In the last Crux, Don Veinot mentioned a discussion he and I are having about Christianity and political involvement.

Over the last few weeks several have contacted me asking if Christians should be involved with politics and if so to what degree. Jonathan Miles and I have been involved in a similar discussion ourselves and are thinking about writing a book on the question.

I thought I would take this opportunity to open up that discussion to you dear readers. Don and I have been having a brotherly tete-a-tete for a few months now. We agree on some things and perhaps disagree on others–all firmly within Christian charity and in the spirit of Christian liberty. In what follows I want to highlight some of the questions Don and I have been wrestling with and also to explain why we think the question of Christians and Political Involvement isn’t something to be settled by appeals to doctrine but really is a matter of conscience (However, unlike the about face the Watchtower made about organ transplants–our “matter of conscience” isn’t clever way of changing our position.)  However, it should be noted that what is contained in this post is totally my own attempts to work out my faith (and by extension my politics) with fear and trembling. The reader should not assume that just because Don allows this post, that he agrees with it or that it is the “official” MOCI position on this issue.

So without further ado, let’s plunge into the discussion: Continue reading …

But you seem to fear lest all men become righteous, and you no longer have any to punish. ( Justin Martyr’ The First Apology of Justin The Anti-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1; T&T Clark/Eerdmans, 1989 pg 166)

For the first time since we began MCOI we have been in a position to comment on what is happening in politics. For years many running for office stayed from religion and created a sort of Grand Canyon separation. This past election brought them back together as liberals asserted they too are religious and Barack Obama appeals to the WWJD or “What would Jesus Do?” question. There is very little in Obama’s life, worldview or political positions which would indicate that he is a Christian in any biblical or historical Christian sense. In fact, there is an increase in at least a verbal persecution of those who hold to a historical/grammatical understanding of Scripture. This is not a new situation and in fact Christians in the first three centuries suffered not only misrepresentation and verbal persecution but martyrdom at the hands of the government.

Over the last few weeks several have contacted me asking if Christians should be involved with politics and if so to what degree. Jonathan Miles and I have been involved in a similar discussion ourselves and are thinking about writing a book on the question. In the process of all of this came the revelation that ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), which has received 53 millions dollars in Federal Funding (yours and my dollars) and is scheduled to received billions from the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 advises some “clients” how to cover up and even gain federal funding for prostitution and operating an under age prostitution ring. The third ACORN office in two weeks, this one in New York City, has been exposed on BIGGOVERNMENT.COM Continue reading …

I remember as a youth being told that there are two subjects to avoid discussing, politics and religion. On some occasions I recall hearing that “religion and politics don’t mix.” I was an atheist and my mother often insisted that it didn’t really matter who one voted for, the fix was in and all politicians are the same anyway. So, neither religion nor politics were high on my radar screen of interests. That began to change in the mid-1970s. I became persuaded that God exists; Christianity is true and was “born again.” Two years later Jimmy Carter was elected the 39th president of the United States. Somewhere near the end of his presidency I began to be interested in political discussion. Over the years since then I have realized why some prefer not to discuss religion or politics. They become very emotional issues which in many cases, for lack of a good argument, are simply reduced to name calling. This seems to me especially pronounced today. I am not sure if it is or if I am just more aware of it. The sides are fairly clearly drawn. One side sees the current administration as evil trying to change the United States into a Socialist state and the other side views their opposition as knuckle dragging, gun toting country cousins that are too in-bred. As Marcia Segelstein points out in her article Republicans are evil, it is rare that liberals know what Conversatives believe or why we beleive it. They would almost never read a conservative column, author or sit down and talk through ideas with a conservative.

A recent L.A. Times “Opinion” article Calls to boycott Obama’s speech to kids offer a disturbing lesson in paranoia by Tim Rutten is a fairly good example of substituting name calling for reasoned debate and Continue reading …

Christianity Today has an op-ed entitled“Reducing Abortion for Real” discussing the merits of gradualism and absolutism when it comes to abortion. Gradualists argue that any reduction in abortions is better than abortion on demand. Gradualists concentrate their resources on legislation that will make abortion less palatable, less convenient, and rarer. Absolutists on the other hand, argue that reduction in abortion is not acceptable, eradication is. They argue Christians should concentrate on making abortion illegal. As you can imagine this debate can get almost as hotter than town hall meeting.

It seems there are two separate questions when it comes to abortion and perhaps two separate tasks for Christians. One is to definitively assert that abortion is wrong in answer to the question “Is abortion immoral?”. The second is to influence society to stop killing unborn children in answer to the question “Since it’s wrong, how should we prevent it?” The first question Continue reading …