I agree

Ted Gossard has summed up my feelings about this election year wonderfully well:

I am reticent to write on American politics for a good number of reasons. But the current debacle in the election process to the upcoming November 2016 presidential election is making me think and wonder.

I wonder if many of us Christians either already have, or are in danger of losing our souls over American politics. I’m not necessarily referring to our ultimate salvation. But I’m referring to the heart of our faith and the gospel in the present. Although I don’t think the deviation I perceive helps us at all to remain on the straight and narrow.

I see this tendency as equally a problem among Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthoodox, not just the evangelicals who routinely are picked on and beaten up in the press and by each other. There is a tendency to see the state as the vehicle for the good life, for flourishing, in American terms, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The right, the left, and everything in the spectrum of American politics have plenty to say on this. It’s not my intention in this post to address any of that. I have my own opinions in regard to such politics, certainly subject to revision, but that’s not the point of this post, either.

My point is simple: Christians are to live and die for nothing less than the good news found in God’s grace and kingdom come in King Jesus, realized and lived out through both the sacramental and common life of the church. Within and from and through that is our answer to the problems of society: the problem of abortion, helping the poor, racism, stopping the slave trade, etc. Our answer is unique, grounded in Jesus Christ and the gospel. (emphasis added)

Do read the whole thing!