Arkansas needs true servant leaders, love for neighbors |
I gave my life to Jesus on a September evening in the Cabot High School auditorium. I was a 13-year-old student athlete from a broken home. The sermon I heard was one of a loving Father God who would never leave or forsake me, and his Son who showed us how to live: Love God and love people. Jesus called these the greatest commandments, and I took that seriously. Many of us still do.
The current state of Arkansas politics comes with a lot of talk about Jesus. At the beginning of this fiscal session, Gov. Sarah Sanders said in her State of the State address, "Jesus is our living hope, for each of us, for our state, for our country." My assumption, albeit based on a great deal of evidence, is that those words were delivered with a Christian nationalist bent, and Christian nationalism is the antithesis of the way of Jesus. For over a decade, Christian nationalism has dominated the faith-and-politics airwaves. This is to the detriment of the church and her people. There is a better way, and it is the way of Jesus.
Like Governor Sanders, my fellow Ouachita Baptist University alumna, I, too, believe Jesus is our living hope, but the stark contrast between what we each mean is important for the future of our faith, and indeed, for the future of our state.
Jesus was committed to breaking down barriers of judgment and prejudice. He was routinely in community with the very people religious and political leaders despised and intentionally rejected. He openly broke bread and had conversations with "impure" women, extortionist tax collectors, and those believed to be irreparably outside the favor of God. The margins of my study Bible hold notes from my Ouachita Bible classes. One of them reads, "I will never have a valid reason to choose who to love and who not to love."
It's clear that the way of Jesus is about inclusion of the people we're being told to hate.
Jesus was an outspoken advocate for the poor. He used his power to feed the hungry, and he used his voice to bemoan unfettered wealth. There is no question that Jesus' loyalty was firmly alongside the people suffering under a system that prioritized the greedy few over the hungry many. The people Jesus served were working day and night to feed their families and survive an economy stacked against them. In the next breath, Jesus warned the wealthy against the trap and deceit of their inevitable greed. He used some of the most direct terms in all of scripture when speaking against hoarding wealth. Have you ever seen a camel go through the eye of a needle? Me neither.
Christian nationalism reduces our Savior to a cosmic despot, while Jesus introduced a countercultural, peaceful, loving, servant leadership. The contrast between these two views of Jesus, and the significance of that contrast, cannot be overstated. In Arkansas, our politicians often reference Jesus to defend Christian nationalist legislation that, based on his words and actions in the Bible itself, Christ himself would oppose today. Much of this legislation is said to "defend" him, which he never asked any of us to do. In fact, what Jesus emphatically tells us to do, what he calls the greatest commandment, is to "love God with all our heart, soul, and mind." This is followed by a close second, "love your neighbor as yourself." According to Jesus, everything else depends on those two principles.
There is no world in which loving my neighbor means forcing my beliefs on them. Right now, the government's proclamations of Jesus' name land more like threats than the lifesaving Good News of Christ.
I am running for state Senate in northern Pulaski County firmly grounded in this belief: The way of Jesus rejects Christian nationalism and embraces servant leadership. What's more, those committed to Christian nationalism, even if they call it something else, cannot exhibit the servant leadership Jesus teaches. This seems even more true when the power of our leaders goes unchecked and unbalanced like we've seen in Arkansas over the last few years.
Still, the future I see for our state is one of hope and possibility. What is possible when Jesus' teachings are personally applied by our elected officials who claim to know him? What would be possible if our elected officials who claim to know Jesus applied his teachings instead of pandering to a political party? Put another way, what can Arkansas achieve with servant leaders in office? The answer is bold change that leaves no one behind. May we go and do likewise.
Allison Grigsby Sweatman is a candidate for state Senate District 13.