Confessions of a conservative in an uneasy election year

I have been a political conservative my whole life but the gospel of Christ challenges me in ways today like never before.  The Jewish politics of Jesus day supported temple nationalism and stirred Jesus own people against him while Rome chose a cautious pragmatism to conserve itself by executing anyone who was a threat to Roman exceptionalism.  Does any of this sound familiar today?  Now our American conservative icons support our military and secure our borders at all costs.  For thirty years I have not seen trickle down economics work, a growing willingness by conservatives to torture people, bomb civilians, and suspend human rights for the higher good of national security,

We have seen the economic ransacking of wall-street, unfettered corporate business run over the weak and the economic gap between the rich and poor widen as the middle class continues to shrink.  We have witnessed political corruption and wealthy elites manage our politics, media, and government.  Institutional greed and corporate imperialism runs amok and your next political leader is bought and sold by the highest bidding super-pac. 

As we all face another election year, my conservative beliefs and values are not being attacked by the outside as much as the inner struggle for my own soul.  Christ is calling me to something greater, bigger, and higher than the politics of the right or the left.  Christ is calling me to nothing less than the righteousness of Christ and the politics of the cross to challenge all worldly political structures in our fallen world we breath and live in.  My uneasy conscience has too often followed the politics that crucified my Lord and Savior rather than the politics of Jesus that wants to transform this world into a place where all people of all races and nationalities live with the hope of a unified world that extends shalom to all.