An Opening Argument for Christian Political Involvement
"You will be delivered from petty worries if you are concerned about the souls of men."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
I approach this topic with some measure of fear and trembling. Not because I fear controversy or want everyone to like me. Far from it. But rather, because issues of politics often seem so trivial, and quite often become trivial because of the way in which they are handled. I am far more concerned about the souls of men than I am systems and forms of government.
That being said, government in its various forms has a very real impact on the life of the people who live under governments. This means therefore, that government matters. And in a democratic republic like the US of A, that means that politics matter, because the political system of parties and campaigns and elections is how we determine who holds office and the proverbial reigns of the government.
However, many Christians come to this point and begin to feel disillusioned by the process. "Yes," they say, "we should care. But we have a two party system in which both spew little but hate and have little of virtue worth supporting." This, admittedly, is a difficult point to argue. However, to steal some ideas from Gandhi and Bonheoffer, if you want to see change in that process it won't happen by you sitting on your hands. And if you choose to sit on your hands you have chosen to support things the way they are.
Christians, if we claim to care about the world, and specifically those people in the world who share the piece of soil known as the United States, must become Biblically informed voters. That is, we must let the truth of Scripture shape our minds and our hearts, and then go to the issues and apply the Scriptures to those issues and vote accordingly. This is an active process. It is one in which we will make mistakes. But as I have said before, doing the right thing is of far more importance than not doing the wrong thing. We must become proactive.
This will not happen by spending 1-2 hours a week with our Bible in comparison with 2-3 hours a day of news media (be that media FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, The Blaze, ABC, talk radio, you name it). Christians who have chosen to be vocal or active in the political process often know too much of "the issues" and far too little of God. I don't care how much you know about immigration reform, the national debt, racial injustice, the welfare state, or national security. If you cannot look at those issues through the scope of the Scriptures, your analysis is going to be empty, and your decisions ultimately baseless. We live in an upside down, backwards, and inside out world. That won't be fixed by the news media or the new media. That is only fixed by Jesus Christ. Who, by the way, typically makes changes one person at a time.
So, all of this being said, I will address in future posts how I end up landing where I do on particular issues, and why I tend to vote the way I do. You can look back at my posts on homosexual marriage and abortion from late last year to see my thoughts on those topics, and there is more to come.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
I approach this topic with some measure of fear and trembling. Not because I fear controversy or want everyone to like me. Far from it. But rather, because issues of politics often seem so trivial, and quite often become trivial because of the way in which they are handled. I am far more concerned about the souls of men than I am systems and forms of government.
That being said, government in its various forms has a very real impact on the life of the people who live under governments. This means therefore, that government matters. And in a democratic republic like the US of A, that means that politics matter, because the political system of parties and campaigns and elections is how we determine who holds office and the proverbial reigns of the government.
However, many Christians come to this point and begin to feel disillusioned by the process. "Yes," they say, "we should care. But we have a two party system in which both spew little but hate and have little of virtue worth supporting." This, admittedly, is a difficult point to argue. However, to steal some ideas from Gandhi and Bonheoffer, if you want to see change in that process it won't happen by you sitting on your hands. And if you choose to sit on your hands you have chosen to support things the way they are.
Christians, if we claim to care about the world, and specifically those people in the world who share the piece of soil known as the United States, must become Biblically informed voters. That is, we must let the truth of Scripture shape our minds and our hearts, and then go to the issues and apply the Scriptures to those issues and vote accordingly. This is an active process. It is one in which we will make mistakes. But as I have said before, doing the right thing is of far more importance than not doing the wrong thing. We must become proactive.
This will not happen by spending 1-2 hours a week with our Bible in comparison with 2-3 hours a day of news media (be that media FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, The Blaze, ABC, talk radio, you name it). Christians who have chosen to be vocal or active in the political process often know too much of "the issues" and far too little of God. I don't care how much you know about immigration reform, the national debt, racial injustice, the welfare state, or national security. If you cannot look at those issues through the scope of the Scriptures, your analysis is going to be empty, and your decisions ultimately baseless. We live in an upside down, backwards, and inside out world. That won't be fixed by the news media or the new media. That is only fixed by Jesus Christ. Who, by the way, typically makes changes one person at a time.
So, all of this being said, I will address in future posts how I end up landing where I do on particular issues, and why I tend to vote the way I do. You can look back at my posts on homosexual marriage and abortion from late last year to see my thoughts on those topics, and there is more to come.
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