Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Devil's Advocate

One thing I learned in college that has stuck with me -
I mean, become an instinctive part of my brain/heart wiring - is this:
If there is an unrepresented side, take it.

Call it antagonism, or devil's advocate. Call it justice, or balancing the scales. Or just call it contrarianism (i made up a word). Things are rarely cut and dried, black and white, without nuance. It's important to me to side with those who have nobody on their side. That's why conservative people sometimes get the idea that I'm liberal (or a heretic), and liberal people pretty much ignore me because they don't like to fight as much as conservatives.

For better or worse (I think better), that part of me flows out of my faith, and what I believe God is like. I don't really think he's all that concerned with how correct we are on issues. I don't think there's going to be a test on that stuff. We simply can't be right enough for God's taste, so he has decided to cease grading that way. Does it mean I don't have opinions? Of course not. There are some things we can know for sure - but that is a very short list. (Maybe that will be my next post (in 6 months or so).)

When it comes to politics, I have had a long slow evolution from one extreme to the middle. I actually think that it's very important for Christians to be involved in politics. The Bible is political. Jesus was political. Just count how many references there are to the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, and aliens. How we treat or punish these people is still part of our political discussion TODAY. If you don't think the gospel writers and Paul had a stance on Rome, or an agenda in their writing, I'd love to sit down with you for a couple of hours.
That being said - what stance should followers of Christ take today? With the right? With the left? As with most things in life, my faith forces me to ask - is there a "third way"? Is it possible not to be red or blue but... yellow, I guess? (Yes, I know it is a synonym for cowardly)

A friend linked me to an article today that i think perfectly articulates where I currently stand. And since it agrees with me - I am going to post it here, so that you can agree with me too. See what I did there ;-)
I don't know who Jen Hatmaker is. I've never read any of her stuff. I haven't seen he blog before. But I know that she has put into words exactly what is wrong with me, and what an increasing number of people of faith have been thinking:

Jen Hatmaker: Thoughts From A Christian Independent

I'd love to hear your thoughts.