This is Part 2 of a series. (And here’s Part 1, and Part3a, Part3b)

Today I want to give some filters (biblical ones hopefully) by which we look at the issues of our country and world. First, I want to offer two basic foundational principles.

Foundation 1: Worldviews and actions stem from beliefs, and non-Christians don’t believe the same things as Christians.  This seems obvious, but it’s very important. 

This means that we should not expect non-Christians to act like Christians.  I’ll take it further: we shouldn’t try and force them to act like Christians if they’re not. Christianity is a heart business, not a legalistic one. Forcing everybody in this nation to act, teach, speak, spend, and live like Christians does not make them Christians, nor this nation into a “Christian” nation. In fact, it makes us a nation of Pharisees trying to make a natural, temporal  kingdom out of a spiritual, eternal one.

Foundation 2: This nation is now post-Christian, and it’s the best thing to ever happen to the American church. 

For the first time in our history, the basic predominating culture in America is not a Christian one. And this is good news. In American Church history we see the degradation of theology and doctrine happen when politics and religion are fused.

Orthodoxy took a back seat to membership and “conversion” numbers after everyone started assuming we thought the same. And this was primarily expressed through the political rhetoric of the of the day. American Evangelicals became “arminian pre-millennial cecessionist dispensationalists”. If you don’t know what those words mean, don’t worry.  Just know these are all theological views that parallel American political and cultural views in the 18th and 19th centuries.

These ideas include self-rule and autonomy from a higher authority (arminianism), rational anti-supernaturalism (cessesionism), immediate gratification/escapism (rapture theology), encouragement of the creation of short-term earthly “self-kingdoms” (pre-millenialism), and the idea that higher authorities should change and respond to the actions of the people, not vice-versa (dispensationalism).

So what does all this mean? 

America is secular and secularists are not supposed to act like Christians. It means that our fight is not with flesh and blood, letter and law. So so many of the culture war touch-points (everything from abortion to prayer in schools to education) are entirely missing the point. Neither Culture nor politics can be “redeemed” or “Christainized”, and we’re not called to try.  The people within a culture are our goal.

No servant is greater than their master.  We are meant to live here as Christ did.  We are to serve and submit to them, putting aside our rightful authority as heirs to all things while sacrificing ourselves for God’s Glory and their good.

We are called to be ambassadors.  What ambassador goes into the nation he’s called to serve and demand it be changed to look like his?

No, beloved.  We are called to declare the inferiority of the world that is and proclaim the supremacy of a Kingdom to come, while pleading with its inhabitants to swear allegiance and affection for the coming King.  The King who came and willingly submitted and died under the godless laws of the people he was trying to save, more interested in the affections of their heart than the politics of their people.

I’ll end with this famous passage from Romans 13.  Remember, Paul is writing this about Rome, the country that was everything Evangelicals are terrified about this country becoming.  Try to grasp the feel of this as Paul writes it and see if it matches the vehemence and pride with which the Evangelical culture addresses these issues.  I hope you see it doesn’t.

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.  For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.  Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.  For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority?  Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good.  But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.  For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.  Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.  For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.  Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.  Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” (Rom. 13:1-8)

Next post: let’s really look at why some American Evangelicals care so much about this stuff.

This is the first in a 4-part series. (And here’s Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

I’m scared I’m going to make a lot of people mad with these.

Everyone who knows me knows I’ve been in this re-evaluative angst recently concerning the place of Christianity in the public sphere.  It happens every four years.  I go crazy for a bit going to various extremes only to get burnt out on politics in general and put it down for another 42 months or so.  I just recently moved to Philadelphia and of course, it being around the 4th of July, the place is going nuts with uber-patriotism.  Everyone and their dog (all joking aside) are decked out in their reds, whites, and blues.  Skyscrapers are graced with like-colored lights strobing across their faces and re-enactors fill the sidewalks dressed in felt imitations of 18th century garb.

Another strange thing happens every election year: the American Evangelical Religious Right machine awakens from its slumber and begins to mobilize, proselytize, and evangelize the world with God’s politics, scientific theorems, and social views as they see them.  They speak and perpetuate ideas as if they are God’s laws and create a stigma to all those that fall out of those bounds.  They have created a new Orthodoxy based and founded upon ignorance, pragmatics, extremity, and commercialism and are not afraid to brand as heretics (or worse yet, “liberals”) those thoughtful Christians that seek other possible views.

We have the Scots to thank for this by the way.  And the Second Great Awakening.  The ideals of the Scottish Enlightenment (pragmatism and the innate inalienable rights of all men but blacks) so influential on our founding fathers and the motivational power of emotionally-driven decision-based religiosity led to this whole “God-merica” thing, so you then found patriotic documents using religious language and religious documents using patriotic language.  It’s really very strange if you think about it.  Biblically speaking, when God had the chance to declare his own socio-political structure for Israel, He established the Church authority and Civic authority as SEPARATE spheres between which there was little overlap.  The religious leaders were not supposed to be the civic leaders and vice versa.  God was the real founder of the idea of separation of church and state.  Politics were never meant to be a religious issue!  Theological?  Yes.  Bit not religious.  I’ll explain in a later post.  Probably Part 3.

So what does it mean to be Christian in a political world?  Would Paul include “God Bless Rome,” and “My Empire ‘Tis of Thee” in the hymnal of his day?  Would Jesus put a yellow “Support Our Troops” ribbon-magnet-that-ruins-the-paint-job-of-your-car thing on his vehicle? (by the way: really, a ribbon magnet?  why don’t you either wear a ribbon or use a magnet?).

I want to invite people into my wrestlings right now so they can use these thoughts to form their own ideas.  The outline for these posts will be: (1) what Evangelicals want to change/keep the same; (2) why they want these things these ways; and (3) how they go about changing them.  I want to talk about how we see each of these these worked out in both modern America and the Bible.

First off, some introduction: first century Rome was everything that Evangelicals (both conservative and liberal) are so scared of America becoming.  (Starting with the conservative fears,) Entertainment was based on the ready availability of sex in the streets and the gratuitous violence of the coliseum.  Homosexuality was absolutely tolerated and actually encouraged in some philosophical circles as a higher or more beautiful form of sexuality.  The devalued human life to such a degree that various classes or types of people were seen as disposable based on convenience.  (Now to the liberals: ) Rome was a power hungry Empire seemingly unaware of the ramifications of its own actions, or just not caring.  Fear and power were their primary agents of political influence, both domestic and abroad.  The socioeconomic class disparities were large enough to fill the streets with poverty.

Though this was the case, you don’t see ANY New Testament writers bemoan the ills of society and tell Christians to try and change it NOR redeem it!  Really, think about it.  Can you remember any passage saying anything but pay your taxes (giving to Caesar), live peacefully with authorities that are around you, and obey the laws.  Think about what this means for religious political activism in the public sphere.  What does this really mean for us?

Next post: Going through the things that get Evangelicals so mad at politicians and explaining why they shouldn’t.  Things like homosexuality, entertainment, taxes, war, evolution, prayer in public schools, and even abortion.