which side are you on?

Have you noticed how narrowly this culture defines people and ideas? Its amazing how dualistic Americans have become. You're either conservative or liberal, republican or democrat, pro-reform or anti-reform, pro-government or anti-government, pro choice or anti-abortion (the label pro-life is too broad, because who among us is anti-life?). These narrowly defined labels create thoughtless, baseless debate between parties who refuse to seek clarity somewhere outside their own interests. There is no boundary crossing here, no consensus, no unity. Only fences and walls, divisions and departures.

I confess to you all now: I have defected from this old, tired dualistic debate born in the age of modernity. try to define me. label me. go ahead. i am already labeled. i know. but i am not who you think i am.
What is so enlightening about categorical imperatives? The biblical narrative is messier than the kind of simple truth so many people apply to it. Defining right and wrong is not the essential character of the biblical narrative, though some would argue for the bible's use as such a tool. They might argue that the Bible is a simple answer book for every human problem, no matter how complex. But is that true? The center of the biblical narrative is not humanity, is it? Where does GOD's intent get clarified in the bible narrative? Exclusely in Genesis and the creation story? in the ten commandments? In the Levitical or deuteronomical law codes? is not God's intent expressed in a variety of ways by a variety of voices through a vast expanse of time? Prophetic books, historical books, gospels, letters, poems, songs, laments, wisdom sayings---all these things convey the will or intent or hope of the GOD whose people are responsible for and responsive to this sacred writing. Special self-interests tend to operate out of a monotonic expression of the bible, self-selecting passages, books, or rules that fit their personal criteria. One can argue in favor of war and in favor of non-violence against the enemy. So which is right? Is that the bible's purpose? To guide us into the right answer?
Take the health care debate raging throughout the U.S. right now. Ultimately, the debate is not about health or healing at all. Its about power and privilege. Does power and privilege reside in the free will of every enlightened individual or does it reside in the emperor or the king or the elected official? In our system power does not reside in the hands of the biblical GOD. At best, a god exists from which all powers came into existence. But this god no longer exercises dominion over humanity or the earth because free will and the power born in the individual has superceded divine right. See Thomas Jefferson and many of the framers of the declaration and the U.S. constitution. Freedom of religion is a central tenet of the bill of rights because the framers sought to reject the tyranny they associated with theocentric beliefs. The separation clause is meant to protect the enlightened democracy from the tyranny of belief in a single religious,moral philosophy. So the god we follow is not the biblical one. It is the self-appointed god, the electorate, the enlightened dissenter, the free individual is god here!
The point is that the arguments we are having today are a direct result of the framers' determination to elevate the powers of an enlightened people exercising their free will over and above any sense of submission to a divine power or authority. To reject centralized powers of kingship is a post-Christendom, enlightenment assertion that developed the modern secular state we know as the United States. To claim that the U.S. is not a modern secular state is absurd. At best those who seek to claim a role for Christianity in our national identity must align themselves with medieval Christendom, colonialization, and the crusades. The last administration embodied this perspective to the enth degree. Is not the Iraq war, justification for torture, and the long-term presence of American military outposts in the Middle East a modern replication of the medieval papal state? Bush was a Christian who believed that he was God's warrior king.

We are, however, experiencing something like a Copernicun revolution in our culture. That's why some people have defected from the narrow definitions of the culture wars to take a nuanced or alternative position. What is a nuanced position on government? Empires will be empires and the powers and privileges inherent in the imperial dominance narrative benefits those who prosper by it. But in that narrative, poverty and powerlessness embodied in the most vulnerable parts of the population are ignored, marginalized, and rejected as superstition by the powerful narrators. What does this mean. We live under imperial rule, but the empire is democratic so that the emperor is the majority. And the majority is represented by the oppressor, the powerful and the privileged. The voices from the margins are rejected, villified, demonized.
So what is truth? I have defected from this flawed narrative of dominance. Jesus is LORD. not me or you or obama or congress. And Jesus' lordship is characterized by a radical reorientation of justice in community that lifts up the oppressed and humbles the powerful. Jesus inflates the weak and deflates the strong. He raises the dead and calls the living to die. No narrow self-interests, but rather an other focus that begins with worship of GOD, the creator. What do I say to the health care debate? You're debating the wrong issue. The question is who is your god and who is your neighbor? Where does power reside and how does the use of that power affect others. I would suggest that the current system of transactional benefit and consumer-spending capacity severely limits the way necessary goods and services are offered and received. if you can't afford it, you can't get it. if you can't afford it, you don't deserve it. If you can't afford it, you cannot access it. Wealth defines health. power resides in the hands of those with wealth of resources. And they decide who lives and who dies. All the time.

So how do you defect? Ask these questions. How does your belief about individual freedom and choice relate to your beliefs about GOD, the world, your friends and enemies? Who does Jesus heal? Where does power reside in the gospel narrative? How does Jesus embody an alternative power dynamic in his world? What might a community who embodies those power dynamics look, talk, and act like? How would we think about health care as a result? "My first allegiance is not to a flag, a country or a man. My first allegiance is not to democracy or blood. Its to a king and a kingdom."---Derek Webb, "A King and a Kingdom", from the album 'Mockingbird'.