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The Politics of Grey

I find myself in an intriguing position when it comes to politics. My family is traditionally conservative, while my wife’s family is more progressive/liberal. As a result, both sides are convinced that I’m “on the other team.” Perhaps I am in the middle somewhere. Or perhaps its something else.

This week’s debate about the merits of a more centralized health care system, I find myself agreeing with both sides and disagreeing with both sides. So in speaking with people from both sides, they see me as insensitive or blinded. Lazy or intolerant. Republican or democrat. Christian or Christian. Antichrist or Antichrist. Right or wrong.

All the while, it reminds me of a recent conversation with a high school student. I was asked by a 14 year old girl what my favorite color is. Truth is, I hadn’t this question in years, but I had a quick answer: Grey. Yes, yes - to most it is boring. But her answer was definitely more profound than she thinks:

“Grey isn’t a color.”

Maybe that is the point. Perhaps grey is the absence of black and white. It is admiring the beauty of not always having to know everything. It is surrendering the right to always be right. It is seeing all the other colors as beautiful from the vantage point of “that other color.”

This American experiment is still young. Nations rise and fall, and no empire is immune to this maxim. Maybe I am too progressive and maybe I am too conservative. But I find myself putting more and more hope in Jesus government than rich lawyers in suits governing, regardless of their opinions about who pays for brain cancer, what happens to children of rape, and their ideas about greed vs freedom. My enemies are men like me.

I think Jon Foreman’s vision for what America can be is more appealing to me than any talking head, elected official, or protester I have heard thus far.