Changing the world...

"I can't change the world but I can change the world in me... if I rejoice" Bono sings on the U2 album October. If the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step then changing the world starts with one man. Don Miller in his book Blue Like Jazz talks about being at a political protest of the president with a friend. He was there for poverty in Africa but he was surrounded by a variety of protesters with a variety of causes. By the time the day was done he came to the realization that he hadn't done anything to help poverty in Africa so why should he demand it of others. He realized that he was a hypocrite and wished that he could carry a sign that said "I AM THE PROBLEM!"

I have still been contemplating the question of should politics and religion mix and if so how. Unfortunately, rather than coming to a conclusion it is more like I have come to the first step to ascend a stair case. I believe that yes politics and religion should mix and in fact have to, but certainly not in the common way that they are mingling now. The answer as to how is the first step at the bottom of the stair case. It is by speaking the truth in love. The Church loves to speak the truth but often not in love. The next question is, "how is that carried out?" I have a decent idea of how love should play out in our personal lives, but how it should work in politics seems more problematic or complex. I know the principles are the same but the details elude me at this point. Until I come to a less ephemeral answer I will leave you with the below passage from an essay entitled "How To Save Western Civilization: C.S. Lewis As Prophet"

"It is good to work for peace in whatever social and political ways really do work, whether this means working for disarmament or for stronger armaments. We do not know with certainty which way will work best on the political level (though we nearly always claim we do). But we do know with certainty (because God himself has told us) what will work on the spiritual level, and we also know that that level cuts deeper and works at the roots. So to anyone who is concerned with peace and with the life and survival of our civilization, here is a summary in a single paragraph of what I have learned from my master C.S. Lewis:

"Sodom and Gomorrah almost made it. If God had found but ten righteous men, he would have spared two whole cities. Abraham's intercession nearly saved Sodom, and it did save Lot. We must be Abrahams. Charles Williams said that 'the altar must often be built in one place so that the fire from Heaven may come down at another.' It is also true that the altar must be built and prayer and sacrifice made at one place so that the fire from Hell may not come down at another. It can be done. The most important thing each of us can do to save the world from holocaust and from Hell, from nuclear destruction and from spiritual destruction, is the most well-known, most unoriginal thing in the world: to love God with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

"You the individual can make a difference. You can be the straw that breaks the camel's back, the vote that wins the election. You can save the world."