Sunday, January 27, 2019
Sunday Reflection: Politics as a replacement for religion
What a week this was in politics! The Mueller probe, the showdown over the shutdown, etc. etc. etc. And it seems like most weeks are like this, one way or another.
I'm coming to realize that for some people politics seems to be taking on the role that faith and religion have traditionally played. It gives them meaning and provides a worldview; it assigns a place in a group with an ideology. These people spend much more time obsessing over cable news than nearly anyone does in church in a given week.
Part of it seems to be the delusions of importance that we place on politics-- that we pretend that government and its choices really has a great deal of agency over our daily lives. The truth is that the choices we make-- about who we love, how we act, what we choose as our vocation-- almost always matters much more to the outcomes in our lives. And yet we give in to the grandiosity, looking for a Democratic "savior" or believing that any president can "Make America Great Again."
Worst of all, politics becomes normative in the same way faith does (or at least should). If our faith says, for example, that we should care for the poor, that will make us want to take actions that help poor people. That's normative behavior.
While the normative behavior caused by faith is usually (though certainly not always!) positive for ourselves and society, the normative behavior caused by politics is much less often positive. Frankly, it seems to manifest itself mostly by talking talking talking about politics with people who may or may not care, and seeking out groups of others who share the same viewpoint as primary social groups. Which divides up our society just as certainly (and perhaps more corrosively) as Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods once did.
Politics matter, sure. Government policies can and do have a profound affect on the environment (to cite just one example). Yet politics are not an ultimate issue, a definer of one's soul. If we are shifting from religion to politics fulfilling this role, we will find ourselves in a worse place as our sights are lowered to enhancing our divisions rather than healing our brokenness.
I'm coming to realize that for some people politics seems to be taking on the role that faith and religion have traditionally played. It gives them meaning and provides a worldview; it assigns a place in a group with an ideology. These people spend much more time obsessing over cable news than nearly anyone does in church in a given week.
Part of it seems to be the delusions of importance that we place on politics-- that we pretend that government and its choices really has a great deal of agency over our daily lives. The truth is that the choices we make-- about who we love, how we act, what we choose as our vocation-- almost always matters much more to the outcomes in our lives. And yet we give in to the grandiosity, looking for a Democratic "savior" or believing that any president can "Make America Great Again."
Worst of all, politics becomes normative in the same way faith does (or at least should). If our faith says, for example, that we should care for the poor, that will make us want to take actions that help poor people. That's normative behavior.
While the normative behavior caused by faith is usually (though certainly not always!) positive for ourselves and society, the normative behavior caused by politics is much less often positive. Frankly, it seems to manifest itself mostly by talking talking talking about politics with people who may or may not care, and seeking out groups of others who share the same viewpoint as primary social groups. Which divides up our society just as certainly (and perhaps more corrosively) as Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods once did.
Politics matter, sure. Government policies can and do have a profound affect on the environment (to cite just one example). Yet politics are not an ultimate issue, a definer of one's soul. If we are shifting from religion to politics fulfilling this role, we will find ourselves in a worse place as our sights are lowered to enhancing our divisions rather than healing our brokenness.
