Here are two excellent posts, which I think are related...
First, Scot McKnight comments on politics from the pulpit:
The single-most powerful political action Christians "do" is baptism and Eucharist, for in those actions we enter into an alien politics.
When you read Scot's post, in order to understand what he is saying you must think "church"... not "state," not "Democrat," not "Republican," not "progressive," not "conservative," not "left" not "right." You must think politics and church, church, church.
Second, is a guest post on Rachel Held Evans' blog, written by Laura Ziesel:
Growing up, the real Christians in my mind were conservative Christians. I literally believed that Democrats could not be real Christians. Really. I'm not exaggerating. I would say, about what I have categorized as liberal Christians, "Oh, they're only cultural Christians." But then I went to college and I started to learn about my own culture and how it affected my perspective of the world. And I overcorrected, finding myself saying, about conservative Christians: "Oh, they're only cultural Christians."
Now my husband and I find ourselves in the lovely world of the in between: We don't feel at home in either camp. We believe that both camps err in major and minor ways in regard to orthodoxy and orthopraxy. But, we still feel that we're forced to choose, more or less, between the two camps. And we hate this.
Indeed... and I would suggest not a third way between the two, but an alternative to both left and right-- the politics of the Kingdom.
Read both posts and feel free to comment... here or there.
3 comments:
I feel exactly like Laura and her husband.
I'm politically and economically centrist with slight leanings toward libertarian and socialist. More simply put, I'm socially more liberal than conservative.
I'm theologically creedally orthodox. All three creeds. Boom, no argument.
Seems that there's a trend for the socially liberal to throw out the Trinity, bodily death and resurrection, virgin birth, divine/human natures of Christ, etc. So I don't fit in there.
But I pray those creeds. And mean them. But I also don't want the government to legislate morality. And I would like to leverage the power of the government to help the least-of-these until the church remembers that it is their job to do that. So I don't fit in with the conservative crowd.
It sucks.
Thanks for keeping the discussion going, Allan! I spent this marvelous July 4 weekend with people from both conservative and liberal camps and it was fabulous and Kingdom-fragrant. Let's keep advocating for the way of the Kingdom, as much as we are able as sinner saints.
With you,
Laura Ziesel
Thanks for your comments, Laura... and thanks for the wonderful post!
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