The State of Our Unity

In his first State of the Union Address, President Obama issued a call for bi-partisanship. He argued that our elected officials need to put aside their differences for the good of the country. But, as the disparity between Democrat and Republican claps-per-minute grew, the viewer was left wondering how effective that call for unity would be. Hopes for bi-partisanship began to fall when Republicans wouldn’t even clap for tax cuts, they began to fall even faster as the President threw jab after jab at his predecessor and opposition, and they down right plummeted when the Republican response highlighted how different the agendas of our two political parties actually are. We are left wondering if bi-partisanship will ever work, or if these calls for unity are merely more political propaganda.

Bi-partisanship is important in the political realm. As the recent health-care debacle has demonstrated, one party simply isn’t enough to get anything accomplished in our politically charged climate. In this way politics can be like a marriage, the two parties involved can get by without cooperating, but if they want to truly thrive, they will need to be unified. The importance of unity certainly isn’t lost on Washington, or the public for that matter, which is why so many speeches have been made on the importance of the subject. So the question remains, why are we gridlocked in this partisan mire?

The most obvious answer is that we don’t really want unity, none of us do. We want to win. We will work with the other side, but only if it accomplishes our ends, and preferably only after a thorough trouncing of the other side. Thus the incessant belittling of conservatives in the President’s speech, thus the refusal to applaud his good ideas, and thus our current knock-down, drag-out, take no prisoners assault on public opinion. It is not just the politicians desire to win that creates this atmosphere; this virus infects all of us. Special interests, lobbyists, political action committees, all of these only have as much power as society gives them. Our donations and support is what keeps these political machines running, and all to one end: to make sure we win.

So what do we do about this problem? I’m not suggesting that we all give up our agendas. The beliefs that we hold to create this tension are deep-seated, and no amount of eloquent speech will change that. What we can do is act in humility, avoid actions and words that are deliberately designed to anger our opponents and fire up our base, and act with civility in all we do. This won’t bring in a lot of money, and it won’t make any headlines, but it will contribute to an atmosphere that genuinely works for the common good.

So far we have been dealing strictly with political unity, but for Christians there is a far more important type of unity: spiritual. Our need for unity goes beyond merely needing to make a country operate, it is a plea straight from our Savior Himself. In John 18:21 Christ prays that all of the Body would be united, just as the Trinity is united. Not for ourselves, but so that the world would know that Jesus is the Messiah. The validity of our testimony rises and falls with how well we all get along. Sadly, the Church is more divided than ever. Infant baptism, tongues, church hierarchy, predestination and a host of other issues all contribute to our infighting. As with political unity, we cannot expect these controversial issues to go away, for they all are extremely important in their ramifications, but what we can do is recognize that our common bond as heirs with Christ is far more important. For it is through our unity and love for one another that the world will come to know Christ as King.

We Need a Shift in Hope

As the dust settles a few days after the startling results of the Massachusetts Senate election an interesting shift has taken place, and it goes much deeper than the alignment of our much-maligned Congress. A shift in hope has occurred. Conservatives across the entire country are walking with a bounce in their step, exuberant for their sudden change in fortunes. A common thread in all this adulation is that they feel like they have hope again; hope that things will turn out the way they want them to. The truly astounding part about this, however, is that it was only a few short months ago that the political left had this same bounce in their step, the same swagger, and the same feeling of hope. Much ink has been spilt dissecting the political ramifications of this shift in hope, but of far greater concern is the spiritual implications of placing our hope in a single politician.

The fascination with Scott Brown, and the excitement he is bringing to the Right, is nothing new. The same crowd greeted Sarah Palin with equal enthusiasm, and their counterparts on the Left carved uncharted territory with their cult of personality surrounding Barrack Obama. An undeniable part of our political reality is that we love to love our politicians (note: it is our politicians we love, the ones that have all the solutions, not the ones on the other side who are causing all the problems). We hang all of our hopes for the future on these individuals. Every time a charismatic leader, with a bright smile and catchy slogan comes around we will rally to their side, certain, beyond any doubt, that this is the person that will get our country on the right track. But as anyone who stops to think can tell you, this cult of personality fades, with all but the true believers decrying the false prophet that didn’t fix the economy, public schools, or the DMV. Our knight's armor gets rusty, his ratings fall, and our hopes with it.

So why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we long so very much for someone to come save the day? Could it be that we were created with that yearning? Let us propose, for a moment, that there is something within us all that needs a hero, that needs someone tangible that we can hitch our wagon to. Ideas can be persuasive, movements can inspire, but only a person can truly captivate our hearts. And thus the Incarnation. Thus the glory of the incredible statement, “God became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Incarnation is what takes this ethereal concept of God and brings it down to our level. The Incarnation is when God got His hands dirty and showed us who we should follow, who we should place our hope in. And the beauty of it all is that this Messiah isn’t up for re-election, and He can’t be term limited out. He is the only one whose armor never gets rusty and whose campaign slogan never gets old, for his call of, “my yoke is easy and my burden is light,” will forever be good news.

No matter our political inclinations, we must learn to hope in Christ, not a fledgling campaign slogan or fleeting election returns. As humans who need to have an example to follow, there will always be the temptation to see in a politician the answer to all our problems. There will always be new problems and new politicians promising to fix them. But thankfully there will always be someone whom we can confidently put our hope in.