“In the beginning God created”...us. Shape it however you want, a fairy tale, the literal truth, a divine metaphor for evolution, Christians around the world believe that those words tell us the truth about our relationship with God no matter what our takes are in regards to their literary form. The Creation Stories in Genesis tell us that the life we have is a gift from God. The stories that follow in the 66 books which compile the Protestant Bible, particularly the life of Jesus, remind us that the only reasonable, the only rational response, to that gift, to that act of grace from God is to take care of the gift, including taking care of each other.

When it comes to church attendance, it would seem that the majority of church goers, have missed that point. They lean heavy to the political right and toward policies that actually do the opposite of caring for creation and each other.

Please note, I did not say “when it comes to most Christians.”  Unfortunately, the variance between people who practice Christianity and people who attend church is wide and seems to be increasing. And yes, I speak from personal experience as a minister. There are churches, of course, that are bucking the trend, but there are far too few. And, yes, I am speaking from personal experience again.

And yes, your Christian beliefs should influence your politics. They should influence your relationships, your work life, the way you drive, the way you treat people with whom you disagree... every element of your life. If they do not, you are not taking “In the beginning God created” seriously enough.  If you do not, you are not taking “no greater love has anyone than this, that they lay down their life for their friends” seriously enough. 

Your Christian life is to be first, primary, and above all things in your life, even if it means you must leave a relationship as primary as family to do it: “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,” said Jesus.

I'm left to wonder if the Modern Day Jesus might not say to U.S. church goers that your Christian life is to be above all things in your life, even if it means you must leave a relationship as primary as your political party to do it: “Anyone who loves their political party more than me is not worthy of me.”

You don't have to like it. It is difficult and it will make your life less than... well, less than convenient. Which is, quite frankly, what many on the far right are truly interested in: a life that is easy and convenient – no pressure to give up what I have, even when others suffer, even if it cause others to suffer; no laws limiting my ability to excerpt power other others (a BIG biblical no-no); no strangers from a foreign land encroaching on my white-privilege... I think you get the picture.

You don't have to like it.  It is difficult and it will make your life less than... well, less than convenient, but I think that is exactly what Jesus expected. Just read Mathew 10 as Jesus sends out the twelve disciples saying things like, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves,” “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death,” “You will be hated by everyone because of me.” Christianity is antithetical to the far right's pursuit of an easy and convenient life.

Christianity is to be the filter through which all your life's perspectives and actions are filtered. Nothing comes before it and everything is viewed through it. You don't have to like it, and it will be difficult, but if you want to call yourself Christian, you do always have to attempt to do it. That does not mean fighting for a Christian nation, prayer in schools and the Ten Commandments posted on every open wall in government buildings. (In many ways it means the exact opposite of that). 

Politically, it simply means voting for and supporting candidates who hold these things to be self evident, that all people were created equal, created equally by God. It means supporting candidates, who because of it, govern with a bias toward the least of these and with a disposition of love and caring toward all people regardless of sex, skin color, religion or lack of religion, nation of origin, sexual orientation, ability or disability, age, economic position, heath, employment, addiction... or any number of things for which the far right continue to try to penalize people.

“In the beginning God created”...us. Not you. Not me. Us. We are the children of God. If one of us suffers, we all suffer. If one of us is marginalized, we all suffer. If one of us goes hungry, we all suffer. We must stop pretending that Christianity is somehow different than that and start voting with our Christian filters on.

Corporate coffers are stuffed full. Their piggy banks runneth over. And, as the chart below shows, since the mid-70s all real income growth has happened in the top 10% of earners – top managers, owners and CEOs. Businesses, however, continue to lay off workers. Then they demand more from those 'lucky' enough to keep their jobs (even though US workers already work more and get less time off than the workers of all the other industrialized nations).  

Us? We complain. We post on Facebook and Tweet our anger and dissatisfaction out in 140 character bursts. Some try to organize, but the numbers never materialize in a way that has real impact.

All the while, the fat cats not only get fatter and continue to over stuff their piggy banks, but they use the money they make at our expense to buy off D.C. in order to not only keep the loopholes which allow them to hold on to more of their money than the people who work for them, but to pass laws which make it easier to step on their workers, make themselves richer, and eliminate the very government assistance that would help the people they lay off or massively underpay.

Us? We bask in our staycations and try to forget for a few days that the future is bleak at the hands of our wealthy overlords.  

For me, as a minister, one of the worst parts is that the wealthy do all of this, including stepping on the “least of these,” so they can have even more U.S. currency which ironically proclaims "In God we trust." Then the salt in the wound from my ministerial perspective is how these fat cats convince people who understand themselves to be Christian to support the politicians and policies that will insure the rich get richer and that the “least of these” remain the “least of these”... only more so.  In God we trust?

Us? We argue with our neighbors about which political party is more to blame, completely missing the fact that it is just as much about who suffers as it is about who's to blame. Who suffers? All of us - including the people with which we are arguing on a daily bases.

We are a divide nation, but it isn't as simple as John Edward's “Two Americas.” We are divided in at least four ways. The richest of the rich are in charge. They aren't Republican, they aren't Libertarians... they are Privileged Plutocrats. That's group one. Group two are the poorest of the poor. They aren't Democrats, they aren't Blue-collar Republicans... they are Survivalist. Then there's the rest of us: Democrats, Republican, Independents, and a whole hoard of political movement wanna-bes from The Tea Party to The Green Party.  Ultimately though, all those groups are really just two groups. We've all bought into the narrative the Plutocrats and their hired political henchmen have been selling us. When it comes right down to it we are well divided down the middle, those who like what the current President (Bush, Obama) is doing and those who don't. 

A true governing class: Plutocrats. A class struggling for basic needs: Survivalist. And the divided middle: Us versus Them. Four Americas. Only one group benefits from that structure and not only do they like it that way, they designed it that way.

Us? We need to learn to see it for what it really is. Despite his deplorable morals, Edwards was right; there are “Two Americas.” He just drew the dividing line in the wrong place. There are “Two Americas”: the Plutocrat Overloards and The Rest of Us.

I'm afraid the Two Americas of which Edwards spoke are so divided against each other that we might never see the real divide. It is not political, religious, philosophical, or even ideological... it is economical.

The result of it all is that we've not only substituted real vacations for staycations but we've substituted protesting in the streets  for protesting in 140 character posts. (Ouch. I'm sure that really hits the Plutocrats where it hurts). Worst of all, we've substituted the convenient enemy (those who don't agree with us about the job the President is doing) for the actual enemy, the wealthiest Americans whose lives are more and more so a constant vacation.

It's time to focus our genuine and understandable disdain solely on the real enemy, the wealthy Plutocrats and their political henchmen, and stop taking it out on each other. If we want to actually hit them where it hurts we have to support movements like The Peoples Boycott and stick to our guns even when it means we have to pay a little extra for our bananas and paper plates. We must take to the streets in ever increasing numbers; we must stand for each other even when the issue doesn't effect us personally. When we vote, there must be only one issue that influences our vote: where the candidate's voting record stands on supporting the continued wealth grab by those who already have plenty of it.

It is time to take a stand - to do otherwise is to concede defeat... and that's what they are counting on.