The Politics of God Again

Hate to reuse a post but I wrote this during the primaries, and given the Obama Dobson war, the California War on Gay Marriage and Claiborne, Wallis et al War on the Religious Right I thought it would be fun to look at it again. Enjoy!!!

UPDATE I am reading Lord Save Us From Your Followers by Dan Merchant and it also made me think back to this post....

Over the past several decades numerous books, lectures and conferences have attempeted to define or otherwise extrapolate what it means to be a Christian in the United States of America in regards to politics, voting and civic duty.

From Jerry Falwell, Hugh Hewitt, James Dobson, etc. to Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, Rick Warren, etc.; everyone seems to know the heart and mind of God for the next election.

The 2008 election is no different and may even be more faith centric than previous cycles. We have had Mitt Romney (a Mormon elder), Mike Huckabee (a Southern Baptist preacher), and most recently gracing the headlines, Obama's church with a controversial pastor.

What role does faith play in leading? In voting? In our daily life? For everyone these answers will be different. I think it is clear that our values are defined largely by our religious background. What I think is not so clear (as evidenced by the wide body of work on the topic and no concensus) is how that manifests itself into politics.

I would like to change the dialogue a bit and venture a new approach. People who feel life begins at conception mostly believe that they should be opposed to legalized abortion. People who feel a yearning to see an end to poverty tend to believe in socialized welfare programs. The list goes on and on as most people want to see the law dictate the values they cherish. And that is ok. Everyone is entitled to their beliefs and approaches and their strategies. No one is entitled to speak for God as to which political position is the right one. (The one exception to this would be in Catholocism, but one chooses to submit to Papal Authority by being a Catholic and in turn accepts that the Pope speaks on behalf of God so the political portions of the new seven deadly sins would apply to you.)

What is not ok is the infighting and the claims that those who disagree with your politics somehow have less faith. Politics is largely about strategy not values. Some believe that outlawing things they feel are immoral is a good strategy to stop them. Others feel that it is not. CS Lewis once said that it would be a bad thing to try to legislate divorce out of existence. It was not the role of the Church to change peoples morals it was to change their hearts. Given the esteem he is given within most churches this should be seen as at least an acceptable and defensible position.

Grace, one of the hallmarks of the Christian faith seems to be lost in the world of faith and politics. Maybe this should be examined. Disagreements will happen. How we handle these disagreements should be a reflection of our values.