Queen of Swords

Yesterday was the election at my parents' church, and it was as filled with backbiting and as hotly contested as the 2004 election someplace else. But I digress.

The positions up for election were that of the church council, the three elected people who decide how to spend the church's money, whom to hire for secretarial/janitorial posts, etc. Now the councillors who had had these posts in the past had abused their authority (especially moneywise), although a lot of people still supported them. They said they would run for re-election. One lady felt that they could not turn the house of god into a den of thieves, and she began to recruit people who could run against them. She also encouraged people to vote for these new candidates.

This lady is one of the kindest people I've ever met (and also polite/smart enough not to try to convert me). She asked my dad to run for the position of church treasurer, even though there was a lot of opposition. The night before the election, I heard my dad saying to her, "God is on our side. He hears your prayers." He also said to my mother that since this lady was such a good person, God would listen to her (and presumably, we would win).

The results came in this morning. My dad got 36 votes. The treasurer running for re-election got 80.

I think my parents are still embarassed or sad about this, so I don't want to ask them anything religious, but I wondered how Christians would explain this occurrence. Would they say that, since this had happened, it was God's will for the former council, dishonest though they are, to be re-elected? Or would they say that this was the devil's work; put in a more polite way, that the will of god had been somehow thwarted?

The answer to the question will determine whether or not there's going to be a recount.

sharon45

I would say that like most elections, what the majority think as a good idea, isn't really that, but more like the easy/popular/fast choice instead. This also easily reflects the current democratic runnings in the US.

With regard to christians, their bible does contain much wisdom to such situations such as this and many others, yet, most of the time, these are sorely well overlooked.

Mageth

An aside, but my experiences in various churches is part of what nudged me to seriously question Christianity. I was never a member in a church in which such political infighting didn't cause major disturbances, or even divisions. This type of thing seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

Biff the unclean

The Calvinists on this board have said that only "THE ELECT" were going to get into Heaven. That means your old man is in really big trouble

Plognark

I think it depends on the extremity of the delus- er, beliefs: I lived with one xian friend of mine for a few years, and his dad thanked god for everything (and I mean sincerely, not just an "oh thank god so and so") ranging from well brewed coffee to finding his car keys in time to get to work. The usual justification for something not working was "It is god's will" or "god is just testing me". And of course, the really bad stuff was just the work of the Devil.

I could chart a graph and show you mathematically the relation between the event intensity versus whether it was:
a) God being nice and helping out
b) God testing him
c) The devil tricking him

Back on the actual point, maybe you should just let sleeping dogs lay (lie? whatever..). Now might not be a good time to bring up the concept that sometimes s*** happens for no real reason.

Having some knowledge of church politics, i'd lay a 20 spot on a recount not helping a single thing. The person up for reelection is more a politician than an xian, if most examples I have seen are anyindication, and knows who to be nice to.

M. Hoz

It's very good then...he's a real optimist!

sharon45

That is also very related to this topic,

Most christians have their god far too much a part of their lives as though they themselves were so very important to make god want that person's coffee well brewed, etc, that really is a more sure sign of vainity than sincere thoughts.

The same counts with this election, 'god has already given countless adivce and wisdom for deals in living, inside the christian bible, so it's up to them to follow these or suffer the consequences for not doing so'.

Christians continually claim their bible like it was 'the bread of life', but too many refuse to acknowledge it enough to actually take part of this 'bread'.