The presidential elections are over. No more negative ads and blithe promises of change. No more news analysts blathering on and taking themselves so seriously. No more polls and pundits and politicians.

I guess I shouldn’t say, “No more.” Such matters—like the poor—tend to be with us always. But at least we can expect a break, a few weeks of peace and quiet, a brief period when carpet salesmen and car insurance companies attempt to win back the airwaves.

During this “rest period,” perhaps it is wise for people of faith to take stock and consider the future. Have we learned anything from November’s election? From the last 30 years? From the sectarian politics that too often have shaped our thinking and directed our votes?

Here for your reading pleasure (or displeasure) are a few things very much on my heart and mind as we move into this next season of our national life.

First, I am deeply conscious at this critical moment of my responsibility to my country, the kingdom, and the man who is president-elect. Barak Obama is our president. How I voted doesn’t matter. That America has voted does. And America’s choice deserves our respect, best wishes, and prayers. I’m praying that Barak Obama shows himself to be a wise, just, compassionate, firm president . . . a president for all the people
. . . a president with a world vision. I am confident God will continue to accomplish his purposes in our world—through the 44^th president or in spite of him.

Second, I am mindful of how life cycles, how seasons change, but that we serve a God who is forever constant. People of faith don’t pin their security on changing political or economic circumstances. For us, peace isn’t rooted in which party is in power or what the stock market is doing. Our hope, confidence, security, and contentment grow out of our relationship with an unchanging God. Will we wring our hands about the current state of events, or will we trust that God is in charge? If God is in control, then all things—good or bad, right or wrong, right or left—will serve to advance his purposes. Yes, our God is that big.

Finally, I’m thinking that the time has come for people of faith to reexamine the connection between church and state. No, I don’t mean issues like prayer in school or nativity scenes in courthouses. I mean some fundamental assumptions the conservative American church has made about what government can and should do for the kingdom.

With the rise of the Moral Majority and other similar efforts to partner a Christian agenda with the political process, the message has gone out that our culture is sliding into a moral Dark Ages, that the forces of pluralism and diversity are eroding the ethical foundations on which our country was founded, that Christians must band together to vote for a certain social agenda so as to preserve our “Christian nation.”

While I share some of these concerns, I am troubled by the assumptions beneath them. Yes, I am worried about declining morals in this country. But does the church turn to the state for solutions to that decline? Since when do more laws or better laws result in changed hearts? The essential business of the church is not legislating against unethical behavior but prompting penitence and faith. And we do this best through our own transformed lives, bold witness, and meaningful engagement with a hurting world—not through the agencies and policies of government.

How easily we Christians adopt an “end justifies means” mindset when it suits our purposes. The central message of the gospel is that God’s ends are accomplished through faithful people laying down their lives out of love for others. Remember the cross? Yes, that strategy seems foolish and inefficient. Wiser for us to build coalitions and voting blocks and make significant contributions to the coffers of cooperative politicians. But that’s not the strategy adopted by God, his Son, or the first Christians. They too want a world that is holy and just and honors its Creator. But the prime means of molding such a world has never been political power, God-friendly policies, or right-voting politicians. It has ever been godly men and women doing what was good (no matter the circumstances) and demonstrating such a winsomeness in their living that the world sits up and takes notice.

So how should we then live, now that the elections are over? Pray for our new president. Speak positively and supportively of him. But don’t think for a moment God depends on the president of the United States to accomplish his purposes. He doesn’t. What he counts on is us—faithful, compassionate, cruciform, persistent. When we act true to character, God’s foolish wisdom always wins out. |L

OTHER COLUMNS:
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
November 11, 2007 - My money is God’s business
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 19, 2007 - There’s a rat in ‘separate’
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 22, 2007 - Atheist chic
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 15, 2007 - God in the dark
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
March 4, 2007 - What will you hurt for?
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
February 4, 2007 - Give peace a chance
January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells