Apolitical

I really should stay out of politics.

Really, I know I should. I get in all kinds of trouble when I get involved in political situations. I have nerve damage in my hands from the handcuffs if you can't think of any other good example.

The problem is: I'm good at politics. I enjoy a good debate and I have a real skill for it. I'm good at working out a compromise and making sure that everyone leaves the table happy. I've been known to throw out an impassioned speech from time to time. I think I would be a good politician.

I can answer a question without answering the question.

But I feel that when I get political, that I leave part of myself behind. I get swept up in the moment and I forget the things that really matter to me. I think this is true of most politicians.

While I'm really surprised to see that conservative Christians would gladly throw their support behind a candidate of a different religion; I think that religion doesn't matter. You can't be a good politician and a devout anything. In order to get to the places of prominence and importance in todays world - you have to be willing to betray that which you once cared about.

You have to be willing to crush your opponent with power and strength. That doesn't sound very Christian.

Christianity is essentially an exercise in powerlessness.

The marginalized on a grand march to the doors of the wealthy elite and powerful; we plead with them to understand that in the end we were winning all along. We, the meek, will inherit the earth.

It brings me great pain to see the posturing and positioning begin for General Conference. Every four years we allow the mantras of the corporate world, the slogans of the campaign trail, and the -isms of the world to enter our hearts and minds. Our doors are closed to the powerless as the powerful make decisions that we will fail to internalize and which in turn will fail to materialize the change that we all want to see.

In the corner of my heart that beats slowest; I'm still convinced that the people who are affecting real change in our denomination are people whose names we will never know. They are not politicians; they are servants.

They smile broadly and pray as they bake a casserole for someone getting out of the hospital. They break the crack of dawn to shovel snow in front of the church. They clean the church without pay and without thanks. They feed the kiddos on Tuesday afternoon. They walk 12 miles to Bible classes. They invited strangers into their apartments for a worship service. They sing Halleluiah and they mean it. They understand that the bills can be paid later, but the people need rice right now.

They are God's littlest. And they are blessed.