Latest / Finding God at Work / 12: More Resources on Faith and Politics

Transcript

12: More Resources on Faith and Politics · Finding God at Work

0:05
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
0:07
This is Finding God at Work.
0:14
Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
0:16
isn't just a podcast, it's also an online
0:18
course.
0:19
Check it out at FindingGodAtWork.org.
0:28
We are bringing to a close our current
0:31
series with this episode.
0:32
That series is Take a Stand, Faithful Political
0:35
Witness at Work.
0:37
And at the very beginning of the series,
0:39
in the first episode, I ended with a
0:41
couple of verses from Proverbs chapter 3.
0:44
So in this episode, I want to come
0:45
back to those verses, just do a little
0:47
bit of a meditation on them, and then
0:49
actually spend a good chunk of the episode
0:51
talking about resources if you want to go
0:53
further.
0:54
So kind of pointing you to leaders and
0:56
thinkers who are smarter and wiser than I
0:58
am, if you have more questions about how
1:01
to practice discipleship to Jesus in a faithful
1:04
way in the political arena, including when politics
1:07
comes to the workplace.
1:09
Okay, so first our meditation here.
1:11
The verses are chapter 3, verses 33 and
1:15
34 from Proverbs.
1:18
The Lord's curse is on the house of
1:19
the wicked, but he blesses the dwelling of
1:22
the righteous.
1:24
Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to
1:26
the humble he gives favor.
1:30
Okay, there's actually a lot packed in to
1:35
just those couple little verses.
1:37
I want to start with the last phrase
1:39
actually, but to the humble he gives favor.
1:43
Let's have humility be our first posture when
1:46
it comes to politics.
1:48
Often it's just the opposite in our society.
1:51
Politics is an area where people condemn one
1:53
another, where people speak with great self-righteousness,
1:56
where people are very willing to judge others
1:58
because of their views.
1:59
Let's start with the humility that Jesus modeled
2:03
for us.
2:04
Let's be his disciples.
2:06
Let's imitate him, and let's remember that toward
2:09
the scorners he is scornful, that the Lord
2:11
holds people accountable, not just for their opinions,
2:15
but also for the attitude they have towards
2:16
other human beings, including other human beings with
2:19
whom they disagree.
2:20
So we don't want to have an attitude
2:21
of being scornful even towards those people who
2:25
we deeply disagree with about significant issues.
2:28
God is scornful towards the scorners, but to
2:31
the humble he gives favor.
2:34
So let's have that humility be our posture.
2:37
Okay, now the other part of this verse
2:39
is what God does.
2:41
So the Lord's curse is on the house
2:43
of the wicked, but he blesses the dwelling
2:46
of the righteous.
2:47
This is a statement of God's ultimate justice.
2:51
There's a way in which God ministers this
2:52
now in the present.
2:54
There's also an ultimate sense that God's justice
2:56
will someday reach its fullness, its culmination.
3:00
And we know as disciples of Jesus, that
3:02
will be when Jesus returns.
3:03
We talked about that in our episode on
3:05
hope, that we have a vision of the
3:07
future that Jesus will bring that kind of
3:09
qualifies and tempers the amount of hope we
3:13
put in political matters in the present.
3:16
The Lord's curse is on the house of
3:18
the wicked, but he blesses the dwelling of
3:20
the righteous.
3:22
We can trust that God is the one
3:23
that will ultimately put things to rights.
3:27
God is the one that will give his
3:28
blessing to those who are open to receive
3:31
it and who will hold the wicked accountable,
3:34
who will hold everyone accountable for the ways
3:36
that they have participated in those injustices that
3:41
plague our communities and our society.
3:44
And again, that brings us right back to
3:46
the gospel itself, that all of us have
3:48
participated in those injustices.
3:49
To some extent, all of us need grace.
3:52
All of us need forgiveness, and we find
3:54
that ultimately in Jesus Christ.
3:57
When we turn to him, when we put
3:58
our faith in him, we find that we
4:00
can become less unjust and more just, more
4:03
that faithful picture of someone who's prayerful, thoughtful,
4:07
gentle, and courageous in regards to political issues
4:10
and everything else in life.
4:13
Okay, so let's have that be our posture.
4:16
Humility before the Lord, confidence that the Lord
4:19
will ultimately bring justice, and then doing our
4:22
darndest in the meantime to promote what's good
4:25
for everyone in our communities, especially the vulnerable.
4:29
All right, so if you're interested in learning
4:31
more about any of the issues we've talked
4:33
about, I have lots of resources that I
4:36
want to talk about.
4:37
So this is a little bit of an
4:38
infomercial episode from this point forward, but there
4:42
are several thinkers, writers, organizations that have been
4:45
really helpful to me.
4:47
So first, how do we think about Christian
4:50
faith and politics in general?
4:52
Not necessarily issue by issue, but just what's
4:54
our posture overall?
4:55
One writer who's been helpful for me is
4:57
Bonnie Christian.
4:59
That's spelled with a K, K-R-I
5:00
-S-T-I-A-N, Bonnie Christian.
5:03
She is an editorial director and a staff
5:05
editor at Christianity Today, so she's kind of
5:08
their main politics person while also working on
5:11
other things related to books, and she has
5:13
her own writing as well, so I'll include
5:15
a link in the show notes to her
5:16
page at Christianity Today.
5:18
She is interestingly a libertarian, which is not
5:21
my political viewpoint, but she does such a
5:24
good job of distinguishing between what is our
5:26
core gospel value from scripture and what are
5:29
the different perspectives that various Christians can have.
5:32
So she has her own political perspective as
5:34
a libertarian, but she's very self-aware about,
5:36
okay, how much of this is my own
5:38
philosophical thinking versus how much of this is
5:40
that core gospel value that we all share.
5:43
So I think she models that well, and
5:45
she's a good exemplar of how to be
5:47
self-aware about your own political convictions, but
5:49
her insights are also just very valuable as
5:51
she addresses specific nitty-gritty issues.
5:55
Another thinker who I really value is Michael
5:57
Ware, and Michael comes from a different part
6:00
of the political spectrum, so he actually served
6:02
in the Obama administration, so not a libertarian
6:04
administration, like a stretch of the imagination, but
6:08
very similarly to Bonnie Christian, he really has
6:11
a strong focus on what do we have
6:13
at the center as disciples of Jesus.
6:15
He's been deeply influenced by Dallas Willard, and
6:18
so he's kind of like, if you think
6:20
about following Jesus with some influence from Dallas
6:22
Willard, and then you apply that to politics,
6:24
you get Michael Ware's work.
6:26
So I quoted from his book, The Spirit
6:28
of Our Politics, Spiritual Formation, and the episodes
6:33
in this series, but I encourage his other
6:37
writing as well.
6:38
He's also part of a group called the
6:40
AND Campaign, which brings me to the next
6:42
group I want to talk about, which is
6:43
the AND Campaign.
6:45
So the main leader over there is Justin
6:48
Gibbony.
6:49
He also has his own distinct political convictions.
6:53
He's been a delegate to the DNC in
6:55
the past, but he does a really great
6:57
job, him, Michael Ware, others that are part
7:00
of the campaign saying, okay, what do we
7:02
get from the scriptures themselves?
7:04
How can we shape our views about particular
7:07
issues from the scriptures?
7:08
I would also go to the AND Campaign
7:10
specifically for the issue of abortion, so they
7:13
call their approach on abortion the whole life
7:15
project.
7:16
I think it's a really good blend of
7:18
thinking about how do we defend life in
7:21
the womb, and how do we take seriously
7:24
the bigger social context of why abortion seems
7:27
attractive to people in certain crisis situations?
7:29
How do we care about that whole social
7:31
context in a healthy and a biblical way?
7:35
So commend the AND Campaign to you for
7:37
abortion specifically.
7:39
So now we're getting into a little bit
7:40
more like issue by issue.
7:41
So then on the question of immigration, which
7:44
we also looked at, I would commend to
7:46
you the work of World Relief and specifically
7:48
their advocacy wing.
7:50
So World Relief is a branch of the
7:53
National Association of Evangelicals, has worked in the
7:56
U.S. Refugee Program, as well as serving
7:59
other immigrants for decades.
8:02
And the leader of their advocacy wing is
8:05
Matt Sorens, who actually lives not far from
8:08
me here in Aurora, Illinois, and is an
8:10
old friend from Church Connections years ago.
8:12
So I have a personal connection there.
8:14
I deeply trust Matt's character, but also really
8:16
an Irenic, thoughtful, centered insight about immigration from
8:21
a biblical perspective.
8:23
So his work is available at worldrelief.org
8:25
slash advocate.
8:28
There's a different organization that Matt and others
8:31
have also spoken into, not World Relief, but
8:33
specifically more policy oriented, called the Evangelical Immigration
8:37
Table.
8:37
And I've been familiar with their work for
8:39
well over a decade.
8:41
Their main thing is just getting people to
8:42
read the Bible and the Bible verses that
8:45
speak about immigration and helping people think about
8:46
immigration biblically.
8:48
So really commend their kind of reading challenge
8:50
to you.
8:51
It's right there on the front page of
8:52
their website, evangelicalimmigrationtable.com, to think more deeply
8:57
about all those Bible passages that can inform
8:59
our thinking about immigration.
9:02
And then food insecurity, finally we spoke to,
9:05
I mentioned already in the episode about food
9:08
insecurity that I'm a food banker.
9:10
So the National Network of Food Banks Feeding
9:12
America is a great place to go just
9:14
for information about statistics around food insecurity, what
9:17
is food insecurity like in your specific community,
9:20
what are different ways that you can advocate
9:22
and respond and help with food banks or
9:24
food pantries in your area.
9:26
So their website is feedingamerica.org.
9:29
So obviously I'm a little biased there because
9:30
that's my line of work specifically, that's the
9:32
National Network that I'm part of.
9:34
But if you want to look at another
9:35
organization that's more specifically Christian, but doing similar
9:39
work in terms of advocacy, I would recommend
9:42
Bread for the World.
9:43
So their website's really easy to remember, it's
9:45
just bread.org, and they're led by Eugene
9:48
Cho.
9:48
So he's a pastor who I really personally
9:50
respect.
9:51
Before he was leading bread, he was a
9:54
church planter and pastor doing the work of
9:56
a local church in Seattle.
9:58
I actually wrote him a letter when I
10:00
was in my early 20s kind of asking
10:01
about multi-ethnic church dynamics, and he very
10:05
great input for me.
10:07
So again, somebody who I trust in terms
10:08
of his character, in terms of his Christian
10:10
convictions.
10:11
When he visits churches, he preaches right from
10:14
the Bible and is deeply centered on the
10:16
person of Jesus.
10:18
Now again, Bread for the World is definitely
10:20
advocating for that collaborative view.
10:22
I talked about how Christians of Good Faith
10:24
can disagree about what the right approach is
10:26
to, for example, food stamps or the federal
10:29
SNAP program.
10:30
Bread is an organization that's definitely going to
10:32
be supporting federal involvement in addressing food insecurity,
10:36
but from a distinctly Christian perspective.
10:40
So those are a few resources that hopefully
10:42
could help you with just further reading, further
10:44
learning.
10:45
All of these organizations and writers are super
10:48
accessible.
10:49
They make their things understandable, clear.
10:53
And then one final resource that I want
10:55
to recommend, and this is particularly if you're
10:57
looking for something for your church to work
10:59
with, is the after party.
11:01
So this is basically designed to help churches
11:05
have good conversations about politics.
11:08
And so it's a leader named Curtis Chang.
11:11
His organization is called Redeeming Babel.
11:14
And Curtis Chang, he's an alumnus of InterVarsity
11:17
Christian Fellowship.
11:18
He's spoken about his journey with mental health
11:21
in a really helpful way, but he's also
11:22
just very thoughtful about politics, social dynamics, bringing
11:26
Christians from different perspectives together.
11:30
His kind of introductory course that's part of
11:32
the after party includes David French, who writes
11:35
for the New York Times, and Russell Moore,
11:37
who's editor-in-chief from Christianity Today.
11:39
So again, people from different perspectives, but who
11:41
are unified because of their faith in Jesus.
11:44
Great resource for the local church.
11:45
You can find that at redeemingbabel.org slash
11:48
the-after-party.
11:51
And again, I'll put all of these links
11:52
in the show notes.
11:54
Hopefully, maybe even just one of those would
11:56
be a good next step for you.
11:57
Maybe just pray, Holy Spirit, what could I
12:00
become more informed about as a disciple of
12:02
Jesus as it relates to politics?
12:04
And as you become more informed, as you
12:06
do your reading, as you do your study,
12:08
as you do your reflection and your own
12:09
thinking, the Holy Spirit will empower you to
12:13
be prayerful, thoughtful, gentle, and courageous as you
12:16
have these conversations in the workplace.
12:17
So again, let's engage these issues with a
12:21
posture of humility, with confidence that God has
12:24
it all figured out, even when we don't,
12:26
that he's the one that's ultimately going to
12:28
bring justice and trust in him and trust
12:31
in his eternal purposes.
12:44
Amen.
12:46
Come, Lord Jesus, make our hearts even more
12:49
hopeful for your justice.
12:52
Show us how to work within the imperfect
12:53
systems and structures that we have now in
12:56
our nation and our communities.
12:58
Show us how to be like you in
13:01
the way we love our neighbor as our
13:02
service.
13:02
Amen.
13:02
Amen.
13:02
Amen.
13:02
Amen.
13:02
Amen.
13:02
Amen.
13:03
Amen.
13:03
Amen.
13:03
Amen.
13:03
Amen.
13:03
Amen.
13:03
Amen.
13:10
Thanks for listening.
13:16
Finding God at Work is a production of
13:18
Mission Central, a ministry based in Aurora, Illinois
13:20
dedicated to forming Christians for mission in everyday
13:23
life.
13:24
You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you
13:26
listen to this episode to get 10 minutes
13:28
of teaching on faith and work every Tuesday
13:30
and Thursday.
13:31
To get resources to go deeper with each
13:33
podcast series, read our blog, and get info
13:36
about upcoming courses on faith in the workplace,
13:38
go to our website, missioncentral.church.