God's Politics
Nothing like a mix of religion and politics to get us going on a Monday morning. I was reading this weekend from "God's Politics" by Jim Wallis and thought I would share this section with you for discussion.
The politics of God is often not the same as the politics of the people of God. The real question is not whether religious faith should influence a society and its politics, but how.
As the Democratic candidates for president attended religious services during the 2004 election campaign, their worship was tempered by an uncomfortable fact: Churchgoing Americans tend to vote Republican.
An overwhelming majority of Americans consider themselves to be religious. Yet according to a study released in late 2003 by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, people who attend church more than once a week vote Republican by 63 percent to 37 percent; people who seldom or never attend vote Democratic by 62 percent to 38 percent. This was borne out by the 2004 exit polls--people who attend church more than once a week voted 64 percent for President Bush to 35 percent for Senator Kerry; those who never attend voted 62 percent for Kerry to 36 percent for Bush.
This disparity should concern Democrats-if not as a matter of faith, then as a matter of politics. More important, it should concern anyone who cares about the role of religion in public life. By failing to engage Republicans in this debate, the Democrats impoverish us all.
This chapter goes on to detail the two histories of faith based movements in our country's recent history: The black-led civil rights movement of the 50's and 60's and the Religious Right movement of the 80's and 90's. Both advanced their "moral agendas" based in faith and sought to influence the direction of American life and culture.
The Civil Rights Movement operated first and foremost from a morally based and politically independent foundation. The Religious Right Movement sought immediately to gain political power and, in short, it's desires were to "take over" the Republican party.
So here's the questions (and I am sure there are more which we will get to).
1) What role, if any, should an individuals faith play in politics?
2) What role, if any, should the church have in politics?
posted by Steve at
8/22/2005
10 Comments:
1. a persons faith or lack thereof ultimately makes them who they are. how can you honestly remove the very essence of who you are when it comes to something as important as the policies that may and will govern your life?
2. i guess that all depends on how you would define "church", what it means to you and what it's purpose is or should be about.
eddieO
Wow, Rover, it must be sad living in that paranoid little world of yours. If you ever decide to let your delusions about the 'evil left wing media' go, feel free to let us all know that you've overcome your psychosis.
Love,
Brandon
P.S. I'll have a post up on this topic tomorrow.
I've been blogging too long. I'm starting to understand Rover.
From my perspective, faith enters strongly into my political decisions. My primary motivation is the preservation of "freedom". I affiliate with the party who believes in personal freedom, and national liberty. Unfortunately, there really isn't one. Probably the Libertarians are closest, but they can't win anything because most people really don't want freedom. People want someone/something to insure their existence even though they have to give up much freedom to have that security.
The way I see it, on one hand you have people who are willing to give up personal freedom for the collective good (they must place themselves in bondage to the system for the sake of all). Then, you have those who seek freedom, even though they must be willing to accept failure in order to have a chance at success. Freedom and personal responsibility are frightening to most folks. We know we can't trust ourselves, we are reluctant to trust a God we cannot see or understand... so what's left? Trust government. If we give them what they want (which is nearly everything we have), they will give us what we need (or at least we HOPE they will). Thing is, we think we have a better shot with government than we do with ourselves, other people, or God.
I'm not sure I understand why people would want to give up freedom for security, but they sure seem to...
bruce,
that was so well said!! i totally agree.
cindy
Rover... so is there no such thing as a Christian Democrat? Can a "Christ-follower" support any other political viewpoint other than the Republican party?
Bracing myself for your response.....
If you are voting democrat, you are voting to keep abortion not only running strong, but you are supporting a party that is giving abortion a purpose, and if you can live with that, so be it.
In addition to being a gross oversimplification, this is a lie. Pure and simple.
The rest, well, beyond this comment you just start sounding shrill and 'Ann Coulter-ish'.
Do you have a point about Democrats using faith to pander votes? Of course. But the dishonesty and 'uninformed' lies you tell, frankly, they turn my stomach, Rover.
I believe that what is supposed to distinguish Christians in a democratic society is that we are model citizens. Obedient to the law, respectfully engaged in the process, full of integrity and honesty. The kind of people other people would want to be in a democracy with.
No comment further than that, but I'm now conjuring up images of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell in my mind, and wondering whether I would want to be in a democracy with them...
Faith must inform every part of life, else it cannot be considered genuine. How can I say to Christ, "You are the source of everything. My life is in Your hands. Now stand over there while I go vote."?
Don't use the President as an excuse, either. IF he lied to the world so that he could start a war, then he betrayed his faith, he didn't employ it. You can't hold up hypocrites and say "Faith and politics don't mix." They don't represent real faith. It's probably more accurate to say "Religion and politics don't mix." Religion is its own law, and it hardly resembles Christ.
On the othe hand, Jesus didn't worry about politics because politics is, by its nature, about power. He knew that what he was bringing transcended governments and temporal power. That's why He preached that, if you want to be powerful, give away power. Become the servant of all. There has never been a law against demonstrating love and grace. If we, the Church, would stop posturing and actually make ourselves of real benefit to mankind, we would have all the power we ever wanted.
And then we would have to find some other way to screw things up.
C'mon Rover.... you aren't one of those that really believe we can "vote" God out of existence?
So the Democrats have that much power that they can get rid of God? Do the Republicans have the power to keep God around?
You really give "man" a lot of credit and power my friend.
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