Tuesday, December 01, 2020

Christian political independence

 I think you can make pragmatic and tentative choices of party as a Christian, but Christian ought to be, in an important sense, independent of any party. Parties are coalitions that combine godly and ungodly interests, almost by definition.

A great but neglected Lewis essay is one called Meditation on the Third Commandment. When I was writing a column in the bulletin for the church I worked at back in 1980 (!) the Moral Majority was just taking shape. I wrote an essay in which I basically cribbed Lewis's essay to argue that the Moral Majority was a misguided enterprise. 

7 comments:

Kevin said...

I think you can make pragmatic and tentative choices of party as a Christian, but Christian ought to be, in an important sense, independent of any party.

And they suck at it. How many Christians do you know who fairly and consistently criticize both parties when deserving? We don't see that.

Quite frankly, if someone happens to believe that Democrats are better than Republicans, and he doesn't heavily and publicly and sincerely call out Democrats when they fail, he himself has failed. It's easy to snipe the other side for their failures, but it takes integrity to police one's own. We don't see that.

Political tribalism is now divine.

One Brow said...

Kevin,

While you and I disagree on some things, I really enjoy your new personality in the comments.

Both the Democrats and Republicans are people who love wielding power, which is why they are in office. I agree everyone should be wiling to call out people of both parties.

Kevin said...

One Brow, my new personality is simply more negative haha.

I had an incident occur locally that broke the camel's back, as it were. The political grandstanding and tribalism has real consequences that hurt real people, so I see no gain in not being blunt. Sometimes the truth hurts, but rarely does it nearly conform to one party.

bmiller said...

We have a 2 party system whether we like it or not.

About 1/3rd gravitate to one party, 1/3rd gravitate to the other party and about another 1/3rd are independent and will vote either way. If you belong to a party, you can always "primary" people you disagree with unless of course in your particular locality the 'party' is corrupt. I live in such a locality.

Starhopper said...

" It's easy to snipe the other side for their failures, but it takes integrity to police one's own. We don't see that."

That's simply not true. When Al Franken was "me too'ed" he was immediately condemned by Democrats and resigned. When Trump admitted to engaging in serial sexual assault (the Access Hollywood tapes), the Republicans pretended to have never heard the accusations.

Starhopper said...

"All this comes from pretending that God has spoken when He has not spoken. He will not settle the two brothers' inheritance: `Who made Me a judge or a divider over you?' By the natural light He has shown us what means are lawful: to find out which one is efficacious He has given us brains. The rest He has left to us."

Those are the last lines of Lewis's essay. In them, he cited one of my favorite utterances of Christ (from the Gospel of Luke). God will NOT take sides in our Earthly squabbles. He is neither Democrat nor Republican. Christ favors neither socialism nor capitalism. (If anything, Divine favor likely rests on feudalism.) He refuses to take sides in our economic disputes. He will not favor one side nor the other in our (all too many) wars.

If anyone claims "God is on my (or our) side!" he is deluding himself. The proper question to ask is "Am I on God's side?"

One Brow said...

Kevin,

Perhaps your new presence is more negative, but I think it is also more balanced. Recognizing our current political system is a "pick your poison" is a position we can firmly agree upon.