In the emerging church circles I’m exposed to there’s no shortage of hypocrisy… don’t let them fool you. You’ll hear Christ-following hipsters bemoan the GOP-supporters of the traditional Evangelical churches… citing that Christ is our hope, not politicians (okay… yeah that’s quite true). Yet those same folks inexplicably and hypocritically support government solutions to problems that aren’t governmental… and even get giddy over their own political harbingers of social justice… like the first coming of the second messiah, Obama. *rolls eyes*
You’ve heard me decry this idiocy before… and you’ll hear it again and again. I can’t stand the lack of rational thought that permeates nearly every half-arsed notion coming from the religious left (who are the perverted people-of-faith of the political left… same smell, different clothes). Taking money from citizens in order to turn around and “solve” societal problems in the name of “social justice” (read secular humanism) is about as far from Christ-following as prime rib is from motor oil.
I know Christians… even pastors… who have written off politics as a vehicle for positive, Scriptural change. They criticize previous generations of Christians who put their trust in certain leaders… and they have retreated into their own circles of influence at their community level (or even into their own small exclusive church circles – although they won’t admit that). How cute that the same emerging voices critical of previous churches who didn’t “engage the culture” are actually doing the same thing themselves. And how cute that they would actually CALL others to do the same with politics… although what they are really doing is trying to dissuade traditionally GOP-supporting Christians from supporting conservative candidates while supporting left-leaning pols out the other side of their mouth.
So… about politics… guess what boys and girls — politics is part of our culture. So guess what? We are called to be engaged in politics.
I’m not saying don’t be involved in your tighter circles of influence (I oculd say community but it’s been such a tortured, tired word lately devoid of real meaning). I’m not saying put your faith in political leaders rather than Jesus. What I’m saying is obey your calling to be engaged… and participate in the political process because that it obedient and ultimately effects us, our children, our culture and our ministries we support. This is common sense that most children know so I shouldn’t have to say it again. Even if it means that all you’re doing is being educated on the major political issues, reading your Bible (both red AND BLACK letters) to see where God stands on the issues, and then voting appropriately based on Scripture (which means you didn’t vote for Obama) then do that. At the VERY LEAST do that… because as a Christian it is your duty. It could be as simple as 1st Peter’s call to respect government, but there’s plenty of Scriptural support for intelligent political involvement as part of a Christ-followers holistic engagement in culture.
Apologetics.com is a great, great site that if I had my way I would force people to listen to (like an Obama speech to schoolchildren). They just had a wonderful podcast on this topic: Apologetics.com – Christianity, the Church, and Government
Why is it that many Christians who decry Christian political involvement (read Tony Campolo types) because power and politics are tools of Satan, then go on to argue for government solutions to global warming and health care? Do they really want Satan and his tools cooling our planet and running our health care? Perhaps a more balanced approach is needed.
Should Christians be involved in government? Isn’t Christ our hope not politics? Is any influence of Christian thought on the state a violation of the separation of church and state? In this episode of Apologetics.com radio, Dean Donald McConnell of Trinity Law School, Doug Eaton, and Lane Chaplin discuss several questions that pertain to the Christian’s role in government and the governments role in Christianity.
I'm a Christ-follower, compelled by my faith toward reason, which points directly toward conservatism. This world's daily onslaught of lunacy offends my intellect and senses, so this is my venue to blow off steam.
I dislike a lot of the emerging church stuff because of their fuzzy theology. But quite honestly, I think that whatever criticism made could be leveled at both sides of the political fence. I would have to take issue that Christian automatically equals conservative Republican. Really I would have to say they are both right about some things and wrong about others. And that we will never fully “fix’ the world. Both sides are guilty of believing that. Liberals from a more social justice angle; conservatives from a more morality based angle. As long as one is aware of that fact, I don’t know that I can say across the board that Jesus is a conservative republican. In fact, if it were not for the issue of abortion and possibly gay marriage, I would say that Jesus might just have more in common with the democrats on a lot of issues. But what you are right about Steve is that universally people seem to have a tendency to “flip flop”. They change the externals, but never deal with the core issue. The core issue in this case being we will never fix this fallen world through human means. BUt unless you want to withdraw from trying to better it in any way, you make do with the fallen world systems as best you can. Truth is NO political system is going to be fully biblical. Both are going to be prone to failure due to human nature. Which actually, at least in my case, points far more towards the gospel than if we humans could make some system solve the problems of the world.
i like the politics which is really very good for our society and development
thanks
I agree with breaking news. we need politics for our society. and thanks about the site Apologetics.com
As an Australian with many European friends, I just have to laugh. Or is that sigh?
In America you have people who are unemployed because they are practically blind, because they can’t afford a $10 grand operation. Here in Australia the same surgery is covered by medicare. They get the operation, and then get out and get a job and start contributing to society.
But that $10 grand operation was done by “THE GOVERNMENT!” BY SATAN! Ummm, chill dude. You’ll live longer. What would you prefer, them sucking down on unemployment or out there working and contributing to society? Or here’s one for you. What if it was just a single mother? She’s not working, but raising a kid. Blind. So she’s sucking down on countless charity sources and welfare and generally not able to raise her kids the way she should. $10 grand fixes that and she’s able to raise her kids and be an economically valuable person again, raising the next generation.
Your dysfunctional health system is joke with some of the highest costs and yet lowest outcomes.
http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/2005/11/socialised-medicine-ideology-or.html
If just calling government health care “SATAN” somehow does it for you, then I’m not impressed and will not be engaging this blog in further conversation. If, however, you think you can justify such a rationale, then maybe I’ll stick around.
The message of the cross is the real message. We should be preaching that Jesus still saves. People trying to live preaching the Prosperity Gospel. Jesus is coming back soon. We must be ready.
Absolutely, and I’m not into the prosperity gospel either. That’s quite big where I live in Sydney, Australia. We have this mega-church called “Hillsong” who are all about prosperity and basically seem to see Christianity as about a set of ‘rights’ Christians have to health, wealth and prosperity. As if heaven were now here on earth, and there was no suffering to be endured!
But let’s not forget that Christians are called to both pure doctrine and love of God and faith in Jesus AND to compassionate action. Ultimately we are about sharing God’s good news to this world, but we are also called to be like Jesus and care for the poor and needy. There is no way to choose one over the over without compromising what we are really all about! We can’t be Christians without gathering around God’s word regularly and responding to the gospel with faith and love. We can’t respond to the gospel obediently without having some measure of concern for the poor and weak in society.
Historically, the vast majority of good welfare safety nets actually came from Christian political agitation!
As James 1 says:
Now that doesn’t mean we suddenly have to adopt some form of ‘Christian communism’ and everyone has to have equal pay. While I might lean slightly more to the left, I’m not blind to the problems with socialism! But I think there is a vast degree of freedom on the political scale for Christian’s to adopt. As my Christian brother, I will fight for the right for Negative99 to be as right-wing as he wants. He has that freedom. I will not tell him that the bible DEMANDS he adopt my political views. But I will also fight for my own right to state why my conscience places a burden on me to vote a certain way at a certain time, and where I might think Negative99 could have more charitable political views.
See the difference?
Obama is not a bad guy, but he clearly is stuck on this socialist/marxist idea that people should be dependent on the Government for social works and good deeds.
It seems like he has a Socialist solution for almost every problem. Printing money and increasing the number of Government jobs hasn’t helped the economy at all.
What’s even worse is that these people that he surrounds himself with are more interested in gaining power than they are at actually doing real social works for the community.
Check it out — other than ‘elective’ surgery and dental work, most really urgent medical emergencies and life saving treatments are covered by Australian Medicare. How much does this “Socialised” medicine cost us? Surely Australians pay double the medical costs because governments are ALWAYS worse than the private marketplace? Surely Americans get better health care in their privatised system at a cheaper price and with better outcomes?
Wrong! Wrong on all counts. American’s pay about double for their medicine, and yet have a LOWER life expectancy than us ‘Socialist’ Australians. Please explain?
http://nothing-new-under-the-sun.blogspot.com/2010/01/healthcare-and-market.html
(Personally I think it is because your middleman insurance agencies skim too much cream off the top, whereas our governments Just Do it and run the medicine themselves).
Oh, and that graph is pre-Obama-care. FYI.
i hope there will be a day where people actually give importance to cause rather than religion
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