Policktical Views

I have been known to be somewhat...ah...partisan in my political views. Often, in fact, I have been more interested in changing someone's mind about a political issue than being sincere in telling them about Christ. So, I have made a decision to go on a forty day fast from politics. This means:

• No news (I tend to enjoy Fox News)
• No Drudge Report
• No Rush Limbaugh
• No taking sides in friendly, political debates

My political fast will be over about a week before the election. Hopefully, though, I won't be dying to gorge myself on politics, but, rather, will be able to approach politics from a much more temperate position (I don't necessary want to moderate, but I do want to be less convinced that someone is off the deep end if they do not agree with my conservative views.

What prompted me to make this change? For starters, I have been reading a lot in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel which have been reminding me of the sovereignty of God in the rise and fall of nations. It's quite freeing to be able to live by faith that God will accomplish what he will through America, without trying to believe either that (1) God can only accomplish his will through a conservative America; or (2) that the American system of government and values is in some way God-given and inspired. Most of all, eschewing politics allows me to form my opinions on the Bible alone. And honestly, it hasn't been so hard to avoid politics as I thought it would.

Also, I am writing about this not because I want to pass myself off as super-spiritual (I don't want to be like the pharisees whom Jesus condemned). Instead, I think that this is a weakness of mine that I am trying to temporarily remove from my life in order to allow God to work in me to give me perspective.

Finally, I do not want to imply in any way that good Christians really should be doing exactly as I am doing. I think that God uses some to work within the political system for His purposes, but I don't think that I am called to be there, and I think that I am spending far too much time somewhere I'm not supposed to be.