A woman is brutally stabbed to death on a commuter train in Charlotte, N.C. and it sparks a political debate. Finding the square footage of a vegetable garden – calculating a simple number – has been turned into a political battleground. Politics has become monstrous, consuming all in its path, blurring lines between right-and-wrong, making the quite simple very complex, creating havoc wherever it raises its ugly head – which is, unfortunately, everywhere. The murder of Iryna Zarutska, on security camera, is a whole lot of things but mostly it is tragic, lamentable and horrific. That ought to be enough for a week or more. But no rather than digest the awfulness of it, we start pointing fingers at political opponents. What in the world is wrong with us?
Great Britain is currently undergoing a serious ethical crisis in government. Richard Thomson has used the occasion to ask:
The question is: why are the worst of us attracted into politics? Why do we end up governed not by the brightest, the most courageous, the most dedicated, but by the slippery opportunists, the morally bankrupt, the self-serving and corrupt?
It is the opportunists that seek to turn everything political for their own gain, The question is entirely appropriate – if a bit overwrought in its framing. The question strikes at the heart of the issue.
I am sure the psychologist would state that we turn to politics as an “avoidance mechanism.” That by talking politics we avoid looking at the awfulness, and the self-serving politico, knowing we would tend to do this, takes advantage. I do think avoidance is involved, and I do think politicians capitalize on it, but I think it much deeper than just avoiding the awfulness of a murder, or even trying to get around the difficulty of a simple calculation.
What we are avoiding is facing ourselves – in a thousand different ways. Perhaps we are avoiding projecting ourselves into the circumstance? Perhaps we feel guilty for the racial transgressions of our ancestors? Mostly, I think we want to avoid admitting that we have done nothing to make this ugly awful world, where things like this can happen, a better place. Whatever it is it is easier to point fingers at others than examine ourselves.
To put it in purely Christian terms – we want to avoid confession. (However you choose to practice it.)
This is a world where Christianity is not front and center. It is impossible to face our shortcomings, failures and evil without the hope of Christian faith. With Christ, confession is how we access God’s bottomless well of love because we know He loves us in spite of that which we confess. Without Christian faith, confession is just admitting failure. With Christ we know that we do not have to make the world better – that is God’s job. We know that our job is just to be a better person, God’s person, in our circumstances.
We politicize everything because we need hope and without Christ where do you turn for that hope? You turn to politicians that would place themselves in God’s stead – politicians that sell false hope for the sake of their own gain. As we now see on a daily basis, faith, faith that comes with genuine hope, is a much better option.
