Dear church, your political alignment can't save you

I tend to limit my thoughts on politics to the safety of philosophical discussions on the Saturday breakfast table with Jonathan. I do think a lot about it, about which policies I agree with or disagree with, what is the balance between justice and mercy, but it is not something I debate lengthily. This is why I am surprised to find myself writing about it publicly (although be warned this will not necessarily be done in a rational elaborately structured text, but perhaps more of an unloading of the heart). 

Over the past few weeks I have seen my facebook timeline shift from friendly small talk to a bloody battle ground, trenches dug deeply into each side of ideology and beliefs. Insults fly easily, although not more easily than lies (please, stop calling it fake news, that is simply a euphemism for lies); lies spread about people, political parties and presidential candidates. I have seen the same political figures portrayed as demons and as saviours, and I have seen friendships and relationships torn apart by passionate discourses, arguments and the continuous propagation of deception. This is the fuel on which the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections have run. 

We are a passionate culture, and we are not afraid to express emotions - we do this with a vast vocabulary to demonstrate these emotions to an extent that any English speaker wouldn't even imagine possible. But lately all of the passion - often directed at the FIFA worldcup, the local soccer teams or carnaval - has become an angry, hateful discourse of people actually insulting each other because of their political ideas. 

Our open approach to religion has also affected the debate a lot. Talking about religious beliefs is not a taboo, even in universities and highly intellectual institutions; often the myriad of religious beliefs that exist in Brazil are all followed in and believed in at the same time by the same person. Coexistence of different religions has been a consequence of the different groups of immigrants the country received, all of whom brought with themselves a different worldview and religions. Predominantly, though, the country is Christian (both catholic and protestant) and thus, shockingly, many, many horrors have been said during these presidential elections - from all sides - in the name of God. The church and self proclaimed Christians have been the cause of most of my grief as I see this divisiveness spread like wildfire. 

At the end of it all, I cannot feel anger towards any side - even if I do have an opinion on the matter. I can only feel a deep grief for my home country and its people, crumbling under widespread corruption, dishonesty, violence and, ultimately, fear. This is driving people to extreme desperation and to extreme views. Some older and wealthier generations that want to protect whatever comfort and property they have earned (often with hard work) are seeking the protection of extreme right wing, many younger and/or not so wealthy people are seeking the governmental support of the left wing policies. One does not trust the government, the other believes they need governmental interference to survive. Each believe their philosophy will save the country, each believe they are seeking the right candidate, policies and party. Each believe the other side is the enemy. 

For a country that is making many statements and decisions in the name of God, the recent elections have revealed a certain irony in how far this whole affair seems from God. People are not seeking justice, they are demanding blood. A sacrifice. The sacrifice of the other side, the other people that believe something different. They are seeking salvation through this sacrifice of another in the name of their ideology. Rather than targeting the anger to the moral issues that have caused this fear in the first place, they are turning on each other.  

The blood sacrifice that campaigners are pleading for in their messages of hatred is an extreme contrast to the one who - although one with God - gave up everything out of love for others. The one who was a sacrifice in life and in death for others.
One of the reasons I avoid discussing politics is because I do not think I have a clear alignment - I believe all views have good and bad aspects, but none is perfect and none can save a person, much less a country. What makes a country is not its ideology, but its people. They shape the culture, the life and by consequence the economics and politics. If people are corrupt, they will corrupt any system - whether right, left or anything in between. What needs to be transformed is not the ideology, but the people. Ultimately, my unpopular opinion boils down to the fact that as a Christian, I believe the only hope for salvation and redemption is through Christ*.

Put insightfully by a quote misattributed to C.S.Lewis' book "Screwtape letters"**, a fictional work in which Screwtape instructs his apprentice-temptor nephew Wormwood, it is eerie the resemblance to our current setting:

"My dear wormwood,
Be sure that the patient remains completely fixated on politics. Arguments, political gossip, and obsessing on the faults of people they have never met serves as an excellent distraction from advancing personal virtue, character and the things the patient can control. Make sure to keep the patient in a constant state of angst, frustration and general disdain towards the rest of the human race in order to avoid any kind of charity or inner peace from further developing. Ensure the patient continues to believe that the problem is “out there” in the “broken system” rather than recognising there is a problem with himself.
Keep up the good work,
Uncle Screwtape"
- Screwtape letters, C.S.Lewis

So my plea to my home country is that since so much is being said about God, then do look to him. Look to the Jesus you swear by and pray to. Look at his life and let it transform you, your message and your politics. Your politician is not your messiah, your ideology is not your salvation. 

To the Christians who are feeling they are failures because they could not influence the outcome in the first round, feeling powerless in light of a possibly very gloomy future, who have been seeking discernment quietly in prayer, to those who are disheartened and who have lost hope, also look to him. Look to him as you continue to seek justice for the oppressed and as you continue to lay down your weapons - as you give up the comfort of a protective crowd defending an ideology;  look to him for comfort as you long for the world to be as it should; look to him as as you love your enemy - perhaps in that very enemy you will come to see your brother. 

Take heart knowing that Jesus lived in a time of Roman dominion with an emperor in power, in a time when he was executed although there was no evidence against him, and yet this did not prevent him from loving those around him or keep him from his mission on earth. That doesn't mean his mission was easy or painless - but it was good, perfect and acceptable to God. Regardless of who wins or who loses in the second round of the elections, we know what our mission is and we know where our true hope lies. 

*A brief note: By this statement, I want to make it clear I do not think politics and the church should mix, history shows clearly how badly that can go. But I do believe that through Christ we can learn to love, be humble, gentle, kind, patient: this can better equip all of us - those who write the law, those who enforce the law, those who live under the law - and make a better society. Many good and successful law systems even if not openly Christian are based on the basic principles of Christian values, such as love, justice, mercy and charity.

**Edit: I thought this quote was C.S.Lewis' but it was pointed out to me that though widely used around the internet it is not actually from the book, though the ideas are similar to some in the book. Quite ironic that in the very text I criticise fake news I propagated a misattributed quote; apologies to all readers!