Month: October 2004

Sojourners has an excellent petition concerning the over-emphasis in many conservative Christian circles on Republican policies. It’s worth a look.

Proverbs 14:34 states “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”

How should we understand the statement “Righteousness exalts a nation”? Often I’ve heard preachers explicitly or implicitly tie this passage to the concept of God blessing a nation with righteous leaders. This in turn is tied to the idea that we should vote for candidates who profess to be Christians, or who at least seem to promote policies that are consistent with some concept of “righteousness.” Usually, in my experience, this means support for candidates who claim to be “born again” and are pro-life and anti-gay marriage / gay rights. I don’t think this is a fair reading of the passage.

It’s important to understand what this proverb is and isn’t. It is applicable to all nations, not merely Israel. It isn’t, however, connected to God’s covenant relationship with Israel. This is a critical distinction.

The leaders of God’s chosen people – the kings of Israel and Judah we read about in the Bible – were uniquely responsible for the blessings to be bestowed upon or withheld from the nation. When the king turned from God and his law, as most did, God judged the nation. When the king followed and enforced God’s law, God blessed the nation. These judgments and blessings took the form of military and material success, consistent with God’s covenant to establish the nation as a great people.

The same is not true of the rulers of other nations, including the elected leaders of democracies such as the United States. God has no covenant with any nation other than Israel. Our leaders are not proxies for national faithfulness to a covenant in the same way as the Israelite and Judaic kings. There is no military or material blessing that God grants or withholds based primarily on the behavior of our leaders. Therefore, we should not expect that our national prosperity depends directly on the individual “righteousness” of our leaders.

Why does this matter? It matters because our responsibility as citizens extends beyond voting for leaders whom we perceive to be “Christian” or otherwise relatively “righteous” in their personal conduct. We must also consider whether those who wish to lead possess characteristics such as wisdom, justice and mercy.

For example, Prov. 20:26 speaks of a “wise” king who punishes the wicked; Prov. 20:28 speaks of a king being made secure through love and faithfulness; Prov. 25:2 states that it is the “glory” of a king to “search out a matter”; Prov. 29:4 states that “By justice a king gives a country stability…”; and Prov. 29:4 states “If a king judges the poor with fairness, his throne will always be secure.” In short, Proverbs pictures the good king as one who analyzes issues thoroughly and administers justice evenhandedly.

It isn’t enough for a ruler to profess some degree of personal piety. Our responsibility as Christian citizens isn’t satisfied merely by voting for the “Christian” candidate, or even for the candidate who agrees with us on hot-button issues such as abortion and gay rights. We need to look at the total package and choose leaders who are capable of making wise decisions.

David at Jollyblogger writes about Ashlee Simpson’s Saturday Night Live snafu. I agree with David about the whole Dad expoiting his daughter thing. How sad and sick.

The broader question about lip-synching, however, is a bit more interesting, from my perspective as a musician who plays live every week (I play guitar and sing in our “contemporary” worship band for a congregation of about 600 every Sunday).

I never lip synch, but I do use technical aids when I play live — every rock musician does. For example, I play an electric guitar (Gibson Les Paul Studio double cutaway — sweet!) through an amplifier that includes digital signal processors. These signal processors let me tweak my guitar tone, so I can sound like Pete Townshend cranking through two 100 watt Marshall stacks at one moment and The Edge delivering crystal ringing layers with his Gibson Explorer the next. Yes, the notes and much of the tone come from my fingers on the fretboard, but the distortion, delay and other effects I add electronically support what I’m doing.

So how much of a leap is it from tone shaping electric instruments to supporting a vocal with a guide track? When does electronic support cross the line from enhancing musicianship to deceipt? Very interesting question. I need to crank up my amp and blast a few power chords so I can clear my head enought to think about it.

I love poetry. Although I’m more a of a songwriter than a poet, I’d like to try my hand at more “serious” poetry. So, here’s an initial shot across the bow. The inspiration for this one was a mini-ephiphany this afternoon. My kids were playing outside at the neighbor’s house, even though it’s still kind of cold and muddy. My neighbor moved in last spring, and cleared out the fruit and vegetable garden that previously had occupied most of the yard, in order to make room for his young kids to play. The prior owner was an older man, and the garden was his pride and joy. It got me thinking about how something good and productive sometimes needs to be cleared out to make room for something maybe even better.

Peach Trees

Peach trees grew here a few years ago,
when the summer hung about us like a lazy river
and we let cool nectar run down our chins,
unaware the garden would yield to muddy March ground
trampled by growing children not yet born.
Now the dried out stumps of broken peach trees mark a line
the grass dared not cross,
rich loam meant for deeper roots and
heavy branches thick with fruit.