The Signs of Political Idolatry - Keller

It's election season. I need to remember this, constantly. An excerpt from Counterfeit Gods, by Tim Keller:

One of the signs that an object is functioning as an idol is that fear becomes one of the chief characteristics of life. When we center our lives on the idol, we become dependent on it. If our counterfeit god is threatened in any way, our response is complete panic. We do not say, “What a shame, how difficult,” but rather “This is the end! There’s no hope!” 

This may be a reason why so many people now respond to US political trends in such an extreme way. When either party wins an election, a certain percentage of the losing side talks openly about leaving the country. They become agitated and fearful for the future. They have put the kind of hope in their political leaders and policies that once was reserved for God and the work of the gospel. When their political leaders are out of power, they experience a death. They believe that if their policies and people are not in power, everything will fall apart. They refuse to admit how much agreement they actually have with the other party, and instead focus on the points of disagreement. The points of contention overshadow everything else, and a poisonous environment is created.

I like to follow the news via RSS feeds (Google Reader is a seriously under-appreciated web app, if you ask me) and Twitter; and while this keeps me up to date on the goings-on in my city, state, country, and world, it is incredibly easy to get swept up in the news-outrage cycle that is the US political scene.

My own political views have changed drastically in just the last five years alone, and they continue to do so. But in the midst of all of that changing perspective, there is one thing I can confidently state: there's always something you can be outraged! or shocked! about, and there's always a crisis or a scandal or a slippery slope to get worked up about...

... Or I can try (sometimes successfully, sometimes less successfully) to keep this passage in mind from Dr. Keller. There is a greater perspective to I believe in, even if it goes against our human political reflex.