In Response to Andrew's Question

So here is part 2…

So in response to Andrew’s question: “And what of political and economic action? How far should the church go into these arenas and still call itself “The Church”? I'm not going to try to answer that. Maybe Kevin will share some advice?”

Well I’ll try to…I’ve been struggling with the questions ever since I gave my life to Christ, and God is constantly giving me new understandings.

In our current political arena we are presented with two parties that are really quite similar, with only a few differences that separate them.

So to sum it up (from my point of view) we have the Republicans who try to impose morality laws upon the country via the state. Although teaching and bringing about small bits of morality to the country is good, it still lacks the basis of conviction from Christ, hence non-believers (and many believers) seek to live morally out of fear of the state. [So… pros & cons]. Along with morality laws we have the Republicans in an alliance with the corporate interest’s side of free market enterprise. Republicans seek to protect free market capitalism, and remove any state influence in it, and in general remove the state from economic affairs. This again has pros & cons, when working in perfect competition it leads to a strive towards innovation and quality at lower costs, but also Capitalism is a system driven by personal gain and greed, and in order to succeed (max profits) you either need to work with or take advantage of those around you (and the environment). [Unfortunately it seems that a social-capitalist mix economy seems the best one I can think of, until of course Jesus return.] Finally since Reagan, the Republicans have taken on a militaristic approach towards foreign policy of actively reshaping the world to better suit American interests (especially corporate interests, and political power interests) through militaristic coercion and economic coercion.

On the other hand we have Democrats who generally support reducing the amount of morality laws the state imposes, helping to keep a clearer sense of separation of Church and state, but also leads to greater immorality. Along with that the Democrats seek to limit the abuses of free market capitalism by to a greater extent protecting workers rights, the environment etc… The pro being protecting people and trying to institute morally good things, but it also creates a dependency on the state for protection & to be taken care of (as opposed to God), along with that it limits some the free market. Finally after Reagan, the Democrats have sought to continue to advance American interests but rather through greater cooperation internationally, still using American military but generally to keep the peace rather than complete reshaping of countries.

So finally here is my advice as to how Christians should enter into politics, (this being the basis for the reasons why I political act)

1. Christians should be at the fore front leading/spear heading (but not excluding others) social movements and trying to fix social problems. Doing this not only helps create a better more just society to live in, but it give us the opportunity to show (through action & words) Christ’s love and concern for all people how doesn’t just care about your spiritual well being but, restoring all creation including government and law. (for what is righteous laws but tokens of the righteous government to come). Also it gives us great opportunity to work with other non-Christian groups, to communicate with them and to impact them.

A good example of this could’ve been with the issue of combating climate change, under Christian leadership, we could’ve tackled the problem and insured a working out come, but avoided having them use mottos like “save ourselves”. Also in the long run under Christian direction we can help prevent the anti-Christ from using this in aiding his rise to power.

Unfortunately what do we do now that Christians are not leading the fight against global warming? Well (imho) we still get involved and seek to redeem it.

2. Christians should seek and call for peace(violence). We all know that there shall be no peace until Christ returns, but we can still look to see some peace now. I really don’t know the full extent of how this should be applied, but I want to specifically address the conservative Christian justification for going into Iraq being that we removed Saddam to aid in converting Iraqis and all Muslims to Christ. First off not only are we failing in that respect (and it was a bad plan) but also it seems to me that we are using human methods to accomplish Heavenly goals. First off we are not: the kingdom of heaven, Christendom, Israel nor even a Christian nation for that matter. Along with that we are not led by God and neither does it seem we are capable in fighting a war justly [check out just war theology]. I could go on about this for awhile, but rather I would prefer relying on heavenly methods of redeeming a nation, and example being the early church or currently the church in China. (you know the stories).

Along with this we should seek and call for justice in all our foreign policy dealings.

3. We should call for morality within our own society. For example calling for an end to abortion, or limiting violence and sexuality on TV, or the internet etc…etc… [all the while be careful of giving the state to much power with censorship, or the state will likely abuse it]

4. Finally we should learn to critique & support our leadership, in hope of building them up rather than tearing them down. This was mentioned at the call and in other places, I’m not sure completely how this goes, but we need to find the understanding in how we interact with the government while remaining biblical.

Anyway. So this was much longer than expected, but it still all feels very brief, in that I could’ve explained each one much more. But it took me quite a long time just to write that. But, I hope you read it (and understand what I meant) and you tell me what you think... “as Iron sharpens Iron…”

~Kevin