be involved in his better ideas if just follow our conscience rather than follow the world.
Hi Rosalie! Thanks for the encouragement. I don’t get much substantive engagement with what happened that day. Most times the idea of “waste,” or “irresponsible” is the response. Now, with Daniel’s quote above, I wonder if I need to ask any kind of “forgiveness” for what happened. Or does this “pass the test?” God bless, Mark.
Forgiveness for my judgment of a candidate’s attributes? Or forgiveness of their shortcomings? Both? Neither?
Is there a context for the quote? A blog or a lecture? Context would help me flesh out some of the implications of forgiveness.
Not really. I did mention it in a sermon, but the quote was rather self-standing.
http://www.trinity-pres.org/#/worship-music/sermons
When I first looked at the photo at the beginning of the post, before scrolling down, I thought I was looking at men in a restroom standing at you-know-whats. Expecting a post of comedy, imagine my disappointment when I discovered that the topic was actually a serious one.
Grab your “Things to Talk to the Therapist About” list from your pocket. Make a note.
Daniel,
Does the lesser of two evil argument really hold water? I hear this thrown around a lot and I am not buying it anymore as a valid way of discussing the issues of voting. I think that line of reasoning enforces a general dichotomy into the public mind and therefore stops all thinking outside of the cycle that has been created. You photo though I think because it acknowledges the difficulty without the cop-out of lesser of two evils. The mindset is different and, I feel, more honest. It seems to fully operate as a Christian in politics requires what your photo says. So some develop a theology of retreat, embrace, or living the dichotomy.
When you tweeted this, I totally read it as, “there is no one for whom I might cast a vote that I will not, in some sense, need to forgive.” It only just dawned on me that it also means, “there is no vote that I can cast (or refrain from casting) for which I will not, in some sense, need to repent.” Feeling a little bit slow on the uptake right about now.