Politics and/or Religion

It’s that time again – elections! It is confession time… I am a politics junky. Don’t blame me; I inherited it from my dad. Two things I’m passionate about and they are the things you are never supposed to talk about, and to add insult to injury you are never supposed to mix the two. So where does that leave me - lonely?

This little article is not going to be what you think it might be (about taking into consideration social issues we hold dear such as abortion and marriage between a man and a woman). There is actually a strong movement within the “Evangelical” and conservative “Christian” movements to have their members vote in such a way as to empower the government to be more involved in rectifying “social injustices” (i.e. poverty, curing diseases, et. al.).

The case is made that Jesus commanded “love thy neighbor as thyself” just as much as he did “thou shall not murder.” Therefore, we should vote for people that will empower the government to take money from the people and spend it on curing diseases and ending poverty. That sounds biblical; the only problem is that it is not.

The error in this whole equation is that the fundamental basis has not been examined. The primary question should be this, “From a biblical perspective, what is the role of government?” You know the Bible is not as silent on this as you may think. The book of Daniel teaches that God alone is Sovereign and that authorities on earth are ultimately going to be held accountable to Him. Paul speaks of the role of Government in Romans 13 and expounds about its role. Space does not allow for a full explanation here, however the outcome is that Governments role is bear the sword and bring the evil to justice. No place does the Bible speak of the role of Government being the taking care of the sick and helping those in poverty. The Bible, does however, place that responsibility on you and I as a church, and as individuals.

So much more could be said about these matters but I just remembered I’m not supposed to talk about religion and/or politics, and I’m especially not supposed to mix them. My parting thought to you is this: do you really want to empower the government to force a religion on the nation? A government with enough power to force a religion has enough power to take it away. Or do you want a government that properly understands it's role and freely allows you to worship God? The profound nature of this wonderful country we live in is that our rights come from the Creator and not government, that it begins with “we the people,” not “the government.” We are in a unique position in that “we the people” hold the key to our destiny as a nation. But I digress… speaking of politics and/or religion.