Majority Rules...Except When It Doesn't

Though the Illinois Supreme Court could still overturn the decision, as of now, Rahm Emanuel will not be able to run for mayor of the city of Chicago. In fact, ballots are already being printed without his name on them. And, to most, it seems like a shame.

Emanuel was born in Chicago, raised in Chicago, represented Chicago in the U.S. House of Representatives, and lived in Chicago before moving to Washington D.C. in 2008 to become President Obama's Chief of Staff. Today, Rahm still owns a home in the city, votes in the city, and pays property taxes in the city.

Mr. Emanuel is incredibly popular in his hometown too. The most recent polls show Emanuel with 44% of the vote, compared to 21% for the next closest candidate. The President of the United States thinks Emanuel should be able to run. Whether or not they plan to vote for him, the majority of Chicagoans seem to think he should be able to run too.

Unfortunately, the law says that none of those things qualifies Rahm Emanuel to be mayor. Not intent, not family, not history, not popularity. The city rules clearly state that a candidate must have "resided in the municipality" for at least one year prior to the election. One year ago, Mr. Emanuel was residing in the nation's capital - not Chicago.

The Christian culture thinks in much the same way these days. We assume that we're Christians because our family was or because we go to church or because we do a lot of good stuff. We believe that we're a part of God's family by proxy or osmosis or succession. But, according to the Bible, none of that meets God's standards.

John 1:12 says, "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." John 14:6 says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Like running for mayor of Chicago, the qualifications to begin a relationship with Jesus are not difficult, but they are clear. We can justify our feelings or beliefs to the contrary any way we want to but, ultimately, the rules are the rules.

Just ask Rahm.

The Truth Hurts

The Governor of Alabama is being criticized this week by many for his comments about faith. Shortly after being inaugurated, and while speaking to a church crowd, Robert Bentley said, "Anybody who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior...you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother."

For a variety of different reasons, many in the state took offense at what was said. And, honestly, I've gotta admit that I was a little taken back by the comments too. Not because they weren't true, but because of the time and manner in which they were given. Whether Governor Bentley intended it to be the case or not, his words came across in a controversial way, rather than in a loving way.  (As I know all too well, public figures often run into this kind of thing.)

After our on-air discussion of the issue, many people game to Bentley's defense...on the phone and on Facebook:

"That is truth!  What an awesome Governor."

"The truth hurts."

"He (God) will bless this man for his courage to be persecuted."

"I think that we are offending people straight to hell by not advertising our belief in God."

While I'm not convinced that what Governor Bentley did was wrong or inappropriate (certainly given his audience at a church), I am a little nervous about the subsequent reaction from many Christians. I guess I'm just concerned that (as a whole) sometimes we don't think very hard about how or when to say something, only about what it is we want to say. But, the reality is, method does matter.

Would you and I listen to Christian radio if all the lyrics were the same, but the bands were made up exclusively of pipe organs and pan flutes? Would you play the radio station on your drive to work if Casting Crowns and MercyMe were heavy metal groups? A few might, but most all of us would find some other way to fill ourselves with truth.

What about at church? How many times has each of us walked out of the building silently (or loudly) complaining that the pastor wasn't engaging enough, or the music was too loud, or the drama was distracting? If truth is truth, regardless of how it is presented, then these things shouldn't matter. Ever. And yet they do. Maybe that's not the way it should be, but that's the way it is.

People have preferences and none of us is ever going to please all people at all times. However, the "truth is truth, take it or leave it, and people should happily listen regardless of the time or place or delivery method" approach is probably hypocritical and it's likely hurtful to the cause of Christ long-term.

An Excuse for Dysfunction

Recently, the entire staff at our radio station was given the DISC personality assessment. DISC is an acronym for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness, and every person alive is said to fall into one of those four categories. Sometimes two.

The goal of our exercise was to 1) learn more about ourselves and 2) learn more about the people we work with every day.  In a nutshell, we did.  D's learned why S's tend to clam up during heated discussions.  I's learned why C's never want to have fun.  C's learned why I's never finish anything.  And so on.

For example, I am a D/I.  The positive of being a Dominant Influencer is that I like to get things done and have fun doing them.  The negative of being a Dominant Influencer is that I can sometimes come off as a jerk in front of large groups of people.  As any psychologist will tell you, any positive taken to an extreme becomes a negative.

While I'm confident that no one I work with would see it this way, my immediate thought after going through the assessment was that tests like the DISC could easily become excuses for dysfunction.  It's only natural to, once we know what our tendencies are, rationalize our negative behaviors by saying "I am what I am.  The test said so, remember?"  Instead of learning to work more effectively with others, we put the onus on them to adjust to our extremes, rather than do our best to keep those oddities in check.

Honestly, I think our faith often works this way.  Inherently we know that we are "sinners saved by grace", so there's a temptation to blame every bad choice we make on that idea.  I sin.  God saves me. So why try?  We see no reason to work on our naturally sinful tendencies because, let's face it, God is a forgiving, grace-filled God.

But God's grace is far from an excuse for our dysfunction.  Grace is offered in spite of our dysfunction.  And, while our salvation isn't dependent on the severity to which we are flawed...our ability to represent Jesus to others is.