Rules for Intersections: A Thought or Two about This Election Season

A week or so ago, some of our members approached me unaware of one another with questions about the election this year.  About the same time, an editor asked me for permission to print some of the articles I have written over the years and posted on our church website.  They specifically asked me to re-write an article I wrote about the 2004 elections.  What follows below is a slightly longer, more personal version of the article I sent the editor this week.

Rules for Intersections

When I was a little boy learning to cross the street, I received some timeless guidance: Stop.  Look both ways.  Proceed with caution. 

Later, when I was learning to drive, we applied those same three simple rules to intersections: Stop.  Look both ways.  Proceed with caution.

Today, three extraordinarily busy intersections on the American socio-political map require the same sage advice.  How can we safely traverse the intersections of Republican Road and Democratic Drive, Wall Street and Main Street, and Church Street and State Street?  Stop.  Look both ways.  Proceed with caution.

Look for a Signal

Over the years, I have learned that safe passage through busy intersections often requires aids and guides.  Children learn to cross the street at the corner under the direction of a monitor or, even better, with their hands in Mommy or Daddy’s hands.  Traffic flows more safely and freely when facilitated by volume-appropriate directors – Yield or Stop signs, stoplights, or a police officer directing traffic. 

So, I propose another word of counsel to our simple rules for safe crossings: Stop.  Look both ways.  Look for a signal.  Then, proceed with caution.

Where do we find these signals?  I believe God has set up some traffic signals at those treacherous intersections we noted above.

Republican Road and Democratic Drive

Stump speeches, party platforms, and analysis from all the experts abound with obscenely large numbers, gratuitous claims of impressive accomplishments, nearly messianic claims to resolve our challenges, and obligatory accusations of the other side’s incompetence at least and malevolence at worst.  Frankly, from the conventions to the political ads to the media coverage – whether “fair and balanced” or not – I struggle to discern the truth, and we have not yet been treated to the clarity the presidential debates will most assuredly obscure.  Republican Road and Democratic Drive is a perilous intersection, to say the least.

God’s Signal

Of course, God is neither a democrat nor a republican, though we are quietly confident He votes like us.  Here are a couple of signals I look for at Republican Road and Democratic Drive.

God values human life from the womb to the tomb, so I cast my vote for candidates and measures that protect life, and I encourage my family and friends to do the same.  I cannot find any just cause worthy of compromise on this issue!  No politician, party, or platform that supports abortion – the legalized murder of innocent pre-born children – shall ever have my support.

The first institution God ordained to help us be fruitful, multiply, and manage His creation for His glory is that of marriage between one man and one woman.  So, I vote for candidates and measures that support a biblical view of marriage and family, and I encourage my family and friends to do the same.

Wall Street and Main Street

The financial record of the past several years exposes the dangers resident at the corner of Wall Street and Main Street.  Seems the “greed” light has been on for all roads leading to this junction.  The resulting collision has been particularly disastrous for folks who failed to wear their seatbelts even while they “pushed the pedal to the metal.”  Hyperbole aside, we all know that more Americans face real and hurtful economic woes today than at any other time in our history since the Great Depression.  Most prognosticators warn that we have not seen the full measure of the pileup on our financial highways yet.

God’s Signal

Our conduct at Wall Street and Main Street reveals and reflects our true treasure and our hearts.  To be in debt is to be enslaved.  That’s true for families and nations.  We do not need everything we want.  Simplify.  The quickest way to get a raise is to control our appetite.

The dollar is not almighty, God is.  We do business at Wall Street and Main Street, but we do not depend upon those markets.  “We trust in the name of the LORD our God” (Psalm 20:7).  Commerce is a neighborhood where we model that trust.

Church Street and State Street

One of the most confusing intersections is where Church Street meets State Street.  Most of the time, these roads appear to be on parallel courses, widely separated, and we assume they never meet.  In fact, societal engineers have been working for decades to redirect one or both of these roads as if they could somehow eliminate any connection between the two.

God’s Signal

What if Church and State Streets are actually partners, corridors that may even share the same pavement from time to time?  What if our failure to navigate and direct our people with better sense and cooperation along these foundational paths is the culprit that has produced the violent congestion at these other intersections?  In fact, marriage is the first institution ordained by God, followed then by both government and His church.

Here’s the best direction I can find for crossing Church and State Streets, indeed, all of the intersections we face today: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD” (Psalm 33:12). 

As Christians, our truest citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3:20).  As citizens of Christ’s Kingdom, however, we should be the very best citizens of these United States.  Do we not believe that Jesus Christ is the King of kings, the Lord of lords?  As such, do we not understand He might have a word or two concerning His will for our nation, as He does for all nations?  As His ambassadors, then (2 Corinthians 5:20), we should do our best to articulate our Sovereign’s message to Americans all, even as we vote our values – better, His values – so that we may truly be “one nation under God.”

This election season, stop, look both ways, look for a signal, and proceed with caution.

Please pray with me as I prepare to bring a brief series – two, maybe three messages in October leading up to the November election about the issues that should influence our vote this year.

His glory, our joy!
Pastor Rob