Maybe if there were a few Christian politicians, it would be different...

A simple reflection for a Sunday morning.

It has become popular over the past few years for some to state that we are a Christian nation, born as such and bound to Judeo-Christian values in our laws and our society. Admittedly, I have heard that expressed mostly by Christians... but still.

For those who profess to be Christians, that seems to make everything kind of easy. Christ was specific in identifying the two greatest laws: Love God completely, and treat your neighbour as you would yourself be treated.

Loving God is a pretty personal thing, but I would suspect that in loving Him, we would do our best to observe His wishes. Again, He was unambiguous about how He wanted us to honour Him: in Matthew 25:40, He tells us plainly that as we treat the least of His brethren, so we treat Him. If He needed to be clearer, then He was, pointing out that we should feed the hungry, shelter the homeless and tend to the sick.

Got it. Could not be simpler.

So, if there were any Christian politicians in a Christian nation, I would assume that those instructions would be their highest legislative priorities. Any Christian leaders would do what was necessary to eliminate hunger in a country that has the resources to easily do so. They would provide shelter for everyone, and be proud to do so. They would provide the best health care that we know how-to for each and every person in the country. They would make those objectives their life's mission, as the only real standards for Christian leaders in a Christian nation to follow.

They would not leave so many millions of our children to go hungry, sick and homeless. Christ was kind of big on kids.

Of course, that wouldn't be necessary for those who are not Christians. The imposition of the tenets of our faith on others is inappropriate in a nation where religious freedom is so enshrined. We would simply know who among our political leaders are Christians by their extraordinary and constant focus on mercy and charity, as was the focus and request of our Lord.

Based on our current statistics, we Christians are late in making our presence felt, and have an awful lot of catching up to do. About 37 million people in our country are hungry; some 550,000 lack a roof over their head, and over 30 million are without health insurance. The "least of our brethren" number over 10% of our neighbours, so we sorely need to get some Christians into a position to solve those tragic problems.

Of course, those figures come from before the Pandemic. Now… God only knows.

Fortunately, we live in a nation of incredible wealth. Collectively, we made $19 trillion in 2019, a record amount of money. That comes out to about $150,000 per household... and we've just heard our government tell us that spending a few trillion for preserving corporate balance sheets shouldn't be a problem and that deficits don't matter any more.

Clearly, money is no object. Hallelujah!

Again, I know that some of the other beliefs or those of no faith might have other priorities, and I fully respect that. So, I'll just point to those who would choose to be called Christian. Surely, if they were serving we could identify them by their own bills, and by their own votes. It would be easy: if they are Christian, then they would be banging the drum every day for moving whatever small part of our wealth is needed to eliminate all of the needs of the poor, the hungry and the sick.

Simple.

Non-Christians might argue that the poor and homeless don't deserve our mercy and help, that they are lazy or at fault in some way. Non-Christians might tell us that there are dangers in giving too much to the poor because they will just abuse it. We know that they are non-Christians because our Jesus was so clear in admonishing us not to judge our fellow man, so we Christians would never go there. We Christians would do what we are called to do, and trust our God for the judgement part.

Christ never said feed the hungry who have earned their bread; He never said tend to the sick who can afford to pay for it; He didn't suggest that the homeless should be deprived of shelter if they didn't find work. I don't object to non-Christians holding different views, of course, but we followers of Christ are pretty locked in.

I'm guessing that Christians just haven't been interested in politics of late, based on the lack of recent support for policies that reflect the values of Christ. Since Christ was so clear in stating that our treatment of the poor, the hungry and the homeless was a direct extension of our treatment of Him, no Christian politicians would have allowed the millions of Christ's brothers and sisters to have fallen so far, for so long if they could have helped it, knowing how much it would pain our Christ.

The President has told us that our nation's wealth and success is the greatest ever, anywhere... certainly, Christian politicians would have demanded that some of that incredible prosperity was shared. The answer must be to find some way to get a few good Christians into government and let them express their faith through their legislation. That will change everything; Christians wouldn’t fail Christ so horribly.

One more thing: as Christians, we should probably politely point out to those in politics who aren't doing everything that they can to honour Christ's will that they are mistaken... neither they, nor the country that they profess to lead, have anything to do with Christianity, or with the following of Christ and His word.

It's really that simple.