A Stranger in a Strange Land: I Feel Out of Place and Out of Sorts in American..

Source: The Resurgent | October 17, 2017 | Erick Erickson

A Stranger in a Strange Land: I Feel Out of Place and Out of Sorts in American Politics Today

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Nowadays it seems both parties have positions on everything and they set their position not by what is best but by what the other side is for. They are guaranteed to be the opposite. And both sides are so tribal and now into cults of personality that the ideas are no longer important. Beating the other side is important. And American history shows over and over and over that it is impossible to beat the other side. There is no permanence in American politics.

Unfortunately, both sides now seem to want permanent victories and will not let anything or anyone get in their way. But to do so they have raised up the fringes of both sides that sound just like each other. I thought about that yesterday reading this excellent piece by Dan McLaughlin. The alt-right and the increasingly mainstream racial left would both define the United States in terms of skin color and both are positing that the white race is superior. It is just that one wants to prop it up and the other to tear it down — both willing to resort to violence for their ends.

I want an America that sees past race and increasingly both sides are defined by race. And the left, on top of defining people by skin color, adds gender, sexual orientation, and even particular deviancies to the mix.

On the right, a party that used to be centered around the idea of smaller government and individual empowerment is instead captured by its own personality that centers around a strong man in Washington and whatever he wants.

I used to really think my side took faith seriously and Christian values seriously, but at this point the joke is on me. It doesn’t. In Georgia, the Republicans are promising Amazon.com a boat load of taxpayer money if they build their second headquarters in the state and, to sweeten the deal, are promising to kill off any attempt at passing religious liberty legislation. In Washington, the GOP is screaming about Harvey Weinstein while ignoring the serial philanderer who was bragging about fame allowing men to grab women, well, you know. And the Christian conservatives went wild.

Christians are supposed to find some peace in the world by knowing that there is a last day and they are on the winning team. But right now a bunch of American Christians are looking to political solutions for spiritual problems and convincing themselves they’re making a Heaven on earth. They’ve gone all in on a works based earthly salvation that will only damn them and make things worse long term.

Compounding the problem are the growing number of cowards in the pulpit to preach a weak faith, a political faith, or fail to even preach the basics lest their congregation get mad at them. My goodness, a growing number of evangelicals think Jesus was created and they could not care less that Biblical sexual ethics really are necessary and incumbent to a consistent Christian world view.

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I want a new party, and a conservative one where conservatism is not defined by beating the other side, but by pursuing the best policies.

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And I want a party that is beholden to ideas, not men.

I thought I had those things once. But I don’t. And I don’t think I have changed so much as my party has changed. Really, I just want a conservatism where ideas still matter.

To the extent that I have changed, though, I think I have changed for the better. I have a harder time reconciling my faith to my politics and see so many of my friends trying to squeeze their faith into their politics. I would rather go the opposite way and connect my politics to my faith, giving up those things that cannot be reconciled.

To the extend I have no party home any more, I find it freeing to be wedded more to the idea. And I find a great deal more faith in scripture that I really am a stranger in a strange land. But even so, I know I am called to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jer. 29:7)

So if I have no home in either party, at least perhaps I can be a voice for those who likewise have no home, but are still committed to seeking the welfare of this place we temporarily dwell. I know I will still gravitate toward Republican candidates because that is still where most conservative candidates go. And I know that will find me on occasion supporting the same candidate as a Steve Bannon. But it will also mean I need to speak out and speak up on the ideas and the values and stand firm against a blending of Christianity and American nationalism for my faith is a faith that crosses borders, time, and space, and my conservatism is not soil and blood conservatism, but a conservatism of liberty for each person because we are all created equal and endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.

Perhaps in this age of tribalism, the tribe we have not accounted for is the one with others like me.

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