More Politics, Caesar?

Lots of talk on the interwebs about gay marriage with Barack Obama's statement today supporting it.

As i read through some comments on local news Facebook pages, it made me a little bit ashamed of evangelical Christians tonight. Whether gay marriage is "right" or "wrong" based on Biblical standards is not applicable in this situation.

There are plenty of straight weddings happening right now that defy particular "moral" standards, yet it is not our business to interfere. Let God be God. Trust Him to work it out, and keep Jesus out of politics. He showed us how when he was confronted with a political controversy similar to the present-day one in Luke 20:19-26. The super-religious of the day were trying to trick Jesus into making a political statement, so that his words would start some heavy debate (in his day, paying taxes was a hotly debated topic) his response was to "give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." If you are a Christian, that means give yourself to God, and love your neighbor as yourself. I further interpret Jesus' message here to say that we shouldn't get involved in these political debates, especially by presuming to know what Jesus' stance is on a particular political issue. The hate I have seen slung around is just heart-breaking. There has to be a more loving way to handle social issues than to use the Bible as a weapon.

Oh, and I'm not sure, but I think the government has some work to do on the economy and national defense, maybe even education and healthcare. I don't know, just seems like we have other stuff we could be working on to strengthen this country, rather that divide it.

So, am I voting for Obama in November? Maybe, maybe not. But I can assure you that whoever is in the white house is going to do and say many things I don't agree with, so I am going to continue to put my trust in the One who deserves my trust.