A brief sermon derived from today's Progressive Bible Study: Paul goes after divisions in the community in I Corinthians:
...Each of you says, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Cephas," or "I belong to Christ." Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
You don't have to be religious to get the point. You don't even have to like Paul. Forming factions behind leaders, however well-intentioned, betrays the movement as a whole.
And just in case you thought you demonstrated that you were smarter than the average bear* by picking the right candidate, or by staying above the fray, Paul has words for you too:
...We know that ‘all of us possess knowledge.’ Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him.
Don't be clever, there's the message. If being smart doesn't help the movement, if it puts other people down, it's not worth a hill of beans.
Being community-minded isn't easy to do in a primary, where voters have to select the single candidate who they believe will best represent their interests. But I submit to you that anyone who says "I belong to Hillary" or "I belong to Barack" or "I belong to John" before they belong to the progressive movement is unfaithful to their values and doing great damage to the movement itself.
This isn't a matter of putting one candidate down - or any of them. They all have qualities that commend them and qualities that don't. Each of them would make a wonderful president, and each of them would do things that would infuriate their progressive base.
But the claims of any one candidate are relativized by the movement. Progressivism is larger than any one person or any one election. It is a process of and disposition to constant reformation more than a campaign. The minute we define it as equivalent to one candidate, we stop the constant work to realize the common good that drives progress. We kill the thing that we love.
Putting an end to the Candidate Wars is more than a practical concern. It is an ethical question: Progressive values mandate that we work cooperatively to achieve the greater goals of the movement.
It is more than an ethical question: it is a moral imperative. Scorched-earth politics is bad and wrong when dealing with opponents from another party. When addressing the people who are supposed to be friends and colleagues, it is unconscionable. It contributes nothing to the good life, and it does nothing to make anyone other than media consultants happy. It is disgusting behavior considering the size and scope of the problems facing our nation. The candidates whose campaigns set the tone ought to be ashamed of one another.
Lastly, ending the Candidate Wars is more than a moral imperative. It is an ontological imperative. When we sink into viciousness, paranoia and division for their own sake, we are prevented from becoming who we are meant to be: free, forward-looking, generous and tolerant people.
If you have participated in the Candidate Wars, it is past time to stop.
Whether you have participated or not, it is time to tell your friends and co-workers that it is past time to stop.
None of our candidates, as good as they are, will bring Jesus back. Certainly, none of them are Jesus.
So stop looking for Candidate Jesus. And for Christ's sake, stop the crucifixion routine.
Thus endeth the sermon.
*pronounced av-ERR-age bear.