Our Political House of Worship

As the electioneering season advances upon us we discover ourselves meditating, arguing, and fretting over political substance and hoopla in a gyration of relentless frenzy. What did this one say? Did you catch the nuance of his latest? How would she manage the military? Did you see the debate? And the other debate…and the latest debate…and the east coast debate…and the Florida debate? Would you rather have a Mormon or a Marxist? Personally, I would rather have a Presbyterian! but not a liberal one – ol Woodrow Wilson did more damage than any other five bad presidents. Our conversation is politics from before the TV flips on AM until that last evening fix. It is not just that government is about politics but our lives are about politics. We have become living (or is it dying) political commentaries searching for an ear, any ear, in which to spill our overflowing gush.

I am wondering, if we were electing a Savior instead of a president would we be more greatly animated? Would our emotions run higher or lower? Could the TV pop alive any earlier? Is it possible to become any more breathless than we already have? I am afraid our throats would constrict and our eyes start bulging. Jab in the needle. What did Perry say? Ahhh, gasp, yes, I am breathing. Oxygen flows to the brain. Yeah, I heard it and here is what I think…

For many of us politics has become a house of worship. We sincerely accept that the next election is ‘the most important in the past forty years’ (as they say at every election) because…and pencil in the current cause. Our political god is a trinity of Congressional, Judicial, and Executive, three in one, inconfusedly, indivisibly, …one Subsistence…the…only begotten God. But now I am quoting the Creeds. Of course the elections are important so why stress this worship angle? Well, because we often take this system religiously. We break the commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” The God who commanded this is the same One who informed us that He rules the nations, sets kings on their thrones, and overthrows the wicked. He is the same God who dragged slaves kicking and screaming out of Egypt, drowned Pharaoh, and collapsed Jericho without the assistance of any human parliament. There really was not any parlaying it was just the Almighty accomplishing His holy will at His own appointed moment.

Our church of politics has its own Book of Confessions (Declaration of Independence) and its own Book of Church Order (Constitution), its deacons and elders enter under the Rotunda. We elect them and they reward us by returning us to the slavery of Pharaoh. Instead of meditating on the Person and words of the real Savior we find ourselves mentally aflame with every word that proceeds from the mouth of our favorite candidate. They will save us surely they will save us. But they will not for they are powerless against the sin and corruption of our age, of any age. They become the sin and corruption. They revolt us and we seek another – who revolts us. The persistent Janus of our hopes is a double-headed devil. The beginnings and endings without the true Savior are not redeemed by elections. Now, when God elects, that is a different story. God elected Gideon and saved the nation. We elect godless men and they tear it down.

Instead of the holy bread and wine the true church serves, our church of politics feeds us with promises, food stamps, and unemployment checks. For the wine of grace we receive the drunkenness of power. We rhapsodize that another drink at the fount will allow them to finally do right. There is no repentance. They drink to their own damnation – and ours as we are dragged along. Politics will not save us. Political men are political animals. We know this. We know it yet we are caught aloft in the assurance that this time it will be different. It will not be different. This is because the fundamentals have not changed.

In a sense, we are the fundamentals, or perhaps the Fundamentalists. For generations now we have given up our children to the world. We have no living heritage. Our disobedient lives set our course. We evangelize others who become just like us and lose their children. We will not obey our God. We turn to the church of politics for hope and salvation. I have heard the politicians in recent years screaming into their microphones. They sometimes resort to shrieking pure gibberish. They rally the troops. It is madness. I heard a recording of Ted Kennedy ranting mindless syllables to his followers. The equally mindless crowd nearly danced in elation. Our politicians speak in tongues. They are priests but they will not save us. They serve us bitter gall and call it wine. And we drink.

The living God of the Bible saves and forgives. His power transforms nations. The unrighteous become righteous. The courts become honest. God’s law replaces injustice with justice. His wisdom overcomes foolishness. We are the people of the living God. The promises are ours. We are the chosen nation. The earth is ours to inherit. But, we must return to proper worship and obedience. Politics cannot be our church. We have to rear our children Christian. We must, against all odds, rebuild a Biblical civilization. There is never a better time to begin.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach