Wednesday, May 04, 2005
On Christians and Government
I wish I had (maybe took?) the time to write posts like the ones I am going to link to in this post. They both relate to the relationship between Christians, Christianity, and government.
The first comes from Wittenberg Gate. (HT: Allthings2all)
The first comes from Wittenberg Gate. (HT: Allthings2all)
So when Christians say rape is wrong and a crime, and cite a Scripture to support that assertion, most people wouldn't object, because they agree with the conclusion, if not the source. However, when someone says unborn life has legal standing and quotes Scripture for that, suddenly the Christian is said to be foisting his or her morality on someone else or blurring the line between Church and State. Because one disagrees with the conclusion, one attacks the source, rather than admit that in both cases the Christian relied on an authoritative source outside of him- or herself, and the non-Christian relied on his or her own self-defined source. Somehow, the person with the Biblically-informed opinion is to be considered less than the person with the self-informed opinion. Yet both are opinions, aren't they?...The other is from Evangelical Outpost.
...As Christians in the marketplace of ideas, we do expect our voices to be heard, and our standing in politics and in the courts to be equal to those who claim to be nonreligious. Yet, reading criticisms such as Margaret's ought to also remind us that we must communicate fairly and without bitterness, even as we hold to the absolute truths that God declares in His Word, and we ought to guard ourselves against attempting to bind anyone where the Scriptures leave us free.
This double standard is embarrassingly obvious. When the Religious Left supports abortion and gay marriage they are praised as compassionate and progressive. When the Religious Right opposes these same issues they are denounced as religious zealots who want to impose their morality on others. There’s a sense that these critics believe that the right to vote and influence legislation should be limited to the people who have politically correct religious views. The enthusiastic applause that followed Garrison Keillor’s plan to "pass a constitutional amendment to take the right to vote away from born-again Christians" is a shocking reminder of the bias against religiously orthodox Americans.Democracy is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that we, unlike the first century church, have a voice in our civil government. The curse is that if we use that voice inappropriately, we put it at risk. That is actually true for anyone in a democracy, but the burden is heavier for those of us that have the Spirit to teach us how to use it appropriately.
Apparantly, everyone has a right to be heard - until they start listening to God.
