Why I’m Not Partisan (or, Why I Choose to Maintain Prophetic Distance Among ‘Celebrity’ Politicians)

The tagline of my blog says, “theology, politics, and other musings.”  The ordering was intentional.  My own interests — to grossly understate — have to do with theology first and politics second, more specifically with the intersection of politics and theology/religion and how one effects (or dictates, however you choose to view it) the other.  When you get down to I believe that everything is inherently theological including our politics.

So I try to blog about one or the other — or both when I find a similarity or correlation.

The other day I was going through some old posts and I realized that back in the spring during primary season I blogged almost exclusively on politics and the primaries, which in itself isn’t too much of a bad thing, they were (and are) a big deal.  Most of my posts revealed my biases which aren’t necessarily bad either, we all have them.  But — and here’s the big thing — almost all of the posts revealed my political biases to the point of making me look very partisan.

Now to some being partisan isn’t a bad thing at all, that’s just how it works.  I’m not one of those people.  I don’t consider myself to be partisan.  Quite the opposite — I’d like to think that I’m aggressively non-partisan, which doesn’t mean that I don’t have any political biases or persuasions, it simply means I refuse to accept what power hands me.  I believe in an alternative type of reality, a reality that Jesus called the kingdom of God. And I think it’s healthy to maintain a certain degree of prophetic distance from power.  But that’s a different story for a different post.

I haven’t blogged much about this in a while.  My “Kingdom Language” series spoke to it, and I mentioned it in my review of We the Purple about a month ago, but other than that I haven’t really wrote much about it, and it be honest, I haven’t thought much about it either.

Then last week Brian McLaren wrote this post over at the God’s Politics blog entitled, “Prophetic Distance and the Perils of Picking a Winner” in which he describes prophetic distance as meaning two things:

1. You must be close to power, but not too close — close enough to have some influence and to be heard albeit from the margins.
2. You must be far from power, but not too far — far enough to speak the truth as you see it and far enough to avoid becoming a “useful idiot.” (e.g. a yes-woman or a yes-man)

That’s the paradox and that’s the tension that must lived out in specific contexts.  Somewhere between the extremes of the hostile adversary and the co-dependent apologist lives the marginal prophet.  Somewhere between those poles lies the realm known as prophetic distance.  The real trick is balancing the two.  We can all come up with lists and lists of persons on the poles, but not so many who have maintained prophetic distance and have been effective in doing so.

Both parties are two sides of the same coin.

So, while I may have certain political leanings and persuasions, I refuse to become partisan and I refuse to endorse a political candidate no matter how appealing he (and, it’s almost always he) seems to be.  My persuasions may align closer with one “party” over the other, but I see that as a mere technicality.  And when you get down to it I view both parties as two sides of the same coin. And the problem is the coin itself. We’ve allowed ourselves to be limited to that; I think there are more creative and imaginative possibilities.

In terms of the empire, I consider myself and independent.  I refuse to crawl in bed with power and any political “party” because by doing so I lose the power to critique it.  And that — is too important.

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