(guest post by Drew)
These weak-minded men adopt the position that religion should cut itself off from society. After all, they argue, if the Apostle Paul never spoke out against slavery or abortion, why should the church take any stand on such legal matters? Apolitical Christians accept the government’s open support for homosexuality and divorce. They also wonder what harm could possibly result from overlooking gross national sins like partial-birth abortion. Small men worry only about their own personal lives. These nonthinkers will typically spout off brilliant aphorisms such as, ”God is neither a Democrat nor a Republican.”
No kidding. God is a member of the Constitution Party. In important elections, though, he would never waste his vote on a third-party ticket.
Realistically, morality and government have always gone hand in hand. If the government cannot legislate morality, I would like to know what exactly it can legislate! Because the government must deal in matters of morality, Christians have a duty to get involved. (Some people believe that the government should ignore morals and focus instead on redistributing wealth; these people are called “communists.”)
Ultimately, Paul explained the relationship between morality and politics as follows:
“Rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” (Romans 13:3-4)
The government is God’s servant. Moreover, punishing evil is the main function of government. Humans leaders cannot force their subjects to do good deeds, but they can discourage blatant wrongdoing.
Ideally, righteous leaders should enforce righteous laws. Unfortunately, many rulers do not adequately fulfill this job description. When they fail, God eventually steps in and removes them. He judges national leaders. As the prophet Daniel once stated, God “changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them.” (Daniel 2:21)
In one biblical episode, a heavenly warrior personally assassinates a murderous tyrant for getting too far out of hand. The tyrant is Herod, the same jackass who committed adultery with his sister-in-law and then murdered John the Baptist. Herod eventually meets his end. “On the appointed day, Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, ‘This is the voice of a god, not of a man.’ Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.” (Acts 12:21-23)
Good riddance. When it comes to earthly tyrants, God’s patience has limits (as does mine).
At this point, some cowards may rejoice saying, “Good thing I’m not the national leader; I can do whatever I want with impunity!” Wrong. Every citizen in a society has a moral obligation to speak out against evil (Leviticus 19:17).
In America, of course, this individual duty to promote social righteousness runs even deeper. The United States of America has no king. Rather, the People (and the Constitution) are the national rulers. The People vote. Every voter who neglects his political-moral duty will be judged. Any voter who supports godless policies will be condemned.
My advice to the apolitical Christians: Watch out! Every voter rules this country for good or for evil. Rule the nation well, or suffer the consequences.
The consequences suffered will be from the rule of man. Take a look around you. Do you think God expects us to pick a cause out of the myriad of wrongs being perpetrated in our nation? Being concerned with anything but God’s rule, justice and mercy will drive you secular! Grace is sufficient for me and by Grace I am protected.
If you actually study the Bible and actually follow politics, you will usually find that one candidate represents God’s viewpoint far better than the other. And if they don’t, then start collecting signatures and put your own name on the ballot. This is America.
Drew,
My response to your post is going to be quite similar to that I just made on another blog whose author seems to have confused being a Republican with being correct (y’all already think you’re right, and I don’t want to reinforce that
).
First off, I’m far from apolitical (former PoliSci major), and blatantly biased Christians irk me. Those who are neither hot nor cold, yeah – I get that. I’m passionate about wanting to understand God’s will for me, to know how to carry it out in my daily walk in all aspects of my life. I happen to be an independent (lower case “i”, as there is now an Independent party), and neither the Democrats nor the Republicans hold God’s truth as the light that should guide them.
God is factually not a Democrat or a Republican, nor a member of the Constitution party. You do not have His permission to act as his ventriloquist – nor do I – so, respectfully, lay off with the “nonthinking” judgmental statements. God also does not vote – again, His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. You seem to consider a vote wasted when it doesn’t go to the contender of either of the top two parties – what about to the individual who casts their vote? Are you prepared to say that a well thought-out, reasoned vote for a candidate who the voter believes best represents their beliefs about how the nation should be led has wasted their vote? I don’t see where you stand on solid ground with that position – it is the voter’s opinion being expressed, not yours. Respect that, and that right granted to all of us.
Governments attempt to legislate morality, and that is the limit of what they can do – attempt. What they cannot do, no matter what, is motivate a human heart to will and to act according to the letter of the law – Romans points that out fairly well. We cannot keep the law, no matter how much we may wish to be holy, or moral, or law-abiding. A simple anthropological test should prove instructive here: get a cop’s radar gun and use it to check the speed of traffic along a section of interstate highway that is well posted with the speed limit. Now, pull over every speeder in front of a speed limit sign, so there is no excuse for them to get the question wrong – what is the speed limit on this highway? The unanimous answer will be whatever is posted on the sign – but the behavior will not match up with what we know the law to be.
As to the rest of your post, please read C.S. Lewis a bit more closely – in Chapter 13 (Social Morality), he wrote: “…If so, that brings us right up against the real snag in all this drawing up of blueprints for a Christian society. Most of us are not really approaching the subject in order to find out what Christianity says: we are approaching it in the hope of finding support from Christianity for the views of our own party. We are looking for an ally where we are offered either a Master or–a Judge. I am just the same. There are bits in this section that I wanted to leave out. And that is why nothing whatever is going to come of such talks unless we go a much longer way round. A Christian society is not going to arrive until most of us really want it and we are not going to want it until we become fully Christian. I may repeat ‘Do as you would he done by’ till I am black in the face, but I cannot really carry it out till I love my neighbour as myself, and I cannot learn to love my neighbour as myself till I learn to love God, and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him. And so, as I warned you, we are driven on to something more inward–driven on from social matters to religious matters. For the longest way round is the shortest way home.”
I didn’t say that God is a Republican; I only mocked people who point out that he isn’t.
But yes, I do think Republicans are the major party that far more closely aligns itself with God’s values. That isn’t bias. That isn’t reading my own desires into the Bible. It’s plain history. Historically, conservatives have aligned themselves with John Locke, a Christian philosopher, whereas many liberal Democrats would ascribe to the doctrines of Karl Marx (an atheist). As Paul explained, government exists primarily to fight against evil. God didn’t create government to redistribute wealth by force, or to act as a nanny or a parental substitute.
In a future post, I’ll try to describe more in-depth why God is a capitalist who believes in limited, yet moralistic, government.
But I’m glad you’re interested in politics. Just remember that God will hold you accountable for the causes you support.
Drew,
Rather than take a lot of space up here (and since the post exists already anyways), when you get a chance follow the link here and then we can pick up the discussion either here or on my blog.