What is really happening in American politics

I think the real heart of the matter in American politics is this:

How should we, as a society, care for the marginal, vulnerable, and weak?

I believe the fuel for our anger in this country is that all of us feel marginal, vulnerable, and weak.

The spark that lights the political inferno comes from this rub: Which among the marginal, vulnerable, and weak deserves triage? When all of us feel marginal, vulnerable, and weak, it’s easy for politicians to stoke our fears into madness…and turn us on one another for votes.

Sure, we feel bad for the next person in line, but we’ll be damned if anyone takes bread out of our children’s mouths. If it comes down to me or you, buddy, well…I’m sorry.

Let me be clear as a bell: I believe the division we see in American politics is by design. “Divide and conquer” is a political strategy as old as politics itself.

Politicians win when the marginal, vulnerable, and weak turn on each other.

This is why Jesus Christ entered the world. Yes, I mean politics. The Christ did not come to reform religion or spirituality. Why would the politicians of his day execute him for that? No, it was because the Christ came with a new politics that posed a mortal threat to politics as usual.

How? He loved and served the marginal, vulnerable, and weak. Where politicians exploited them, Jesus Christ empowered and enriched them. Politicians will talk about what they will do for the marginal, vulnerable, and weak. Then, when they fail to deliver, they simply blame another group of marginal, vulnerable, and weak people for conspiring against them.

Jesus Christ befriended, fed, fellowshipped, forgave, healed, and spent time with the marginal, vulnerable, and weak.

Even more, he became marginal, vulnerable, and weak. While the politicians of his day used the marginal, vulnerable, and weak to “climb up the ladder” of power, the Christ climbed down and joined those at the bottom.

The Christ also showed the marginal, vulnerable, and weak how to be powerful and it was not by currying favor with those in power. The Christ taught the marginal, vulnerable, and weak to follow his example by caring for each other. So radical was this teaching that the Christ made active love for enemies and opponents the distinguishing mark of his politics.

What could the politicians do? In Jesus Christ, they met a politician they could not beat by “divide and conquer.” The Christian politics of “unify and serve” wiped out every trick in the political book.

Do not miss the meaning in the Gospels: It was for this reason that the Jewish and Roman political leaders executed Jesus. A close reading reveals that their greatest fear was that Jesus Christ would win over the people and become king in the place of the Sanhedrin and Rome.

Things are no different in the United States today. Politicians amass their power by pitting the marginal, vulnerable, and weak against each other. This is politics as usual.

It is up to Christians–those who practice the politics of Jesus Christ–to show a better way, a different way.

Grace and peace.