Listen / Read
God doesn’t want to be defined by democracy? He wants to sit upon his throne and rule over every aspect of our lives? That’s heaven, is it? And this is what good Christians have to look forward to? Totalitarianism? In the meantime (presumably until the day that Canon Winter is eagerly awaiting comes) he’s making do with democracy. Well, thanks for humouring us, God. Nice one.
But if that’s heaven then, in the words of the great Belinda Carlisle, ooo heaven is a place on earth. Because, considering the state of democracy, I’m not sure God is humouring us. If God does democracy at all then he certainly doesn’t do it very well. In Britain we’ve got an unelected leader presiding over our sleepwalk into catastrophe, with our very own Jeremiah Chancellor prophesying it all. And in America we have President ‘W’ who seems like more of a monarch than King Saul himself. King George was heir to his father’s crown, which is more than can be said for Saul who was hiding amongst baggage when Samuel divined his selection through the casting of lots, a Biblical lottery that assumed the lucky winner to be God’s chosen one. The Florida recount on the other hand was an electoral lottery that assumed the lucky winner to be the chosen one before the ballots had even been counted. So, more a matter of guesswork than cleromancy, but at least Samuel bothered to count his lots after he cast them. And at least he wasn’t Saul’s brother or from the same tribe as him (though there’s some scriptural confusion that links them to the same mother, Hannah, so there’s a whiff of nepotism – but not enough to mask the stench generated in Florida 8 years ago).
So, as far as I can see God’s preferred method of governance is already in place. In fact, if it wasn’t for Bush being born again (it didn’t go so well the first time) then I don’t think he’d be sitting on his throne today. He needed the aspirational goal of heavenly autocracy to motivate him. After all, tyranny is next to godliness.
But what Edwards seems to be saying here is that all these American political types use God as a vote spinner, politicising the Lord Himself to win elections. He doesn’t agree with this and is “pleased that in this election there is no obvious religious candidate”. He’s obviously quite happy to overlook the fact that Sarah Palin’s very raison d’être is to bring the Christian right on board for McCain, whose first preference was former Democrat and pro-choice Jew, Joe Lieberman (Al Gore’s would-be VP). And like Rev Fraser the other week Rev Edwards also seems happy to overlook the eagerness of Christian organisations, particularly evangelical ones, to use God as a weapon against churchgoers who might dare to decide for themselves which ticket to vote for. But I’m sure that has nothing to do with the fact that he’s an evangelical who likes to spend time in America.
If another speaker on Thought for the Day takes it upon themselves to wave the finger at American politicians who use faith to gain votes while overlooking the Christian organisations that use faith to deliver those votes, I’m going to start swearing. More than I already do. Political parties wouldn’t put religion on the ticket if vast numbers of people, pressured by their pastors, priests and preachers, didn’t think it reasonable to cast their votes on religious grounds alone. As they say in America, ‘do the math’.
(And let’s hope this year that they do the math AFTER they’ve finished counting.)