{"id":16877,"date":"2024-11-17T15:35:22","date_gmt":"2024-11-17T15:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/?p=16877"},"modified":"2024-11-17T15:35:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-17T15:35:28","slug":"no-god-doesnt-choose-bad-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/featured\/no-god-doesnt-choose-bad-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"No, God Doesn’t Choose Bad Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I promised myself I wouldn\u2019t write about the recent US election. Frankly, I\u2019m tired of it all and unsure if the frenzied energy and attention are helping or hindering. But still, I will brush up against the US election results without actually writing about it.<\/p>\n

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In this instance, folks who tend to lean to the right on the political spectrum (yes, the left does it too)<\/em>\u00a0are engaging in the biblical malfeasance of Proof Texting, specifically referencing Romans 13:1-2 ( I reference up to verse 4 for effect) as divine support for the win of the President-elect. Based on Romans 13, they\u00a0reason<\/em>\u00a0that the President-elect won was because God wanted him there.<\/p>\n

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Romans 13 \u201cLet every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.\u00a02\u00a0<\/sup>Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.<\/strong>\u00a03\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval,\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>for it is God\u2019s agent for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the agent of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Well, the bible says it that settles it. It\u2019s all on God. Right?!<\/p>\n

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Cool your bright yellow hi-lighter!<\/strong>\u00a0Let\u2019s look again.<\/p>\n

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Some Context<\/h2>\n

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Paul is writing this letter\u00a0from prison<\/strong>. Folks aren\u2019t generally imprisoned for being good, docile, and obedient citizens. Paul was in jail because he challenged the tyrannically-enforced status quo by actively claiming that Jesus is Lord, not Caesar.<\/p>\n

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Likewise, there\u2019s this guy Jesus, and he managed to annoy both the Empire and religious powers – guilty of no crime but crucified, the very symbol of the coercive power and cruelty of the Empire. Again, good, docile, and obedient citizens aren\u2019t crucified by the authorities.<\/p>\n

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So if both Paul and Jesus (and a whole host of holy heroes) didn\u2019t play nice with the authorities \u2026 What is Paul trying to say in Romans 13? \u2018Cause it\u2019s sure not about God ordaining the President-elect or\u00a0being good obedient Canadians, Americans, or consumers, Democrats or Republicans<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s certainly not about divine will and God\u2019s participation in or condoning injustice, exploitation, greed, violence\/war, racism, sexism, queer-phobia, genocide, or scapegoating others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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God is never the source of evil.\u00a0Ever<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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So what\u2019s up?<\/h2>\n

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To start, we need to stop imposing our political paradigms onto the bible and, specifically, the context in which Paul writes. Left and Right, Liberals, Progressives, Conservatives, and Libertarians, as we understand them, weren\u2019t a thing back then.<\/p>\n

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Paul was writing to probably 5-6 small churches in Rome (57-58 C.E.). The epicentre of the Roman Empire when it was enjoying the near pinnacle of power. The Empire was expanding and well organized. For the privileged, there were some benefits from living in the Empire, like peace secured by their unmatched might and structures that serviced it. There were also many downsides – in exchange for the peace, one\u2019s loyalty and obedience to Caesar and the Empire. For many folks, those without pedigree or privilege were kept in their place, too, as living grease for the gears of the Empire. History tells us of the vicious and unimaginable cruelty of the various Caesars and their administrations. To resist was futile or, in common parlance,\u00a0F\u2019around and find out<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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You\u2019ll remember Paul (formerly Saul) was a Jew\u2019s Jew, an expert in Jewish traditions. So, Paul\u2019s worldview was ordered around the stories of exile and captivity under the control of both benevolent and cruel authorities. The Jews believed that when the people disobeyed God, they were punished with captivity. Jewish folks held that God desired order; even order enforced by a tyrant was better than anarchy and chaos.1<\/a><\/p>\n

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They believed that the order provided\/imposed by the authorities was God\u2019s will to stop the world from sliding back into chaos.2<\/a>Paul\u2019s admonition in Romans 13 does not legitimize Caesar or the brutality of the Empire (or abusive pastors, theologies or denominational structures). Remember, the Jews believed God personally held these authorities accountable for their leadership – good or bad. It\u2019s not the divine approval of a specific system of order. Rather, it is an affirmation of\u00a0order over chaos<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Both Jesus and Paul championed the Kindom of God and resisted the Empire’s unloving, cruel and unjust policies; their work was Love reordering the immature order of the Empire, which undoubtedly was a shot across the bow of Caesar. And though it certainly cost them both dearly, it wasn\u2019t in conflict with Romans 13.<\/p>\n

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A Few Problems<\/h2>\n

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Let’s consider the swath of bad leaders throughout history. Consider the immense suffering and carnage inflicted on the powerless by these leaders.<\/p>\n

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Problem #1<\/strong>\u00a0-If\u00a0ALL\u00a0<\/strong>authorities\u00a0(especially the nasty ones)<\/strong>\u00a0are of god\u2019s specific choosing, then god is complicit in a whole host of atrocities, human suffering and devastation. This god is evil.\u00a0This is not the Abba of Jesus.<\/p>\n

Problem #2 –<\/strong>From my perspective, the “all authorities are from god” is often a power play by the powerful and their supporters, played like a divine trump card to validate their power over and the abuse of those with less (no) power.<\/p>\n

Problem #3<\/strong>\u00a0-the “all authorities are from god” seems like a copout – a way to sound pious without looking in the mirror to recognize our complicity in the rise of such authorities and injustice. A religious passivity that abdicates our spiritual and civic responsibility for our actions and inactions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cUntil we make the unconscious conscious, they will direct our lives, and we will call it fate.\u201d3<\/a><\/p>\n

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So where is God in this?<\/h2>\n

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I think God is always at work, but there is a difference between God ordaining authorities who commit harmful acts\/policies as a part of the divine will\/plan and God at work in the mess to squeeze the most overall well-being possible out of situations God never wanted in the first place.<\/p>\n

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Regardless of whether the \u201cAuthorities\u201d are benevolent, banal, or cruel, God is at work calling, inspiring, and empowering us to love well. For Jesus, Loving well looks like laying down your lives for your friends, neighbour-love,\u00a0<\/sup>radical forgiveness, and loving your enemy by doing good to them.<\/p>\n

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For Jesus, Love looks like uplifting the poor, the brokenhearted, the powerless. Welcoming and feeding those who are hungry for the feast of God (but never got invited), the dreamers, idealists, the hopeful and those who work for peace – and all those who give their life-blood energy working towards this grand idea of the Kindom of Love (even when they are called heretics, unrealistic, unpatriotic and naive).4<\/a><\/p>\n

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Together, we co-create with God-who-is-Love by acting intentionally in a sympathetic response to others (including God) to promote\u00a0overall<\/em>\u00a0well-being.5<\/a>\u00a0For this what Love does.<\/p>\n

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Romans 13 was never intended to be used by the Empire\/power to religiously bully people into acquiescing and participating in cruel, ungodly leadership, policies or systems. And it sure as\u00a0h-e-double-hockey-sticks<\/em>\u00a0was never intended to provide divine legitimacy to any so-called political messiah and their political agenda.<\/p>\n

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As followers of the Jesus Way, we continue as co-creators with the God-who-is-Love by working to reorder the immature and far too often cruel order of the Empire with the Kindom of Love.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n

1<\/a> Paul. In Fresh Perspective, N.T. Wright. Fortress Press. 2005<\/p>\n

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2<\/a> Genesis tells the story of Creation – God bringing order to chaos. Order, Logos (organizing principle), and evolving complexity are important themes in Judaism.<\/p>\n

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3<\/a> This quote jives with Jungian ideas but is not a direct quote, though often offered as such.<\/p>\n

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4<\/a> alluding to the Beatitudes<\/p>\n

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5<\/a> Love definition courtesy of Thomas Jay Oord.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I promised myself I wouldn\u2019t write about the recent US election. Frankly, I\u2019m tired of it all and unsure if the frenzied energy and attention are helping or hindering. But still, I will brush up against the US election results without actually writing about it. 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