We live in a time and a country full of passion, anger and division.  Election season amplifies all of this, as competing ideas and agendas fill every newspaper and broadcast.  We are constantly asked to take sides, to judge the “other guy” not just wrong, but truly evil, incompetent, hypocritical, faithless.   It is natural and necessary for human beings to make judgments about what is or is not right, about the actions and philosophies of those who would lead our government.  It is, in fact, our Christian responsibility not only to pay attention to the world around us, but to reach some conclusions about what we believe and what should or should not happen.  This process should be rooted in God’s Word and in honest introspection about our own faith, motives, and failings.  We must be cautious about making judgments hastily or for the wrong reasons.  The popular virtues of “keeping an open mind” and “not judging others” should not, however, be an excuse for avoiding our responsibility of distinguishing between right and wrong.

The process leads to a natural tendency to take sides.  We humans rarely agree on everything, and often disagree on much.  Throughout history, human beings have banded together into tribes and nations to deal with a hostile and unpredictable world.  We naturally adopt an “us vs. them” mentality to cope with this world.  This is not necessarily wrong, and God himself took sides with his promise to Abraham and the Israelites.  Still, as we decide which side we choose, we must guard against going too far.  As Christians, the highest validation we can imagine for a cause is in believing that God is on our side.  God’s sponsorship was invoked for the Crusades, the Islamic conquests, and the wars of the Protestant Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.  During World War I, every major nation claimed that God was in their camp and would lead them to military victory.  This narrative was often supported by Christian preachers.  Perhaps some of them were right, but it is certain that not all of them were.

How are we to know if God is on our side?  As a Tolkien fan, I am reminded of a scene from one of the movies in which the hobbits ask the ancient Ent Treebeard whose side he is on.  He answers “I am on no one’s side, because no one is on my side.”  When we enlist God’s help in our causes, we must be certain that we first are committed to Him, and that we make our choices in love for Him and our neighbor.  Remember, too, that God’s mercy and grace extend beyond political borders.  God healed Naaman, the commander of the armies of Aram, Israel’s enemy (2 Kings 5:14).  God extended forgiveness and rescue to the people of heinous Nineveh over the objections of his own prophet (Jonah 1:3).  Christ revealed Himself to the Samaritan woman (John 4:4-42) and honored the faith of a Roman centurion (Matthew 8:5-13).  None of us owns God’s grace; it is freely offered to all.

We can be certain that God is on our side.  That’s “our” with a small “o”.  He did not promise to back a political cause, group, or movement.  He did promise to love each of us and to welcome each of us into everlasting life, if only we cooperate.  It is our responsibility to make judgments based on our love for Him, and to be sure that His mercy and forgiveness is ours when, not if, we mess up.