Part One of the Christian Carnival XXII is up (and Part Two ). Check out all the great submissions. I didn’t submit this week because I had no Christian-themed posts, just politics as usual. This is an appropriate segue to a very link-worthy post over at JollyBlogger, “Political Blogging:
A few days ago, my post about Rush Limbaugh’s divorce hit the hot button of a few folks. It wasn’t a particularly favorable review of Rush, although I don’t think it was mean-spirited in any way, but I wouldn’t have been surprised to have gotten some flack for it. No flack was received — the commentors agreed with me pretty much. One commentor made reference to all of the political blogging that goes on especially among Christian bloggers and I thought I would jump off of that and share some thoughts. This commentor raised a valid concern about blurring the line between what we call “conservative” and what we call “Christian.”
That’s an issue that definitely needs to be addressed, and here are a few thoughts on that.
First of all, the Bible is a big book and the Christian worldview is big worldview. The Bible and the Christian worldview have something to say about every sphere of activity in creation. In that regard the Bible has principles which can and should be applied in the political realm….For instance, I think a case can be made, biblically, that government has a limited and restrictive function in society. Therefore, I would be willing to argue in favor of a political party that at least tried to adhere to this, or that adhered to it more than another party.
David makes the observation that biblical principles apply to “any sphere of activity”, and one such sphere is politics. At the conclusion of this section, he writes: “With all of those things in view, it is entirely appropriate that we have a contingent of Christian bloggers who are addressing political issues from a Biblical standpoint.”
He addresses the heresy Paul wrote about in Galatians, where the Judaizers attempted to add to the Gospel observance of the Law of Moses, and provides modern-day examples of this heresy. Good stuff.
After discussing conditions of church fellowship, David mentions the tendency of some Christians to put their faith in politicians. I admit I was guilty of this when George Bush first came to office, particularly because he’s a believer. David writes:
Unfortunately, many modern American Christians have the attitude of Jerome, or at least they act as if the fortunes of the Kingdom of God are tied to the fortunes of the USA or of a particular party….The Kingdom of God is so much bigger than a nation or a party. Yes, we need to speak to the issues and yes we need Christian voices in the political arena, but let’s not act as if politics are ultimate or as if politics are our religion.
This is an all-around solid post that probably took quite a bit of time to write. Writing about biblical matters often does. I was drawn to it because I’m sometimes conflicted about faith and politics, even though the two are not mutually exclusive. I’ve written that being conservative or liberal isn’t what saves. Only through faith alone in Christ alone through grace alone saves us from the penalty of sin and death. Sharing that message should be the primary purpose of Christian bloggers.
