An Answer to Levy
October 25, 2010
Good to see that Paul is back from `the Algarve.' Clearly the word has a become a euphemism for a short term of solitary confinement for those who have corrupted the nation's youth and committed crimes too numerous to mention against the English language.
To answer Paul on politics in brief points, the passions here would seem to have a number of origins:
1. A deeper cultural suspicion of government than is typical in Europe, thanks to very different national histories.
2. A politics where economic arguments are by-and-large over peripheral issues (marginal tax rates etc.) and thus the party-political focus has come to rest on social and cultural matters (typically identity politics of some kind).These are often issues where Christians have strong (appropriately strong) feelings.
3. A confusion over the role of the church where many see it as having a more-or-less direct role to play in speaking to political matters. This is a position which marks both the left and the right of the American Christian spectrum, both of which, in practice, have their own forms of theonomy.
I am all for Christians, left and right, having strong, informed opinions, and voting their consciences; but the church's job is not to engage directly in the process, nor to make political positions normative for church members. It is interesting that Christ, on the road to Emmaus, does not spend any time whining about the parlous state of Palestine under the Roman occupation but rather focuses on how the scriptures speak of him. Nor does Paul waste a lot of time on civil government, for that matter; and Rom. 13 is surely the great political statement of the New Testament, a text on which all Christians should reflect at election time.
Christians fight in the army as soldiers, but the church does not do so; Christians work in the tax office as civil servants, but the church does not do so; Christians should be involved in the political process as citizens (and, as with soldiers and civil servants, their behaviour there is shaped by their Christianity), but the church is not to be so engaged. The church is rather to preach the good news of Christ's death and resurrection.
As for my book: buy your own copy, you cheapskate. The present Mrs T depends on my annual royalty check to buy a take-away pizza once a year.
To answer Paul on politics in brief points, the passions here would seem to have a number of origins:
1. A deeper cultural suspicion of government than is typical in Europe, thanks to very different national histories.
2. A politics where economic arguments are by-and-large over peripheral issues (marginal tax rates etc.) and thus the party-political focus has come to rest on social and cultural matters (typically identity politics of some kind).These are often issues where Christians have strong (appropriately strong) feelings.
3. A confusion over the role of the church where many see it as having a more-or-less direct role to play in speaking to political matters. This is a position which marks both the left and the right of the American Christian spectrum, both of which, in practice, have their own forms of theonomy.
I am all for Christians, left and right, having strong, informed opinions, and voting their consciences; but the church's job is not to engage directly in the process, nor to make political positions normative for church members. It is interesting that Christ, on the road to Emmaus, does not spend any time whining about the parlous state of Palestine under the Roman occupation but rather focuses on how the scriptures speak of him. Nor does Paul waste a lot of time on civil government, for that matter; and Rom. 13 is surely the great political statement of the New Testament, a text on which all Christians should reflect at election time.
Christians fight in the army as soldiers, but the church does not do so; Christians work in the tax office as civil servants, but the church does not do so; Christians should be involved in the political process as citizens (and, as with soldiers and civil servants, their behaviour there is shaped by their Christianity), but the church is not to be so engaged. The church is rather to preach the good news of Christ's death and resurrection.
As for my book: buy your own copy, you cheapskate. The present Mrs T depends on my annual royalty check to buy a take-away pizza once a year.
