Marquart on Politics
May 21, 2009
Here's another quotation from Marquart, this time on the language of `politics:'
Church politics, like beauty, is largely in the eye of the beholder. My "politics" is likely to be somebody else's "responsible leadership" and vice versa. It all depends on whose ox is being gored. As long as there are outward structures, ways and means must be found to conduct their affairs "decently and in order." That makes virtually unavoidable arrangements like deliberative assemblies, delegates, elections of leaders, parliamentary procedure, and the like. These things are in themselves neither good nor evil but indifferent. Everything depends on the use to which this machinery is put. Given the machinery, all use of it is "politics" -- the only alternatives being good politics or bad politics.... "Bad," moreover, could in this context mean either "evil" or else simply "incompetent" or "ineffective." Our main concern in the church must be with substantive, objective good and evil and with their irreconcilable difference, defined, of course, by reference to God's revealed will and Word. This paramount issue tends often to be clouded by useless wranglings about the character and qualities of individuals. Christian realism requires not only that we leave all ultimate judgments of hearts to God but also that we understand ourselves and others with humble, non-utopian sobriety (Rom. 12:3).
Church politics, like beauty, is largely in the eye of the beholder. My "politics" is likely to be somebody else's "responsible leadership" and vice versa. It all depends on whose ox is being gored. As long as there are outward structures, ways and means must be found to conduct their affairs "decently and in order." That makes virtually unavoidable arrangements like deliberative assemblies, delegates, elections of leaders, parliamentary procedure, and the like. These things are in themselves neither good nor evil but indifferent. Everything depends on the use to which this machinery is put. Given the machinery, all use of it is "politics" -- the only alternatives being good politics or bad politics.... "Bad," moreover, could in this context mean either "evil" or else simply "incompetent" or "ineffective." Our main concern in the church must be with substantive, objective good and evil and with their irreconcilable difference, defined, of course, by reference to God's revealed will and Word. This paramount issue tends often to be clouded by useless wranglings about the character and qualities of individuals. Christian realism requires not only that we leave all ultimate judgments of hearts to God but also that we understand ourselves and others with humble, non-utopian sobriety (Rom. 12:3).
