So many, many Christian leaders and lay people alike are conflicted and confused about politics. Many have come to a position more or less to the effect that, "politics is a dirty business and Christians have better things to do like sharing the gospel, so I'm not going to get involved on any level whatsoever". That may be an oversimplification, yet I think it captures the essence of the thinking. I shall attempt to prove that it is in fact a non-biblical, non-thinking position.
First of all, any and every endeavor that we as Christians enter into the world is done in a place of falleness since the whole world is in sin and under sin. So to centre out the sphere of politics as unworthy is to somehow misunderstand the pervasive nature of sin over every aspect of life. If one were logically consistent with this position a Christian would have to divorce himself from every aspect of life in the world for all is tinged with sin.
Secondly, to ignore politics is to ignore the sphere where power is exercised, the arena where secular authority is legitimately exercised in a fallen world. And by ignoring this realmn the believer in Christ is often guilty of not loving his/her neighbour. For instance the Salvation Army in London in the 19th century entered the political fray and labored to get laws passed protecting young girls from the horrors of pimps, brothels and all the apparatus of white slavery. In short they loved God first, but then they loved their fellow citizen enough to get involved in the dirty business of politics in order to protect and save numerous of their fellow citizens from white slavery. I will content myself with that one example for now. But, they who are too spiritual to get involved in politics are trying to be more spiritual than the Bible that calls us to love both God and our fellow man. And to omit the love that is due our neighbour is a sin of grave omission.
No comments:
Post a Comment