Single-Issue Politics

I read an article this morning attempting to support an accused pedophile because of his stance against abortion. The author went through an array of mental calisthenics to find reasons to eliminate the grounds for crediting accusations against him based on the age of the accusers. As he determined they were women, not girls, he could ignore any substance to the accusations purely by not meeting his proposed definition of pedophilia.
He never got to the issue of a grown man's unwanted sexual advances, since he had to limit his argument to find some way to support the candidate. He ignored issues of power disparity. He ignored that victims most often do not speak out of fear and intimidation. He used the limited number of allegations as a reason to discredit the one known (at the time) allegation that did meet his criteria for pedophilia.
The author's point in writing was to find a way to make this candidate acceptable to his readers due to support for a single issue in the political arena. Despite the obvious character issues displayed by this candidate, all could be absolved with some mental calisthenics because the accused held to the "correct" position on one core issue of party politics.
This is emblematic of the problem with single-issue politics. When there is only one issue around which voters rally, anyone is a sufficiently good candidate, just so long as they espouse the pre-determined position.
That makes a political party ripe for corruption of various kinds. I'm not talking about corruption from the standpoint of laundering money and using political appointment for personal gain. Sure, that may indeed play into the equation. The corruption I am addressing is that of "taking the voters for a ride" in regard to pretense.
When there is but one issue on which to campaign or vote, we limit the voting exercise to an issue of right versus wrong in regard to a single polarity. If nothing else matters, there is no reason left for thinking and weighing issues of character, how one's track record helps or harms the population, or determining how best to advance even the single issue at hand.
Rather than being informed voters, we become a product or a voting block for sale to the highest bidder.
Several decades ago, various religious leaders became enamored with a dream of political power. They devised a way to co-opt a political party and amass a voting base whose voice would be heard. They hoped to use this base and political power to advance their version of the gospel through the platform of politics.
They did not count on a couple of things. First of all, they did not count on the fact that politicians are much more astute at the game of politics than were these religious leaders. Secondly, they did not count on the fact that the gospel of Jesus is actually antithetical to the aims of wielding political power.
The religious right hoped to control a major political party. Instead, it became dominated and controlled by that party. It gave up its claim of faith and following Jesus to seeking after political gains in the name of Jesus. Thinking themselves wise, they became tools. The politicians they elected did not really care for their religious views or political priorities. They simply used the single issue presented as a means to capture votes and support.
Jesus got lost in the shuffle, as the single issue set forth before the masses was not even one Jesus had ever addressed. By streamlining focus on one single issue, they missed the entirety of Jesus' message of love, compassion, grace, humility, mercy, and peace. Rather than instilling their hearers with the message of Jesus, they began teaching a political platform to wield power and control instead of calling people to reconciliation with God and freedom to live according to the character of that redemption.
Single-issue politics has not served us well. It has not advanced the reign of Christ Jesus in the least. It has not educated the faithful to the priorities of the gospel. It has not placed Jesus at the heart of our political platforms. It has not made us more Christian. If anything, it has led us to promote candidates whose character is at best questionable, and whose policies leave no room for those Jesus referred to as "the least of these."
Looking at more than one issue is no way to control the masses, but it is much more in keeping with the responsible way Jesus taught us to live. After all, "Love God" and "Love your neighbor as yourself," requires attention to a lot more than one simple issue we might use to rally the masses to a cause.


—©Copyright 2017, Christopher B. Harbin  http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/ 

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