outside is better

The Christian and the political sphere

I try to stay out of politics and posting to much class writing here, but I felt that this was somewhat needed.  Last week our country made political history and plenty of Christians have strong views regarding politics.  I waited until I got this essay back from my professor to make sure it wasn't to far off base, but it came back through today and I wanted to put it up here for you.  I took a stand regarding politics a few months ago and this essay was influenced by the feelings I had at the time.  Typepad doesn't handle copy/paste well, so I tried to make the academic mark-up as friendly as possible.

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The Christian and the Political Sphere
    In his most recent book Can These Bones Live?(1), Barry Harvey outlines the affect of modernity's invention of “the self” in relation to the sphere of religion and civic duty, focusing on the separation between the spheres of sacred and secular.  John Milbank also speaks about the creation of “secular” and the privatization of religion in his first few pages of Theology and Social Theory.(2)  These are just two mentions of the intricacies of the development of the modern western notion of the state.  The guidelines for this essay ask that we take a position in relation to Christian engagement with politics, and outline its placement within the current spectrum of life.  For my entry into this assignment, I wanted to start off with idea of the progressive de-valuing of communal identity and the realm of the sacred as stated by these first two scholars.  I believe that Christian identity is tied into the covenant community of God and moral direction (and political values) come from inside those boundaries.
    At this point, one could wonder what this has to do with a Christians engagement with politics, but I think it matters greatly.  What a person believes about their identity as a Christian, and what the Churches role is in the greater society, will ultimately form how they choose to interact as a citizen within the State.  When we fall into the trap of individualization, we forget what Aquinas reminds us of, that our ultimate end is to become like God.(3)  The only way to do this is to realize that the task of life on this earth is wrapped inside the Church, and not the State.  We have a dependence on other people.
    At a root definition of the church we should look to the formation of the covenant Jewish community that is told in the book of Exodus.  The Decalogue is a classic example that many people understand, but usually confuse as a set of individual laws that are to be practiced by their individual self.  The formation of a moral community in covenant with a saving God isn’t the usual method of interpretation that is learned in Vacation Bible School.  At the other end of the scriptures, we see the author of 1st Peter writing to the “aliens, scattered throughout…” and again writing in 2nd Peter to “the sojourners and exiles”, and identifying them within the context of the stories of the community in the Old Testament.  The called out, covenant community with defined boundaries is a scriptural definition of the Church.
    When we think about how we align ourselves politically, we are ultimately talking about if we agree or disagree about ethical decisions the government has made.  Do we feel that they support us, or are we against what they deem as ethical.  The government makes these decisions with a utilitarian mindset, what they think would be the greatest good for the most people.  An ideal view of democracy means that the majority of constituents vote in the candidate they believe will do the best, in turn the politician represents the views of those who elected him or her.  What happens when we realize this doesn’t work is where we see political dissidence among the populace.  What do we do when we don’t agree with the government is where many Christians start to have a hard time figuring out what to do next., and many of these issues lie within their individual faith (with a faith community being functionally nonexistent) and how to voice dis-pleasure and not be looked down upon.
    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. voices his displeasure for the political system in Letter from Birmingham Jail(4), defends his non-violent methods, and asks church leaders to realize the situation and their subsequent religious duties to alleviate the situation.  The writings of the evangelical abolitionists show a deep belief regarding the duty of the Christian and justice.(5)  Charles G. Finney bemoans the church forgetting its mission and leaving it to be conducted by those who are ill equipped.(6)  Boff and Boff writes about what they identify as the liberal-bourgeois tradition and how it defends “individual rights disconnected from society and from basic solidarity with all”.(7)
    Many Christians today would identify themselves as Evangelical.  Wrapped up inside of this are specific views regarding ultra right-wing politics.  To disagree with the government, or to vote “wrong” regarding the difficult situations of homosexuality and abortion would mean almost certain social expulsion from their church.  Some would say that they have combined Church and State and take a very “Christ of culture” model in regards to the role the Christian has within the political sphere.  They say that the specific morality must be legislated, or God will judge us and it is out of the hand of the Church.  I come from and serve inside of this religious system right now.  It is a system that has “baptized” a specific political ideal and has lost covenant communal identification
    I think Reinhold Niebuhr offers the best advice in his description of prophetic faith.8  It realizes that without proper grounding inside of the Church, that we can go to extremism.  We can become scared and pull away from society, or we can become so inter-woven within it that we are no longer distinct.  For those that seek seclusion, they in turn become separatists and are filled with fear.  Those who marry the culture, start to think as individuals in a democracy thats ultimate good is not a vision of the kingdom of God.  Either way, we loose a world-view that is based off of the reality of God coming to earth as a man and radically changing everything forever.  We have to put ourselves back inside the story of God in order to understand the moral fabric that makes up the Christian Church.  When the Church starts to act like the Church, we will slowly rely less and less on the government for moral decisions and put it back in what Augustine says is its proper place, a necessary entity that gives order to this temporary place.
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1 Barry Harvey. Can These Bones Live?: A Catholic Baptist Engagement with Ecclesiology, Hermeneutics, and Social Theory. Brazos Press, 2008. pg 111
2 John Milbank. Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason. 2nd ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2006. pgs 9-11
3 St. Thomas Aquinas, "Excerpts from Summa Contra Gentiles and Summa Theologica," in From Christ to the World, ed. Boulton, Wayne G.,Thomas D. Kennedy, and Allen Verhey (Grand Rapides, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1994), pg 110
4 Martin Luther King Jr, "Letter from Birmingham Jail," in From Christ to the World, ed. Boulton, Wayne G.,Thomas D. Kennedy, and Allen Verhey (Grand Rapides, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1994), passim
5  Donald W. Dayton. Discovering an Evangelical Heritage. Hendrickson Publishers, 1988.
6 ibid pg.20
7 Leonardo Boff and Clodovis Boff, "Key Themes of Liberation Theology," in From Christ to the World, ed. Boulton, Wayne G.,Thomas D. Kennedy, and Allen Verhey (Grand Rapides, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1994), pg 481
8 Reinhold Niebuhr, "The Relevance of an Impossible Ethical Ideal," in From Christ to the World, ed. Boulton, Wayne G.,Thomas D. Kennedy, and Allen Verhey (Grand Rapides, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1994), passim

Are you worried? I'm not...

The amount of Christians that are going nuts and practicing Bible math these last few weeks is starting to get a little out of hand.  Forget donkeys and elephants-hold fast to the lamb.  Reading this a few times a day will keep everything in perspective.

Matthew 6

Giving to the Needy

1 "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' in front of others, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

    2 "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Prayer

5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.  8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

    9 "This, then, is how you should pray:
       " 'Our Father in heaven,
       hallowed be your name,

    10 your kingdom come,
       your will be done,
       on earth as it is in heaven.

    11 Give us today our daily bread.

    12 And forgive us our debts,
       as we also have forgiven our debtors.

    13 And lead us not into temptation, ^[a]
       but deliver us from the evil one. ^[b]'

    14 For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Fasting

16 "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,  18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Treasures in Heaven

19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

    22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, ^[c] your whole body will be full of light.  23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, ^[d] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

    24 "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Do Not Worry

25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life ^[e]?

    28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.