Jesus didn’t “agree to disagree”

If you are a preacher (ordained or lay), I hope you’ll find a way to be publicly prophetic during these last two weeks before election day, if you haven’t been already. The precipice that we are on right now doesn’t end on November 5th. We continue to skate towards the edge of fascism, dictatorship, and politicide—when government policies result in the murder of people, especially because of their politics and purposes of justice. This is the way of empire that has become too familiar, woven within the fabric of our collective lives.

We are called upon to be more like Jesus. The Gospels show Jesus to be highly political and therefore a polarizing figure. While the future might be hazy and drenched with anxiety, we have a way forward in our faith and practice of following the way of Christ.

There are various reasons why Christians, churches, and community leaders won’t talk about politics. There is appeasement in purple churches and communities—with a mix of blue democrats and red republicans. They engage in conflict avoidance and pacification, to “agree to disagree.” There exists in any community, especially the church, the fear of offending or losing relationships, members, often and especially donors. Community leaders and pastors fear losing a job and income, or the threat of losing 501(c)3 nonprofit status from the IRS, or maybe they just “don’t do politics.”

In the Church there exists white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity, Christian hegemony or dominance, and ableism. These are just a few intersectional and overarching reasons we avoid politics in the church.

And then of course, those who may be unaffected by the outcome of this presidential election are not incentivized to have difficult conversations about politics. But the reality is that we are all affected by the outcome of this election and every election.

Then maybe it is the difference between a theoretical and practical faith?

The point of Jesus’ stories, metaphors, illustrations, questions, actions, interactions, and relationships were to practically show us the ”Way.” The way to relate to God is through our relationships to one another that is loving, kind, generous, justice-seeking, truthful (especially when it is hard), healing, accepting, welcoming and inclusive (even when it seemed Jesus himself struggled with this, he got there). Jesus listened to the oppressed and responded, by changing his and others’ minds and actions. Jesus demonstrated the power dynamic of inverting the empire’s oppression by lifting up those who society casts aside and harms, taking care of one another instead of exploiting each other: Loving our neighbor as we would want to be loved (Mark 12:30).

Jesus did not “agree to disagree” on social norms, laws, or religious and political leadership that caused harm to marginalized people. He spoke prophetically, and acted prophetically, telling the truth about God’s unconditional love, forgiveness, care, and regard for diverse people (see the Good Samaritan, Healing the Leper, The Prodigal Son). Jesus demonstrated his own powers of healing, feeding, and confrontation (Healing the Blind, Feeding the 5,000, The Woman at the Well, Jesus before the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate).

Jesus had the moral courage to hold those in power accountable, he named them, their erroneous thinking, their harmful actions, and he called them back to the loving ways of God, their creator. He caused them to rethink their rules, laws, precedents, and behaviors.

Where is our moral courage?

We have a choice of multiple possible futures. It is an imperfect choice, as many choices are, but the directions our presidential and vice presidential candidates and their parties are heading couldn’t be more divergent.

We’ve been traveling this road for some time now, and each election unveils just how close we are to certain moral failure that will cost us much more than we’ve already sacrificed spiritually, physically, and mentally.

Most of us are familiar with individual moral failure, where we fail to do the right thing despite our best efforts.

We also have some experience with collective moral failure, for example, institutionalized, systemic racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, xenophobia, transphobia, etc.

We’ve also experienced patterns, seasons, and events together as moral failures: wars since and including Vietnam; our national and collective inability to prevent genocides; the global climate crisis; migration; legislation that has stripped people of their rights to bodily autonomy, healthcare, basic needs, and a safety net that prevents further harm and death.

But as a country, many of us don’t have experience with complete national moral failure to the degree we may soon experience, and that other far right leaning countries have and continue to experience.

One of our possible futures is a certain death of the democracy, freedom, and safety we’ve managed to cultivate in our country’s short, but genocidal history of empire. It is an imperfect history and imperfect future.

I was talking recently with a colleague about the election, and our real sense and fear that maybe we get what we deserve.

What seeds have we sown? How well have we tended to the garden? How much sun and water has been allocated? Have we spent time pulling weeds, and protecting seedlings from the bunnies and grasshopper-locusts (I did not this spring and lost a whole vegetable garden)?

What fruit do we expect to bear for our efforts of following the way of Christ? Have we been practical or theoretical followers? What have we allowed to steer us astray? What kind of Spirit-dwelling inspiration, imagination, relationships, community, spiritual practices, support, boundaries, leadership do we need to get back on the path?

It’s not a quick answer, and I don’t mean the above to be narrowly about the election season and what you’ve done to support a particular candidate. It is more about how we live day-to-day, where we draw the line, how we follow Jesus in not “agreeing to disagree” when it comes to the life and health of people and our planet and its creatures.

In Partnership,

Rev. Dr. Jenny Whitcher, Ph.D (she/her)

Minister of Prophetic Formation