An interesting perspective
Gay marriage was banned in California this election. I find this argument by the gay marriage proponents interesting, since it’s similar to the beef many abortion proponents have:
Also ranting online was celebrity disc jockey Samantha Ronson. Lindsay Lohan’s gal pal blogged Thursday that she was shocked California voters approved an animal-rights initiative but that ballot measures about gay marriage and adoption in California, Florida, Arizona and Arkansas were shot down.“I guess people care more about farm animals than they do their fellow man, that’s really sad to me,” Ronson wrote on her MySpace blog. “Yes, I am glad that the chickens will have more room and better conditions as they wait to die, but I just think it’s frightening that people show more compassion for tomorrow’s dinner than for the chef.”
Vote as if you were not
I just read some of the best teachings on politics by a Christian author I’ve head recently. It the classic style of John Piper, it makes little of politics and much of Christ. An except:
“So it is with voting. We should do it. But only as if we were not doing it. Its outcomes do not give us the greatest joy when they go our way, and they do not demoralize us when they don’t. Political life is for making much of Christ whether the world falls apart or holds together…
We deal with the system. We deal with the news. We deal with the candidates. We deal with the issues. But we deal with it all as if not dealing with it. It does not have our fullest attention. It is not the great thing in our lives. Christ is. And Christ will be ruling over his people with perfect supremacy no matter who is elected and no matter what government stands or falls. So we vote as though not voting.”
Now Reading: The Myth of a Christian Nation
I’m reading Gregory Boyd’s book The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church. I’m hoping that it’ll help me to better understand some of the concerns I have with Christian-American nationalism and politics. I’m not looking for validation of my views, rather, I’m seeking to understand myself and grow in the process.
Boyd is the pastor of a mega evangelical church, and he wrote the book after preaching a series of related sermons at his church in response to repeated requests for the church to take certain stands in nationalistic or political movements. If you’re curious, about 1,000 people left his 4,000 member church after the series.
I’m only a few chapters into the book, but his primary argument so far seems to be that since all governments are heavily influenced by demonic powers, (1 John 5:19, Rev 11:15, John 12:31), fusing together the Kingdom of America and the Kingdom of God is idolatrous since any worldly government is under Satan’s dominion and the Kingdom of God is not. His thesis is essentially that we’ve allowed our vision of the Kingdom of God to get distored and we’ve settled for a Christianized version of the kingdom of the world. He writes:
For some evangelicals, the kingdom of God is largely about, if not centered on, “taking America back for God”, voting for the Christian candidate, outlawing abortion, outlawing gay marriage, winning the culture war, defending political freedom at home and abroad, keeping the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, fighting for prayer in the public schools and at public events, and fighting to display the Ten Commandments in government buildings.
He goes on to write that he isn’t saying those positions are wrong or that Christians shouldn’t be involved in politics. Instead, he hopes to “challenge the asumption that finding the right political path has anything to do with advancing the Kingdom of God.”
I can agree with his thesis so far. I just don’t believe that getting our country’s laws and political system to be “right” has anything to do with advancing the Kingdom of God. I don’t think keeping “under God” in the pledge of allegiance is the kind of thing God is supremely interested in precisely because it doesn’t lead to heart transformation. I don’t think that if Jesus were an American that he would be fighting to outlaw gay marriages, because I think he would be focused on Kingdom matters and not American politics. I think his cause was much greater than establishing a better version of the kingdom of the world. He wasn’t out to gain or exert political power; why are so many believers wrapped up in that today? What in the world does changing our country’s laws (or even advancing political freedom abroad) have to do with reaping the harvest of lost people and bringing more people to worship Jesus?
