Kitchen Politics

Image of Roman Emperor Diocletian, Photo by Sailko (CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported, GFDL 1.2 or later)

“So they brought Him [Jesus] a denarius. And He said to them, ‘Whose image and inscription is this?’ They said to Him, ‘Caesar’s.’ And He said to them, ‘Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s’ ” (Matt. 22: 19-21).

We grab breakfast at the kitchen table, and wrestle with bills there at the end of the month. Sunday mornings, we read the paper at the kitchen table, coffee mug nearby. We sit up late at the kitchen table, waiting for a spouse on the night shift to get home.

And we argue politics at the kitchen table.

The practical application of our beliefs, politics matter because they impact so many aspects of daily life, issues discussed at kitchen tables across the country.

Politics determine the conditions under which men and women live and work; the safety of foods, drugs, and cosmetics; the availability of education; the affordability of health care; the existence of a safety net, and a thousand other things.

With many people still feeling the after-effects of the Great Recession, the nation’s ongoing debate about the role of government – government’s power to remedy or exacerbate, and the appropriate limits on that power – has taken on added significance.

But political systems and political parties are imperfect. What passes for political gain may, in reality, be spiritual loss. Christians must never confuse political success with moral superiority or loyalty to party with fealty to God. It is the reason we are instructed to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, reserving for God those that are God’s.

We are to love God with our hearts, souls, and minds, and our neighbors as ourselves (Matt. 22: 37-40).  If we strive to do that, we cannot go far wrong…in politics or any other realm of life.

READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse  http://www.avoicereclaimed.com