This will be a follow up blog to one I posted about a week and a half ago regarding some Penn State politics and the election for the student government president. I realized as I considered that post that there were really two posts going on and so for now, I'm splitting them up into two parts. This first one will revisit PSU. The second will look at Kingdom Theology and thoughts on Christ and Culture discussions, hopefully asking more questions than making statements.
First, I wish to state that ranting was not the best way to approach the topic. I appreciate David Adewumi's (the receipiant of my criticisms) response to the blog and his willingness to talk about it further. I hope my use of the blog will be more thought through in the future.
That being said, I would be interested in hearing responses to thoughts on Christianity and politics. For those of you who may have missed it, last week was a pretty well publicized election for the Penn State positions. Christians took particular note this year because one candidate (Adewumi) was outspokenly Christian and used it as a way to campaign for votes. Christian football players endorsed him in the collegian. He was at Navigators and was introduced by our club president as a "man of God" and then presented as the candidate to vote for. There was sudden interest from Christians in an election that had held no interest before. A brother was running and so it seemed as if there was a felt need to put him in that position. The contradiction? His opponent, Christian Raggland is also a believer. David noted this in his comment on my blog and it was something I had just learned when I wrote it the first time. However, my objection was not to Christianity playing a part in shaping each candidates ideas and beliefs. But I am sincerely questioning whether using identification with a particular faith group to elicit those votes. It seems to be based then less on qualifications (of which I am not questioning) and more on personal appeal. I also put forth the idea that perhaps this was a poor way to express ourselves to those who (at times) have legitimate criticisms of Christians and their behavior. This question has implications in a larger realm than simply Penn State. Is it permissible for a candidate to ever use personal faith to get votes? (This is a different question from letting faith influence ethics and policies so perhaps that one can be saved for another time).
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Dana,
ReplyDeleteThis is a well-written post.
I don't believe you can separate the man from the position to which they aspire.
What you might call "soliciting votes" a reporter might call "writing a good story."
The collegian asked me how I knew Mark and Stefan -- I knew then from CRU. Also in the flag incident Justin was noted as knowing me from CRU.
I'll actually tell you that many people publicly and privately criticized me for this connection -- you may think it was used to solicit votes, but the truth is I simply spoke truth and they decided this was something worth writing about.
Faith was not uses by myself or Christian to "elicit votes" but of course people in our respective communities, which happens to include our churches and Christian groups, supported us as people and individuals.
Dan Saxton knows me and has for Years; one might argue that he was simply sharing his personal feelings about me while introducing me to his peers, many of whom have not met me.
We can't politicize morality nor moralize politcs and I don't think this was done. Most of your Christian Navs friends who supported me did so because their brother and friend asked them to, not because they thought they could "save" Penn State morally via the election.
In fact in Mark Weavers letter to the editor he uses logos and pathos to appeal to the PSU community to vote for me, not ethos based on faith.
One has to be careful, Dana, to realize I cannot control the medias dissemination of information -- if you have specific information that exemplifies how I brought harm to the "perception" of Christ or Christians here on campus you should share it; Id be surprised if many people found it relevant at all.
Thank you, again, David for your willingness to participate here. I apologize for not responding sooner. Noting the usual suspects of work and travel seems rather trivial on my end.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to know that you were not seeking to use faith as a way of eliciting votes. You are well connected within the Christian circles at Penn State and perhaps I saw those lines of influence as more insidious than what they actually were: good friends supporting you passionately and appropriately.
I question however, your statement that there were those who would vote for you because a brother asked them to and not to "save Penn State". Perhaps the term "save" is a bit outlandish on my part. It wouldn't be the first time my language ran ahead of my head. But I do not think the difference between the two is terribly different. They trust a brother to tell them who or what will be best for Penn State. They trust his assessment of your character (no small matter). The influence is toward a better Penn State with the understanding that it will always be best under a Christian leader. I would imagine you were okay with him standing up and doing so and also sharing a part of your testimony afterwords. I'd really love to hear your thoughts on people voting for you based on your faith, even though you were not attempting to get them to do that. Is that something you have a problem with?
Again, David, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this since you have had far more personal experience with this arena and considering a faithful Christian approach to it.
Dana,
ReplyDeleteHave you talked to Dan about your concerns?
Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
David