I've known since I was a Junior in High School what I was supposed to do with my life, and virtually everyone else did too. When I was younger, I had been fascinated with advanced technology and the natural sciences, but those days were well behind me. Not only was my interest in those subjects fairly shallow, my skill set favored a very different niche. I was going to work my way into the public sphere and become a policymaker. Through prayer and signs, God nudged me in that direction as well. Thus, I obeyed joyfully.
As of late, I have come to question that path. The more I learn, the more I notice a terrible, fatal flaw in the system. It is small enough to be overlooked, and many good and virtuous people have made the mistake of pretending it doesn't exist. It is a great weapon of deception, which makes perfect sense given the fallen nature of the World. The flaw is simply this: politics cannot meaingfully resolve any of the most serious threats to humanity. While the government can be a great tool for justice or injustice, it can never create the utopian society promised to the just and virtuous in scripture.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. failed to realize this. I by no means wish to undermine the immense moral and political contribution that MLKJ made, but simply put the dream he was fighting for was not one the political world could embrace: either its methodology or its result will be wrong, and patching one hole means tearing cloth from another. Other reformers have hit the same wall: the gap between the moral and the political. Political implemenation of a moral imperative will fall short of the golden mean it is aimed for, and instead fall victim to the extremes prevalent in the world we live in. Forced morality may be viewed as a movement towards fascist control, or a moral pacifier, allowing us to neglect more important matters.
Early Christian communities navigated the relationship with the government quite well. As an illegal organization, the Church did not bear the blessings of the State, and therefore it was a much less complicated system. However, per the instructions of Paul, the state was not to be considered an enemy. The Church was an autonomous nation within the boundaries of another, secular nation. All of the laws were obeyed to the letter, except those which directly interfered with proper Christian practice. In fact, early communities referred to themselves as ecclesia, which refers to a politically autonomous group (ie, in the modern notion of the nation-state, an ecclesia would be essentially equivalent to a country). One's citizenship was first and foremost to the Church, which was essentially the state as well. Paul, while a Roman citizen, was first and foremost a citizen of the Church, the ecclesia, and then to Rome only by convention.
How often in the modern world do we think of ourselves as member of our country, and then members of a church? While many would love to try and argue that the United States was founded as a christian nation, I would beg to differ (most founding fathers did not count themselves as Christians, and if you really want evidence, look at article XI of the Treaty of Tripoli). Far too often we seem to forget that "no one can serve two masters." (Matthew 6:24). If we are members of the Church, united as "one body," (Romans 12:5, Ephesians 5:23) then why do we continue to imagine ourselves as under the jurisdiction of the American Caesar?
We are all subject to the Fall, yet we trust our king more than our God.
"When they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do." 1 Samuel 8:6-9
It is time we stop trusting those on the ground, we the fallen, to lift us up. I have spent my life preparing to tell people that this is possible, and it isn't. I do not mean by this that we as Christians should abandon participation. The government is a wonderful tool, and it can do great things, but it can never solve the deepest and most disturbing issues facing humanity. Rather, it is the icon of their cause. Let us shake our feet of its dust, and continue on down the narrow path.
As of late, I have come to question that path. The more I learn, the more I notice a terrible, fatal flaw in the system. It is small enough to be overlooked, and many good and virtuous people have made the mistake of pretending it doesn't exist. It is a great weapon of deception, which makes perfect sense given the fallen nature of the World. The flaw is simply this: politics cannot meaingfully resolve any of the most serious threats to humanity. While the government can be a great tool for justice or injustice, it can never create the utopian society promised to the just and virtuous in scripture.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. failed to realize this. I by no means wish to undermine the immense moral and political contribution that MLKJ made, but simply put the dream he was fighting for was not one the political world could embrace: either its methodology or its result will be wrong, and patching one hole means tearing cloth from another. Other reformers have hit the same wall: the gap between the moral and the political. Political implemenation of a moral imperative will fall short of the golden mean it is aimed for, and instead fall victim to the extremes prevalent in the world we live in. Forced morality may be viewed as a movement towards fascist control, or a moral pacifier, allowing us to neglect more important matters.
Early Christian communities navigated the relationship with the government quite well. As an illegal organization, the Church did not bear the blessings of the State, and therefore it was a much less complicated system. However, per the instructions of Paul, the state was not to be considered an enemy. The Church was an autonomous nation within the boundaries of another, secular nation. All of the laws were obeyed to the letter, except those which directly interfered with proper Christian practice. In fact, early communities referred to themselves as ecclesia, which refers to a politically autonomous group (ie, in the modern notion of the nation-state, an ecclesia would be essentially equivalent to a country). One's citizenship was first and foremost to the Church, which was essentially the state as well. Paul, while a Roman citizen, was first and foremost a citizen of the Church, the ecclesia, and then to Rome only by convention.
How often in the modern world do we think of ourselves as member of our country, and then members of a church? While many would love to try and argue that the United States was founded as a christian nation, I would beg to differ (most founding fathers did not count themselves as Christians, and if you really want evidence, look at article XI of the Treaty of Tripoli). Far too often we seem to forget that "no one can serve two masters." (Matthew 6:24). If we are members of the Church, united as "one body," (Romans 12:5, Ephesians 5:23) then why do we continue to imagine ourselves as under the jurisdiction of the American Caesar?
We are all subject to the Fall, yet we trust our king more than our God.
"When they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do." 1 Samuel 8:6-9
It is time we stop trusting those on the ground, we the fallen, to lift us up. I have spent my life preparing to tell people that this is possible, and it isn't. I do not mean by this that we as Christians should abandon participation. The government is a wonderful tool, and it can do great things, but it can never solve the deepest and most disturbing issues facing humanity. Rather, it is the icon of their cause. Let us shake our feet of its dust, and continue on down the narrow path.
1 comment:
It would seem to me that you aren't so much questioning the path as much as your relationship to the path, particularly in the following
While the government can be a great tool for justice or injustice, it can never create the utopian society promised to the just and virtuous in scripture.
Which if one were feeling optimistic one could rephrase it as follows:- The government can never create the Utopian society promised to the just and virtuous in scripture, but in can be a great tool for justice or injustice.
Which, personally, I think is a great position for a politician/policy maker to take.
This is all to say, I wouldn't give up on that idea policymaking just yet. You should use whatever tools God gives you to help bring justice. It sounds like you are saying that you are still suited for policymaking, barring a call from God to do otherwise, I say you should still go for it.
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