Doesn’t it seem like this election year is crazier than the ones before? It concerns me (and it cracks me up at times) to see the politicians that are running for office, especially those running for president, try to appease every group out there. Each candidate has some sort of spin where they try to convince the group that their plan or platform is for whatever the group in front of them is shouting about.

Global warming, health care, tax plan, animal rights, human rights, medical research funding, conservative, liberal, being green, union labor, non-union labor, immigration, death penalty, education plan, men in funny hats, ladies with purple shoes… and on and on it goes.

In some form or fashion each candidate running for president has a position on everything and cares more about how they phrase their position, so not to offend, than they are really passionate about their own position. I would offer, too, that their own position has probably become muddy because of having to try and make it fit in every situation.

The truth is that this political season is no different than each one that came before. Whether or not it is a election year, most of us spend our time focused on all the peripheral issues. By looking at each angle of every conspiracy of those who opine a different position, we stay distracted long enough to miss the main thing and effect no real change. Here’s some proof that this isn’t a new thing.

Isaiah 8:11-13
The Lord spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said: “Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, ; and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, ; he is the one you are to dread.

Those of us in ministry cannot look at the political process and cast stones. What is sad is that the same thing we see in the political arena is going on in a lot of churches. The pastor and the church leadership is spending most of its time trying to appease people in their church instead of reach people who are outside their church.

I’m afraid that if something doesn’t change, both in politics and in our churches, we will end up with leaders who are fluent in every issue and effective in none.