Of hubris and other vices!

Okay, before you begin to accuse me of breaking my word, I said I was done writing any political posts about the elections. I did not however say that I was done writing about our new President-elect, and my observations regarding his potential policies and their spiritual implications. Let me preface all that I’m about to say with the clear warning that I am addressing these issues purely from a spiritual standpoint as I perceive them to be. If you’re looking for a place to argue your intellectual, social, and political position regarding these issues, slowly back away from Seasons of Change and head over to a blog that is geared towards such speculative hubris.

Christians and Christianity have long been defined as intransigent, yet if the truth be told, we are all to some extent dogmatic about what we believe in, whether that be our partiality to a particular flavor of ice-cream or our penchant for a specific political position which we believe to be right. Regarding one such position MSNBC reports,

“Obama himself has signaled, for example, that he intends to reverse Bush’s controversial limit on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, a decision that scientists say has restrained research into some of the most promising avenues for defeating a wide array of diseases, such as Parkinson’s. Bush’s August 2001 decision pleased religious conservatives who have moral objection to the use of cells from days-old human embryos, which are destroyed in the process.”[emphasis mine]

The pro-life position, which President Bush believes in, does not look at embryonic stem cells as merely beneficial research, but as human lives worthy of a chance at survival. The pro-life position does not think of human embryos in terms such as, “which are destroyed in the process” but as “people who are killed in the process.” Both positions are intransigent, and indeed should be, based on a person’s worldview. This means that the Church has a more powerful role that goes way beyond deciding which position our nation adheres to over the next four years based on a vote. Our larger role is to influence the lives and hearts of those who think of life differently from the way the Bible defines it. That battle is not waged primarily with a vote but with love. That way, the battle is fought and won where it counts most…against principalities, powers, wicked spirits in the heavens and the rulers of the darkness of this age.