- Introductions. Where would you place yourself politically?
- Restatement of theme:
- “If this issue was the reason a non-believer gave as their obstacle to Christianity, what would we say to them?”
- Theme verse: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.” (Matthew 13:19)
- Recap from last week:
- We talked about the controversy about letting “under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance.
- Learned a few interesting tidbits:
- Written by Baptist minister and socialist author and published on October 12, 1892 as “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
- “Under God” was added in 1954, mostly with the purpose of distinguishing the U.S. from atheistic Communist Russia. It also echoed Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and the Declaration of Independence.
- Quite a few religious groups (including Christians) have been opposed to giving allegiance to anything lower than God.
- Primary argument against the phrase: What if it was “one nation under no god whatsoever”?
- Leads us into the topic for today: To what extent ought Christians impose our morality and our belief into politics?
- What does Scripture say?
- Romans 13:1—“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”
- Mark 12:13-17—“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
- Deuteronomy 17:14-20—instructions for kings of Israel
- Deuteronomy 1:7—to all Israel—“You shall not be partial in judgment.”
- Genesis 1:12—only a mandate to take care of the creation, not other humans so much
- 1 Samuel 8:10-18—what a king will do to Israel
- Amos 5:15, 21-24—“Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate…I hate, I despise your feasts…But let justice roll down.”
- Micah 6:8—“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
- In general, how was Jesus involved in politics?
- Discuss, in groups if possible. What insight does this give us in our involvement with politics?
- Some of my own thoughts:
- There are a whole ton of mistakes that we have often made in getting politically involved:
- We seek power or try to get things only “our way” rather than simply trying to be obedient and faithful. Look at Christ’s example. He didn’t push a political agenda, but He was very opinionated about the government—especially the Jewish government.
- We criticize those that disagree as “stupid.”
- We don’t try to understand the “other side.”
- Why should we be involved?
- In a republic, everyone is a little part “king”—we all have a responsibility for the way our government works.
- Just like the kings in the Old Testament, we are to be faithful representatives of the true King.
- Everyone makes decisions based on their way of looking at the world. There aren’t any exceptions. Atheist, New Age, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, agnostic…they all have standards by which they base their decisions. We have to decide which standards we are going to use—if atheist, fine, but we can’t pretend that it isn’t promoting a set of standards based on an athiest way of looking at the world. Christian standards don’t imply that we make everyone convert, either.
- As Martin Luther King quoted often, “Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.” (Amos 5:15)
- We have to remember, though, that God is in power—even over the government. He will not fail if our candidate does not get elected.
- In the US, it seems like the government and the church are now trying to serve many of the same functions—taking care of the poor, directing morals, education about personal behavior. I think a lot of this debate would be helped tremendously if we directed churches—Christian and otherwise—to perform this function. It wouldn’t necessarily be easy to do right, but ideas like school vouchers (or some such) probably help to promote this. Yes, that means we’ll maybe even support anti-Christian schools.
- We always have to remember to not try legislate our faith—always try hard to enact laws that make sense in pluralistic country. In other words, it probably doesn’t make sense to try and make laws against businesses open on Sunday. Why should we expect anyone else but Christians to follow that?
- Any other thoughts?
- Background information on historical perspectives:
- There have been lots of different opinions of the government and how Christians ought to be involved. Focusing on the situation in the US, I found these five examples in the book In God We Trust?:
- Anabaptist/Mennonite (pp. 15-16):
- emerged as an alternative to Lutheranism & Reformed beliefs
- themes: re-creation of the New Testament church in today’s world, radical Christian discipleship
- “The Anabaptist ethic was one of nonconformity to the world, which included a commitment to pacifism, service, and the way of the cross.”
- felt it was beyond the state’s function to make any religious claim on citizens
- often persecuted by Roman Catholic and Protestant governments
- Lutheran (pp. 16-17)
- divided everything into sacred & secular
- “While the state has no role in the spiritual world, therefore, Luther concluded that a Christian’s outward behavior in the physical world must be governed by strict rules under legitimate authorities.”
- government was basically there to limit the consequences of sin; the spiritual world neither could or should have and impact on politics
- Catholic (pp. 18-19)
- lots of variance throughout the years
- Augustine wrote about the City of God and the City of Man, talking about how the City of God was not the church creating political institutions on earth, but that the physical was less important than the spiritual
- know for Christendom in the Middle Ages, where the church had political mission and influences all over
- the church kept parts of this well into the 20th century
- often thought it important for governments to have professions of faith
- insisted that the church be protected by the state
- skeptical about democracy
- Second Vatican Council (1962-1965)
- acknowledged the ideas of separation of church and state, religious diversity, and individual freedom
- church “provid[es] a prophetic voice on behalf of such issues as poverty, abortion, war, and peace”
- Black Protestantism (pp. 19-20)
- themes of liberation of poor and oppressed; God’s delivery of His chosen people
- political activism started with the Civil Rights movement in the 50s and 60s
- the emphasis was that politics are a legitimate and necessary way to improve their lives
- Reformed Protestantism (pp. 15)
- “God created the world and everything in it, and called it good. There can be no justification, then, for a Christian to reject the world; Christ’s followers are instead called to shape and influence the world around them”
- “Christians have the obligation and the capacity to remake the world in light of God’s purposes for it.”
- “Christians have a duty to use the political order to reflect God’s glory.”
- All these traditions have some important insights, I think.
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