Spiritual
Abuse and the Political Values Political writing is not my area of
expertise. But with elections looming in the United States, I want to
provide some food for thought
for Barnabas Ministry readers before they go to the polls this year.
This isn't your standard political fare;
readers of the Barnabas Ministry aren't just Americans, and they aren't
just Christians. They have either been in been in unhealthy, abusive
and
even cultic church situations, or they are concerned about church
situations like that. Those experiences certainly inform their
spiritual and church values, but they can also inform their political
values as well.
God
Bless America
We Americans are blessed to live in
one of the greatest countries in
the history of mankind. For all of its problems, it's freedoms and
democracy have brought about blessings unprecedented in the history of
mankind. To hear some people running for office today, you'd think we
live in a garbage dump. I just sat in a presentation this morning about
how Christians in North Korea and China have to hide their faith, and
what sort of tortures they are subject to just for being Christian.
This is good to keep in mind when we are discontented with this or that
in our lives.
Every four years, we Americans have a peaceful change of presidential
power as a
result of
elections. Every two years, all 435 seats of the House of
Representatives
are up for grabs, and one-third of the seats of the Senate are also up
for grabs. On state and local levels, countless other positions are
also up for election.
We are a government of, by and for
the people. But as John
Adams said, "Our constitution is made only for a moral and religious
people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." So,
Christians need to bring their spiritual values into the process-- even
more so in these days as the influence of amoral (if not immoral) and
irreligious based
values are on the rise.
"Educated" Idealism
Most of us were drawn into our unhealthy church experiences because we
were
idealistic and we trusted someone or something-- a church leader, a
ministry model, some ideals or principles. While we may have benefited
in various ways through that involvement, over the course of time our
idealism was harmed. For some this was just a little, for others
quite a bit. At this point, we know there is no perfection on earth and
we
are completely skeptical of those who claim otherwise.
How does this affect us in politics? We know there is no perfect
candidate or political view, no real Utopian vision. We probably have
adverse reactions to
those who claim otherwise, seeing them for the con men then are. In
fact, we may not be entirely certain what
perfection might be. As the Constitution says, "... to ensure a more
perfect union." Perfection is a goal.
But we harbor no illusions that if somebody
wins, or if some ballot measure passes, that everything will be great.
Conversely, we know that if somebody loses, if some measure fails, we
know things won't be nearly as bad as some might think. But
hopefully this educated idealism won't keep us from working towards
that more perfect union.
Mistrust of Organizations
This one sort of goes without saying. We know organizations can do good
things, but we also know they are capable of evil as well. They may
unfairly put
other organizations down or hide important facts about themselves, or
advance an agenda that is flawed and harmful at its very foundation. We
know that most organizations tend to serve those in charge first, then
everybody else after that. We know that it is really hard for an
organization to tell the truth about itself, especially when it
conflicts with its image. More than anything else,
we know organizations
resist change, and they tend to reject and destroy reformers, and
reward those to learn to play the game.
Yet, we're stuck with two types of organizations- the government and
political parties. These need not be bad or evil, but we have
very sober understandings about the potential for darkness in a group.
And we're very reluctant to invest in or trust an organization. While we know that there
are some things that
organizations do much better than individuals, we know too well that
organizations have their limitations and that we as individuals usually
do a better job tending to ourselves than any government or
organization.
In politics, we're quite likely to translate these experiences into a
desire for less government and smaller government, and to be skeptical
of tasks given to a government that are best left to individuals or the
private sector.
We also
are concerned about the power of government. As Nobel-prize winning
economist Milton Friedman said, "The power to do good is also the power to
do harm."
We've seen that first-hand, and this also informs our electoral choices. A Nose for Deception and a Willingness
to Find the Truth Most unhealthy or
abusive churches have a culture of deception. Having been exposed to
layer upon layer of spin and dishonesty, we can often smell spin a
mile away. How painful it is to watch political advertising with all
the half-truths and deceptive remarks!
In politics, this translates into disgust for the spin and a desire to
really know the truth. So we're likely to be on the Internet, paying
attention to
alternative media, and seeking out information outside of the
mainstream. We don't take information blindly, especially from those
who would benefit from us taking it in that way-- we carefully evaluate
as much as we have the time and resources to do so.
Value Freedom Having
had freedoms taken away in
various ways, often slowly or gradually, and then having fought
to regain those freedoms, most
Christians with spiritual abuse experiences ought to value freedom in
more
profound ways than others-- not unlike the founding fathers and those
who fought for freedom more than 230 years ago. It is the greatest
political gift
imaginable, and we ought to be big on freedom. We know that even slight
infringements upon freedom can lead to more of the same later on.
We know that freedom for us means freedom
for others, and we're ok with that. We know that there are some
legitimate controls a government must
place on freedom-- you are not free to injure others. Yet, these
common-sense controls upon freedom are not normally matters of concern
for elections. A
government that unreasonably or capriciously controls others today can
and probably will control you tomorrow.
Now this control isn't just in the
form of laws or government policies; it can also be in the form of
taxation or selective law enforcement by the executive or judicial
branches of government. It can also be in obstructing or
manipulating free markets-- a subtle if not insidious loss of freedom.
So we should have a
very skeptical view of all restrictions upon freedom, only supporting
those that genuinely serve the cause of freedom and security.
Some would say the economy is always the
top
issue in elections. But
without freedom, there is no economy. Ask the residents of the former
Soviet Union.
Character and
Competency Matters Another lesson Christians with
spiritual abuse backgrounds can bring
to the voting booth is the matter of character. Unhealthy spiritual
systems often have power-hungry and manipulative people
running them, and they also attract cowardly drones who do as they are
told in hopes of getting a little piece of power for
themselves. When you see these sort of characters running for
office-- do not support them. No matter what party they represent.
These people are unworthy of leadership. If the core concept of
spiritual abuse is using people instead of serving them, then the core
concept of unworthy political leadership is leaders who use people and
causes to advance themselves and their own power.
We know there are no perfect
candidates.
But a competent leader is one who is humble, one who seeks the benefit
of those who are led, and one who is competent for the task at hand.
Competence doesn't mean all-knowing, but it does mean being able to
bring other people into leadership that can really help.
When you take your car somewhere to
get it fixed, your primary concern
is that the person fixing it is honest and competent. You don't want
somebody telling you something is broken so they can "fix it" for you
(and
make money doing it). You want someone who has the ethics to know what
is really needed, and has the competency to fix it. Sounds like a
pretty good way to evaluate candidates for elective office to me!
Along these lines, we should not allow candidates to be unreasonably
scrutinized and unfairly attacked. If we want honest leaders of high
character, let's make the job attractive to them and not permit bashing
of them. Yes, candidates for high office need to be vetted more than
your car mechanic, but there is no place for unsubstantiated rumors,
innuendo and bigotry being used to attack candidates.
One Nation
In our unhealthy churches, we often saw attempts to create groups out
of a whole and then pit these groups against each other. It is a
control technique common in cults and abusive churches.
Today in politics, some seek to divide the people. This is seen in
proposals that favor this
group over that group, or punish this group over that group.
I don't think bi-partisanship is necessarily a virtue. Too often
bi-partisanship is kind of like taking your dinner and somebody else's
dinner and mixing them in a blender and serving it to everybody. Yuk!
But leaders should try to find a way to bring people of varying
backgrounds
together, taking into account what matters to everybody to serve
the people.
Wise about
Fallacious
Logic Christians from
unhealthy and abusive spiritual systems
are wise about fallacious logic. We've seen this used
numerous times in our bad church experiences, and no doubt we see it
used to bolster or attack political
candidates. There are several examples I've seen recently.
There is the old standby, the bandwagon argument. If enough people
think something is true, it must be true. Right? Wrong. Note: Watch for
polls masquerading as bandwagon arguments for a candidate or ballot
measure.
One
clever version of the black-or-white fallacy that is particularly
popular this year is the
fallacious idea that if
you can point out the failings of somebody else, you therefore are more
competent than he. The black and white fallacy states that if A is
wrong, then B is right. But this is only true if A and B are the only
options-- and this is where manipulators trick people with this
fallacy. For example, if
one kid in a math class says 2+2=7, another kid can mock him all day
but then say 2+2=135,542. Just because he's different, doesn't mean
he's
right or any better. There are many ways to be wrong, and some are
worse than others.
The fact is, that there are more
than just this-way or
that-way options in life and in leadership. Just because you're
different from somebody whom you paint as "wrong" doesn't mean you're
any better. In
fact, you could be much worse.
Many of us
have been in churches that employed this fallacy. The "gospel" was
simply reciting the so-called failings of other churches or mocking
their
traditions. Many times we knew the
observations were right, but we gravely erred in thinking that the
faultfinders we
were trusting could do any better. (Not to mention that their desire
for "doing better" ended with their criticisms of others; they never
seemed to muster that same passion towards their own shortcomings.) Today, we have politicians
trying to
make us think that by merely pointing out the
"flaws" of others, they somehow "prove" they are better. As if this
wasn't bad enough, there are usually plenty of half-truths, distortions
and deceptions that are part of this process. This
technique of cults and other manipulators is plainly
illogical, yet most
Americans haven't had the same kind of experiences we have had with
this one and they seem to fall for it. Let's not have any of us fall
for it, ok?
This doesn't mean failings don't
matter. Sometimes they do. But the point is-- beware of someone whose
main credential is that he is different than somebody with whom
he has found "fault." His plan may not be any better, and in fact it
could be worse, much worse. Just remember your old cult leader.
Conversely, a
leader who faces his record honestly and can admit a mistake shows he
is thinking
and learning, not just trying to make himself look infallible. This
reflects character, honesty and humility, and should not make us
mistrust such a
leader. People who can't admit their mistakes without spinning it
somehow shouldn't be trusted.
One more illustration of this fallacy. Imagine a 50-year old fan
watching a
ballgame and booing the shortstop for making an error. Then imagine
that fan taking the shortstop's place as though he could better.
Ridiculous, right? There's a lot of politicians running on this basis.
Last, we have the old-fashioned lie.
Now sometimes you get plain, naked lies,
but this year we seem to be getting people with sophisticated lies,
claiming "we don't really understand" what
was said. In truth, you might not understand it--- so listen carefully
and get the facts. But if the explanation doesn't cut it, reject it.
We've seen cult leaders talk about how they were so brilliant or
spiritual that everybody else "just didn't understand." Then we came to
realize he was just a garden-variety snake-oil salesman. So when you
hear a candidate continually talking about how the people just
don't quite understand him or what he said, this is a telltale sign
that you're being
strung along and deceived. Don't
fall for it. Check the Actions against Past Promises
Politicians make all kinds
of promises. Some they might
keep, others they might not. Circumstances may change-- nobody knows
what the future holds. But--
you can always look at the past track record-- the past promises and
the past actions. And don't look at what
people have said, look at what they have done. Jesus gave us this one--
"a tree is known by its fruit (Mt 7:20)."
Rehoboam's Folly
We know the story of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. When he ascended to
the throne of Israel, he rejected the advice of the elders and took the
advice of young men with whom he had grown up. He ended up presiding
over the division of Israel. In unhealthy and abusive churches, we
often saw this same dynamic. The
wisdom of older people was often rejected and the youthful arrogance
(masquerading as "something new") of a cult leader drove the group.
Later on, people learned
the lessons the
hard way that could have been learned the easy way by listening to
those with more experience and not being seduced by the hype and energy.
Youth is needed in all areas of life, including politics. But it must
be
informed by history and the experience of others, and it must be
humble. Young hotshots that
lack maturity and a realistic perspective and then don't learn from
others are probably heading for a cliff. Don't follow
them or you'll fall off the cliff too.
Wary of
the Voices of Persuasion We know cults and abusive churches
now use media
to persuade. Through a persistent recitation of its world-view and
talking points, it subtly persuades its followers to accept its
world-view and therefore its solutions. We've
seen artificial deadlines, artificial "crises" created and drummed up,
and artificial problems and "solutions" trumpeted. At best, these
"solutions" may have
solved one problem but created many other problems. In reality, they
skewed reality, created the priorities the leader wanted and diverted
attention from other things. Again, a classic manipulation trick.
The secular media today is a multi-billion dollar enterprise thanks to
advertising dollars. It has enormous potential to influence people-- if
they are watching. But what is that influence? Bad
news sells, as the old media motto says: "If it bleeds, it leads." You
won't normally hear positive stories, you usually hear only negative
stories.
It is in the media's interest to hyped stories-- this "crisis," that
"crisis." It increases uncertainty and makes people want to watch to
find out "the latest."
More than that, we know that many media purveyors have a political
agenda, and we recognize that
media attempts to persuade or manipulate. For example, the mainstream
media has clearly been against the Bush administration. Accordingly, it
hypes
what is bad and ignores what is good. For example, the Iraq war was the
biggest story going when things weren't going well. Now that it is
going well, you never see stories about it. Now, the economy and the
problems with Wall Street are the big story. But where was the media
investigating this before it all blew up? Again, we saw the media
descend upon Alaska like a horde of locusts when Governor Palin was
nominated to be vice-president. But where was the media attention to
the south side of Chicago and Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, ACORN and
the rest of Senator Obama's community activism? We have much reason to
be
skeptical of the media. They have an agenda.
Polls
sometimes reflect public
opinion, but more often they represent
what news coverage people are exposed to. Don't believe polls too
strongly; at best they are based upon mere assumptions and at worse
they are "cooked" or skewed deliberately by pollsters for a specific
result. The only "poll"
that counts is
when people vote. Don't let polls keep you from voting, or
persuade you
how you should vote. The media is a loud voice
screaming at America, "Look at me! Look at me." It does what people
will look at-- not necessarily what is fair, right, true or important.
We know
better than to take what the media says at face value. Instead, we seek
out information from multiple sources like the internet and cable TV.
We watch
more than one channel, read more than one website. We seek to
understand positions besides our own. We listen to what is said, but also what
isn't said. Being finite, we can't check all the facts
because of the sheer volume of information and issues-- but we don't
use
that as an excuse not to check out issues.
Misuse of Finances Unfortunately, most of us have seen a mishandling of finances as
a part of our unhealthy church experiences. Members gave and gave
again. Leaders always seemed to get paid pretty well, and the people
rarely knew
where the money was really going.
The federal government is a poster child for misuse of
money. They don't just ask for tithes and offerings, they tax people
with
the power of the law. For most of us taxes come out of our paychecks
before
we even see the money. That money is to be used properly.
We don't mind giving money personally to various causes. And we don't
have a problem with taxes for the common defense and the common good.
But we have a
real problem with governments wasting money on ridiculous or
ineffective projects, financing projects that enrich its custodians
and their pals, and taking more and more money to enlarge itself--
especially when individuals or the private sector can do the job
better. And we have a real problem with the Marxist redistribution of
wealth through entitlements and the tax code that seems to be more and
more popular. This is going to turn
America into an impoverished country-- again, see the Soviet Union.
Conclusion Without God, it would be hard to endure the political season. If
things don't go our way, we'd be tempted the think that the end of the
world is near. Politicians can cause a lot of problems and a lot of
pain to a lot of people. They can mess up things that can take years to
fix. But the Christian knows that he is free to respond in faith no
matter what the situation. No government or corrupt elected official
can take that away.
Conversely, if things go our way, we can be tempted to think that earth
is the new heaven. But the Christian knows that new challenges appear
daily, and that creation itself groans over its imperfection and need
of redemption.
We can have peace in the political season-- not because it doesn't
matter, because it does matter. Not because we think "God is in
control," because God has permitted grave evils in the history of the
world. But we know that God has a big picture to bring us all to him,
and this season is just one of the seasons along the way.
I close with a prayer-- that the United States of America remains a
land of freedom and peace, that God's blessings may accrue to both its
citizens and the people of the world, that God's hand will guide its
citizens and leaders in ways beyond their own abilities for the benefit
of
the people and His purposes. And, that God will bless the United States
of America.