. . . the following quote contains some political "buzz words" (I hear there are some elections coming up soon). Part of my frustration with politics is its inability to deal with the ills of the human condition. Dostoevsky defines this as a great "blasphemy" against God:"[this blasphemy is] denial not of God, but of the meaning of His creation. The whole of socialism emerged and began with the denial of the meaning of historical reality and went on to a program of destruction and anarchism . . . the scientific and philisophical refutation of the existence of God has already been abandoned, present-day practical socialists are not occupied with it at all, instead they deny with all their might God's creation, God's world, and its meaning. Here in this alone does modern civilization find its nonsense."*
As a Christian, I am forced to deal with the tension of my responsibility as a citizen and the realization that (in my opinion) no matter who I vote for, it involves a compromrise of my faith and casting a vote for, in the words of a friend, "the evils of two lessers" who willingly perpetuate the blasphemy Dostoevsky describes above.
This is not to say that political system is void of any value or that some temporal concerns are frivolous or even purely temporary. Certain moral issues facing this country are black and white. However, deciding which party to vote for, with their secular "answers" for eternal problems, is not.
Not only do I disagree with the means by which our political parties seek to fix societal ills, I am cynical of a political system that is BASED on disagreement with one another. From my viewpoint it is the political system itself, not the polarizing issues or the media (which Donald Miller and others have recently scapegoated as a reason for the current state of polarization in our country) which deserves the primary blame. How are we supposed to be "unified" when a president who wins the election "easily" with 60% of the popular vote still has millions of people who voted for the other candidate and disagree, even strongly with his/her position? I'm no genius but that doesn't sound like a recipe for unity.*quote taken from the introduction written by Richard Pevear to the novel Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky, pg xx.
3 comments:
nice post.
No recipe for unity, flawed from the get-go, good points and I agree...
The only government that has any hope of working well and solving social ills is that of a complete Dictator, and there is only One who is Perfect and Holy and He will fill that role someday.
where does that leave us?
your frustrations are well-founded and I've been there, exhaustion and despair for any good from any party...
As I read through the post, I suppose more than anything I am condemning myself as inadequate in representing Christ. If secular politicians are guilty of disunity, how much more am I guilty as a Christian who claims to love?
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