Optimism, Hope, and the Struggle with Empire...

I watched the inauguration yesterday...along with what appears to be everyone else in the wired world. I was impressed by Obama's speech and his focus on the fact that change comes through individual people rolling up their sleeves and living differently. I was also encouraged to see a definite change in the implications of what it means to be American. One of my struggles with my own American citizenship has been that the policies of our government throughout the world have seemed often to be more about power and economic control than about service flowing from the blessings that we have received. So I was pleased by what I saw. I voted for Obama, (See my line of reasoning here) even though some of the policies that he supports made it difficult for me to do so. My fear was that a McCain presidency would continue the foreign policy of the Bush administration which in my opinion has failed to objectively think through some of the implications of American activity abroad, especially military action.

Even before the race came down to the final two I struggled with voting in a way that would effect the change that I wanted to see. One of the worst things that happened during the Bush years is that the church often refused to speak prophetically against the actions of a "Christian President". We seemed to be more concerned about maintaining power (which I contend we never had) than in speaking truth to power. Even a couple of years ago I entertained the thought of a vote for Hillary Clinton just so that the church would be willing to speak against the government and recover its prophetic role. In the past 8 years I have watched the American Church appear to write a blank check to the Bush administration, unwilling to weigh the actions of their country against the teachings of Jesus. They have let the government hijack scriptural phrases such as "city on a hill", "the light of the world", and "the darkness has not overcome it" without calling them to account in regards to the real meaning of these passages. The evangelical church will most likely not be so slow to question the Obama administration.

So I am happy for the change...but my heart is still heavy about the future of my country. I guess it all comes back to the struggle of seeking to live by the values of the Kingdom of God while living within the American Empire. I appreciate all that America has offered me and I do believe that it has much to offer the world, but I struggle with the ideas of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness when Jesus calls us to lose our life for Him. As I watched the joy of the inauguration yesterday I was thankful that change is in the air. I was hopeful that what it means to be American is changing for the better. But I was also struck by the seemingly impossible mantle that the public has placed on the shoulders of Obama. He is approaching the level of Messiah in the minds of many. This is one man, a sinner like the rest of us, leading a country with a tendency to seek its own good at the expense of others. While I support him and will pray for him as he lives out this important role, I/we must realize that Obama is not the hope for the world. As I wrote here,

"...The answer to the needs of the world isn't the right politician."

And while I celebrate the fact that our country is becoming more color-blind, as well as the fact that there is an increasing sense of our responsibility to serve the rest of the world even if it costs us something, I am still a bit concerned. My fear in having another "Conservative Christian" president was that the church would not ask the hard questions. My fear in Obama's celebrity status is that the public will both question Obama too little and expect too much from him. These are times that should drive us to our knees.

I came across a great post yesterday at Inhabitatio Dei that added fuel to my fire.

"If America was an empire yesterday it remains one today despite the Obama administration’s proclamations of hope and seismic change. For my part I think Obama will be a welcome change to Bush, but that hardly changes the fundamental posture that Christians must take in regard to their view of American imperial pretensions. What is needed now, in a post-Bush America is the kind of vigilance that refuses to assume that that empire has ceased to be a theological problem for Christians in America. We will almost certainly see a lapse in the rush of anti-empire publications in the next few years. For far too many “progressive” Christians being anti-empire just means being anti-Bush. What is needed now, in light of the (false) hope of the newly inaugurated Obama presidency is ongoing critique of the problems of American empire. So that is my plea. Let us not be seduced. We lived in an empire yesterday. We live in an empire today. There are just as many idols to be unmasked today as there were yesterday. Let’s not get lax about it just because Bush is gone. (Emphasis mine. Full post here.)

Let's be thankful...for all our blessings, for a wealthy country, a new president, and a time of hope and optimism. But let's not forget that power tends to change those who wield it and that our example of leadership comes from the Slain Lamb of Revelation 4 and 5.