Politics!
Politics,
especially elections, have often been a nasty business.
What is different
today is that our many platforms for communication have produced a hunger for
information to feed a 24-hour news cycle.
What used to be
said behind closed doors is now said in public.
What was once crass is now necessary in order to make it to the top of
the news hour, or the half-hour, or the 5-minute news break.
Politics has become
a spectacle, newsworthy in itself, independent from the civil society it is
intended to serve.
God has given us
commandments to help us live a better way.
How much better
would our world be if politicians kept the 8th one? That is, “You shall not bear false witness
against your neighbor.” Who is our
neighbor? Everyone in need of our
neighborliness. (Luke 10:25-37)
What does that mean
for politics?
Martin Luther, the
16th century church reformer, defined its meaning as being that “we
are to fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors,
betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead we are to come to their defense,
speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible
light.”
What if our culture
supported and voted for politicians based on their positons on the issues,
especially related to people in greatest need, and assisted them and held them
and their parties accountable for those positions once they are elected to
office?
What if we viewed
the way they treated others running for the same office as one of those issues?
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