Did He Just Say That?

If only he spoke like this more frequently:

Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King – indeed, the majority of great performers in American history – were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. So to say that men and women should not inject their “personal morality” into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in Judeo– Christian tradition. ~ Barack Obama

It’s clear thought (or writing) like this that makes me wish that political liberals (and many conservatives as well!) could drop the common fact/value, public morality/private religion dichotomy. It’s neither true to life or true to history.

Wayne Grudem on Politics

I just came across these videos of Wayne Grudem summarizing his latest release, Politics According to the Bible. This is all big picture stuff, but it’s pretty helpful.

For more see,

Political Idolatries

Recently my wife asked me something to this effect: What is a biblical reason that so many people are drawn to socialist political schemes? I thought the answer was worth making public if for no other reason than having us think “worldviewishly” about politics.

It should be noted that there are 2 extremes that should be avoided politically; and both stem from fundemental idolatries of the sinful human heart. To the left there is communism. To the right, there is fascism and totalitarianism.

Let’s think through why these extremes are undergirded by idolatry.

Communism (the extreme political left) aims at abolishing private property in the attempt to 1) level the economic playing field, and 2) end the cruel injustices inflicted upon the working class by the ruling class. This utopian vision finds it’s “kingdom of God” in the classless society where there is no business, no rich, no poor, and no government. Each man rules over himself, and works for the common good. Socialism is the halfway house between “corrupt” capitalism and fullblown communism. In a socialist society, the central government takes over all private property and redistributes both land and wealth in order for all citizens to live with equal means.

The one problem with both socialism and communism is summarized in one word: reality. It doesn’t just fail as an economic theory, it’s taken the lives of between 85-100 million people in practice. The twentieth century served as a grand experiement in the laboratory of world history on the merits of communism, and it’s failed…miserably.

Socialist regimes murdered and starved millions, and a true communist society has never emerged. Why? Because once the government bloats to a point where it owns and controls everything it’s not about to peacefully relinquish that power.

At the opposite end of the political spectrum we have fascism. In a totalitarian government, again, the state has complete power. But whereas in socialism the goal is to have power diffused, in totalitarian governments power is consolidated. This has historically led to the rise of dictators. Usually a national crisis of some sort drives the people to place their faith in a savior figure, either the messianic state or the messianic political figure, to solve all the governments problems and protect the people. Clearly this is rank-and-file idolatry, a functional denial of the First Commandment, “You will have no other Gods before me.”

Christian Faith and Public Policy

Problems with Obamacare

In midst of the current fiasco with President Obama’s healthcare reform bill, back-rooms deals are being made so it
passes through; whatever the cost.  It is disheartening because
transparency was key in Obama’s candidacy. Below is the now infamous clips circulating online highlighting Obama (during the president campaign) promising that all processes would be aired on C-Span, on 8 different occasions.

Sadly, anyone who opposes the
bill is portrayed as denying the rights of
Americans to receive healthcare.  There a couple of problems with this view. First, healthcare is a good, not a
right. Second, the high prices of healthcare are because
of government regulations on the industry which cause prices to skyrocket.  Also the exemption of health insurance companies from
anti-trust laws kills competitive pricing on healthcare. Every
company now charges an arm and a leg (practically literally) for
insurance. (On a side note, when Rush Limbaugh went to a hospital in Hawaii
and paid cash he saved 30% on his bill.)  Government is the cause of
the price hikes, now government wants to provide the solution to the very problem it created!  Talk about the audacity of hope!

The private sector drives this country, not the government.  It also funds the government to
protect our civil liberties.

For more on the problems of government-run healthcare, see:

My One and Only Comment(s) on the Election

I’ve noticed that many Christians (many of whom are my friends) are going to vote for Barack Obama. I have a hard time voting for him on a number of issues that space will not permit me to expand upon. Personally, I think that some Christians are willing to give what I find to be Obama’s bad policies a pass because he identifies himself as Christian. I’ve heard a number of interviews with Obama, and read a couple, and never in anything I’ve heard him say about his faith even smacks of Christian orthodoxy. Nothing! Now, please allow me to clarify what I mean here. I do not presume to read the man’s heart, but I can interpret his words. He defines his faith normally in social gospel categories, and implies that Scripture contradicts itself. (Click here for Obama’s speech on the interrelation of faith and public policy.) He over simplifies issues, attacks characitures, and agues that Christians oppose abortion based on non-rational reasons (what he calls “religious grounds.” See my response here.)

Everything I personally heard Obama speak of on his faith is someone that a modernist liberal -anti-supernaturalist- “Christian” could have affirmed a hundred years ago. The catch is that Obama knows how to speak “evangelical” language…without speaking of the evangel. And many Christians are snookered by it. I agree with Martin Luther that I’d rather have a pagan King who knows how to rule than a Christian who doesn’t. It’s not that I don’t care about having a leader whose conscience is informed by the word of God (of course I do!), it’s that regeneration doesn’t guarantee good political positions.

It should be said here that this doesn’t imply that i’m simply taken with the belief that McCain is everything the media makes Obama out to be (cool, the wave of the future, our source of “hope,” etc). I do not. I think all Christians should be weary of the view that says all democrats are bad people, and all republicans are good people. If we confess that sin has affected all people, then we should acknowledge that both sides are flawed, and no political party is going to usher in a utopia. We shouldn’t believe it, and we should set our expectations on such a belief.

But, we can’t live up to our responsibilities as Christians to be salt and light in the culture on the one hand, and on the other wait and wait, and wait for the right candidate or party to come along. This isn’t about making one party less of an “idol,” but about which option will do less damage. And that is something we can measure.

Who’s going to provide less incentives to work? Who is going to be responsible for increasing the number of aborted children which year? (click here for more) Who is going to put this country in relatively greater danger? Etc. Clearly Christians are called to make distinctions between greater and lesser “evils” (though we may feel uncomfortable stating things that way).

Stealing a candy bar is bad and an offense to our holy God, but killing 6 million Jews by putting them in ovens is much worse and will garner greater judgment. In the same spirit, we can vote for the sinner that will only steal 5% of our income, rather than the one that steals 25% (these are random numbers chosen for the sake of the example).

I do not think that Senator Obama is the right choice for the United States of America. Neither do I place my trust and messianic expectations in Senator McCain (though I do think he is the wiser choice of the 2 candidates). I will not be voting for Senator Obama, but I do not kid myself. He may very well win this election. If I do belief in the absolute sovereignty of God (and I do), then I also recognize that it is God who sets us kings (and presidents).

If Obama wins, perhaps it is God giving the people exactly what they want in order to show them the consequences of their hasty choice (as in the case of King Saul). But maybe not. Perhaps it is God’s will to humble Obama’s detractors and show them that God can work justice through means that many do not expect (as in the case of king David).

By tomorrow night, we’ll we have a winner (we hope!), and it is our duty as Christians to pray for those in positions of leadership (Rom. 13:1, 1 Tim. 2:1-2, 1 Pet. 2:13, 17). May the sovereign Lord be glorified in this election, and may He use the next president as His instrument of justice and righteousness, and may we as followers of “the way” recognize the authority and rule of our president as a flicking and faint pointer to the King who will one day rule with perfect and absolute justice, peace, and righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ.