Jesus Creed Politics

I’ve been sporadically blogging for over a year now, and I’ve offered very few thoughts on politics. That’s partially because I don’t have a lot of thoughts on politics, and partially because I think Christians have prostituted the Kingdom and the Gospel to political action. As I said in my sermon where I mentioned this, it happens for conservatives and liberals. We hand the responsibility, as God’s people, over to secular government to bring what we think is God’s will on earth. And while it’s not the responsibility of the government to ensure that the work of God is done, it’s also painfully true–as my cyber-friend Nate recently pointed out to me–that the party lines have created a false dichotomy between what is “biblical” or “godly” in the first place. And so, because of these things, and the increasing ungodliness of most politicians, I really have little place in my heart and mind for politics of any variety.

That being said, the unfortunate part is that we can’t really get away from it. Sticking our head in the sand is worthless and cowardly–even if it is really tempting. So I’ve still been trying to process all my thoughts on politics. For better or for worse, this may result in a few more politically oriented posts, as my blog is the place for me to get my thoughts out of my head (for sanity’s sake). But, the fortunate thing is that I don’t have to think about these things alone.

For those who may not read Scot McKnight–his blog or any one of a number of his books–I would encourage you to do so. He is an Anabaptist (I think, if I’m wrong, please correct me), which is great, but can be as ambiguous as calling yourself Protestant. He is certainly less Calvinistic, though I doubt he would call himself Arminian either. He is at least sympathetic with the Emerging Church, but again, I don’t know if he would place himself fully in that classification. But most importantly, his theology flows from what he calls the “Jesus Creed”–the statement of Jesus that says the greatest commandment is loving God and the second is loving others. Most of us like to say or think that our theology flows from this directive as well. I would recommend Scot’s The Jesus Creed to see what a theology and life revolving around those words of Jesus would look like.

Anyway, these two disparate ideas come together as McKnight has decided to talk through politics on his blog. So far, there is a letter posted that provided the impetus for the series. The other posts are a general introduction, where he says some of the same things I said in my first paragraph, and the first post, which happens to look at McCain’s politics and the Kingdom of God. Scot promises to deal with Obama next.

I really just happen to see his thoughts as interesting, and very close to where I am at the present time. I plan to try to update my this post with his future posts on this topic. I recommend McKnight in general, but it looks as if he will have some good thoughts on politics, and Scot is always positive about people, even if he is being negative–which would be a fresh breath in itself.

Voting for President 1 (here), 2 (here), 3 (here), 4 (here).