Photograph by Tess Crowley / The Deseret News / AP
It feels like everything recently has been revolving around this tragedy, the tragic loss of a man that did nothing wrong and only wanted to have a conversation. I loved listening to his pieces, especially as a Christian that had returned to Jesus, because Charlie would make the connections between the scriptures and our every day life, how the Word affects our every action and, more, how it affects out politics.
We lost our way a long while ago, for some reason discussing politics is no longer something that we are willing to do and this is a huge problem, primarily because the lack of discourse creates polarisation, you can not understand the motivations of people that think differently than you if you refuse to listen to them. There is another item which we have “forgotten” and is that politics is downstream of our morals, we should not be accepting politics that do not match our morals, however, politics are today so far removed that we accept anything, matter of fact, most parties these days propose policies that in a nutshell are “vote for me because I’m not him”, we don’t vote for anything, we vote against people that we dislike.
Voting against something is a major problem, as you tend to do so not for the sake of something that has been proposed, but merely against something that you dislike, which is never a good idea, because is good and well that you dislike something, but how are you going to correct it? Or replace it? This to be fair is a very biblical argument, in which we are told that we should not act in hate, a good passage would probably be Proverbs 10:12: “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses”, suggesting that acting against something, in hatred, will produce bitterness, we need instead to act in love.
On this last item, my favourite passage in the bible is probably 1 Corinthians 16:13-14: “13 Keep alert; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. 14 Everything that you do should be done in love.” This is a passage in which we are reminded to be strong men AND to do everything that we should do in love. Let’s analyse the difference, what is the difference in between love and hate? Hate is when you feel an intense dislike for something, your only purpose is to remove such item which you dislike, it does not matter what is being replace with, you want to remove it. This is not a great frame of mind to address something, while you might have genuine reasons for removing the item that you hate, all the focus is on the destruction, there is no thought into what will come afterwards, how the outcomes will be resolved, what will it take its place? In other words, the focus is on that which you want to destroy, there is no thought into what you want to build.
Acting in love means that you are not acting against something, but you instead acting for something, you want to build. Have you thought about that policy that you don’t like? What is going to replace it? What will be the aftermath? As such, we should not act against the current events, but we should think carefully about what we would like to see happening and we should propose that as an alternative, we should be proactive, buld something, act in love. “Vote for me because he’s a bad person” is not a policy, merely plays on feelings, and this is the state of today’s politics.
As a Christian I should avoid being involved with such petty discussions and think instead about who is offering a Christian platform, because I should not support anyone with a platform that is not rooted in God, and this is a big chunk of the message that Charlie was proposing, don’t just profess to be Christian, live like one, in so doing he lived by the teaching given to us by Christ on the sermon on the mount, he let his light shine for us to see (Matthew 5:14-16).
Now, whether you are a Christian or not, we should remember that politics is downstream of our morals and we should vote in accordance with our morals, supporting someone because he is the one that stinks the least should not be acceptable, in the absence of someone with the adequate morals we should step up to the plate. And before you say “why don’t you lead by example”, I do.
Moving forward I will make an effort to read the Bible more often, update on my progress and report on anything that I find significant, so that I can apply those teachings to my life, and my politics. Politics is merely how we apply our way of life to communal living, it is how we live together, and to live together in a positive manner we can’t be negative, we need to build, we need to act in love.