Sunday, December 12, 2004
Mostly a response to meagan
US is a church-state? or Faith as it plays out in Politics
I would call myself first a child of God and later an American, but I am both. My faith plays more into my politics than my politics play into my faith. I think that is a fair statement and that most people can say the same, or at least that their beliefs define their politics and not the other way around.
When I think of Jesus' political involvement while on earth, the best example comes into play when he says, "Give to Ceasar what belongs to Ceasar and to God what belongs to God." I think that there is a need to submit to authority, because if everybody went around doing what he or she wanted, it would be chaos and anarchy. I am very happy to live in a country where I can be a part of making legislative decisions in some way. I think there is a lot of corruption in our government, but, as I am not a politician myself, I can only vote for those I think are will do the best job. I like to vote for those that best represent my beliefs, but sometimes I have to vote for the candidate I feel has the most integrety and is the most honest.
As a Christan, I think that Christians should allow their beliefs to play into politics. I think Jews and Muslims and atheists should vote based on what they believe about life and God. It is sad to think that Christians would vote for harsh penalties, when God has been so merciful to us, but at the same time, there must be justice before there can be mercy. That is to say, there must be a penalty for someone to be pardoned from it. I don't know where that train of thought leads, because it seems to be a little contradictory.
That all said, I think that if people do not believe that their government should expand the definition of marriage to include homosexual unions, it is their right to believe so and to encourage their government officials not to do so.
Also, I believe emphatically that Christianity is not something to be dressed up like the culture so that people will approve of it. I do believe, however, that the church today is dressed up like the culture, but just the culture of yesteryear. I think that a lot of what people are calling the "postmodern movement" or "the emerging church" within the christian culture is based on some of these ideas of going back to the "old time religion" or rather, the practice of pursuing God so apparent in the life of Jesus. Surely if we repent of our wicked ways and turn to Jesus, he will heal our land...so broken and by the RIGHT and the LEFT. I guess I'll leave off there.
I would call myself first a child of God and later an American, but I am both. My faith plays more into my politics than my politics play into my faith. I think that is a fair statement and that most people can say the same, or at least that their beliefs define their politics and not the other way around.
When I think of Jesus' political involvement while on earth, the best example comes into play when he says, "Give to Ceasar what belongs to Ceasar and to God what belongs to God." I think that there is a need to submit to authority, because if everybody went around doing what he or she wanted, it would be chaos and anarchy. I am very happy to live in a country where I can be a part of making legislative decisions in some way. I think there is a lot of corruption in our government, but, as I am not a politician myself, I can only vote for those I think are will do the best job. I like to vote for those that best represent my beliefs, but sometimes I have to vote for the candidate I feel has the most integrety and is the most honest.
As a Christan, I think that Christians should allow their beliefs to play into politics. I think Jews and Muslims and atheists should vote based on what they believe about life and God. It is sad to think that Christians would vote for harsh penalties, when God has been so merciful to us, but at the same time, there must be justice before there can be mercy. That is to say, there must be a penalty for someone to be pardoned from it. I don't know where that train of thought leads, because it seems to be a little contradictory.
That all said, I think that if people do not believe that their government should expand the definition of marriage to include homosexual unions, it is their right to believe so and to encourage their government officials not to do so.
Also, I believe emphatically that Christianity is not something to be dressed up like the culture so that people will approve of it. I do believe, however, that the church today is dressed up like the culture, but just the culture of yesteryear. I think that a lot of what people are calling the "postmodern movement" or "the emerging church" within the christian culture is based on some of these ideas of going back to the "old time religion" or rather, the practice of pursuing God so apparent in the life of Jesus. Surely if we repent of our wicked ways and turn to Jesus, he will heal our land...so broken and by the RIGHT and the LEFT. I guess I'll leave off there.
# posted by Adam @ 2:44 PM 
