Hope and Change

Hope and Change

                Sometime on Saturday a thought occurred to me that I have been trying to refine since it came. Here is what I have boiled it down to - “Who stole hope?” The current culture, it seems to me, provides no hope, but there is only one thing worse than having no hope at all and it is to have it offered repeatedly then never delivered. History teaches us that disappointment is a strong concoction that can be brewed and distributed to purposefully take advantage of those who have had too much of it. I believe it was Marx who said “Religion is the opiate of the people.” If you accept that he is right (which I do not), then disappointment may be the firewater that has ignited many a revolutionary fire. 

                Those living in our current culture, who have grown up with a “live for now, live for me” outlook, know instinctively that something is fundamentally wrong. They may not know what it is but they are certainly savvy enough to know that something is.

                As far as I can tell the Christianity I grew up with (1955 - ) has done little in the past 20 – 30 years to address an ever widening void of hope. Beyond the second coming of Christ what living hope ( hope now) has 20^th and 21^st Century Christianity offered to a discouraged American culture? In this atmosphere is it any wonder that Barack Obama’s campaign of hope and change gained traction so quickly? As a cunning politician he (and his election staff) wisely identified a colossal cultural vacuum then threw everything they had at it, calculating that if they played the right tune it could awaken a huge number of disenchanted and unengaged voters. However, now he may be in real trouble for not delivering on his promise of hope and change, (same old, same old, political shell game). It makes me wonder if a large section of the country’s voting block that became engaged because of his campaign and its promises, won’t just check out of the next national elections. People who might have been disenchanted with politics in the past, remaining mostly on the sideline, but jumped in at the offer of hope, might just jump back out in disgust since there is one thing worse than having no hope and it is to be offered it repeatedly only to be disappointed repeatedly.

                I can’t help but wonder if the same thing isn’t true for non-believers and some believers today. How many people have checked out because when it comes to the politics of religion (*) they have been through similar experiences? How many believers are setting in churches, but have essentially checked out of a process of being active in a community of believers, and how many non-believers have either quietly slipped into the background or run boldly for the sandboxes of the cultural playgrounds since they are done hoping, moving on because they are unable to see where the Church is doing a significantly better job than the politicians are?

                Until we in the American Church begin to campaign and live in the reality of hope and change, hope that will not disappoint since it is based on change that has already taken place, we too may find ourselves continuing to campaigning to our choirs.

(*) By politics of religion I mean the process and practices of guiding and influencing groups of people, which are necessary roles and functions of a church.