Christian Lifestyle vs. Political Lifestyle

Luke 5:30-31

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Politics have always been pretty much crazy, but recently it just seems to have gone overboard.  I can’t understand why anyone would want to put themselves or their families through an experience like that.

Those that do and survive though have it pretty well. Did you know……holding a national political office today means you will receive perks that will blow your mind.  Here is a list of a few of them:

Additional perks of being in Congress, all paid for by you, the taxpayer (from NTU):

• Comfortable salaries that are often determined through legislative sleight-of-hand. Contrary to the arguments of many Washington “insiders,” the cost of living has rarely eroded the historical value of lawmakers’ pay, which on a constant-dollar basis is hovering near the postwar high.
• Pension benefits that are two to three times more generous than those offered in the private sector for similarly-salaried executives. Taxpayers directly cover at least 80 percent of this costly plan. Congressional pensions are also inflation-protected, a feature that fewer than 1 in 10 private plans offer.
• Health and life insurance, approximately 3/4 and 1/3 of whose costs, respectively, are subsidized by taxpayers.
• Travel to far-flung destinations as well as to home states and districts. Despite recent attempts to toughen gift and travel rules, “junkets” are still readily available prerogatives for many Members.
• A wide range of smaller perks that have defied reform efforts, from cut-rate health clubs to fine furnishings.
• The franking privilege, which gives lawmakers millions in tax dollars to create a favorable public image. Experts across the political spectrum have labeled the frank as an unfair electioneering tool. In past election cycles, Congressional incumbents have spent as much on franking alone as challengers have spent on their entire campaigns.
• An office staff that performs “constituent services” and doles out pork-barrel spending, providing more opportunities for “favors” that can be returned only at election time.
• Exemptions and immunities from tax, pension, and other laws that burden private citizens — all crafted by lawmakers themselves.

This list is by no means exhaustive.  Even until recently, February 2012, Congress and national public officials were able to use insider information to make stock and other financial investments without being charged for insider trading.  All legal.

How fair it that?

These are men and women that are making decisions on the lives of Americans from healthcare and business to taxes and other areas that affect our lives, yet not one of them has to live with or experience any of the decisions they make.  They don’t experience the health care decisions they force on us as Americans.  They don’t have to face the same financial futures we face with regard to retirement.  And the insider trading….oh my gosh…..the stuff that Martha Stewart was involved with is peanuts compared to what members of congress got away with when they had that opportunity.  How can they say that they feel what we feel and can relate to what we relate to if they themselves don’t have to live with the same consequences we have to face as a result of their decisions?

Are we any different as Christians?  How can we relate to those around us in the “real world” when we tend to surround ourselves in a church community or environment that is always protected and safe.  I say “real world” because many fundamental Christian communities sometimes create this protected environment where all of their friends and social experiences are only with people that are members of this protected group.  I’ve known Christians that have been so protected that they would not know how to relate to the world outside of that unexposed atmosphere.

I look at the life of Jesus.  He didn’t just surround himself with his twelve disciples and then only focus on them and build a protected shell around him and his followers.  No, he kept himself in the real world, interacting with those that were considered sinners.  He put himself and his disciples into their world.  He didn’t build a building and expect others to come there to receive God’s blessing.

Don’t you find it interesting that most of the people in Jesus time came to him and / or came to know him in the world where they lived.  It wasn’t through their local synagogue or synagogue sponsored event?

Yes, at times we as Christians are not much better than those very politicians we complain about.  Being a part of a church environment is important.  However, when we so engrain our lives within that environment to where that is all we experience, how can we as Christians relate to those in “the world.” How can we relate and connect unless we go out and put ourselves in their environment so that they can see the love of God where they live?