Thoughts for Election Day

Culture, Life
Here are some helpful thoughts for election day from a book by Carl Trueman, called Republocrat: Confessions of a Liberal Conservative.

 

“Politics in a democracy is a whole lot more complicated than either political parties or your pastor tell you it is; treat it as such–learn about the issues and think for yourself.”

“When it comes to listening to the news, Christians should be eclectic in their approach and not depend merely on those pundits who simply confirm their view of the world while self-evidently using terminology, logic, and standard rules of evidence and argumentation in sloppy, tendentious, and sometimes frankly dishonest ways….”

“Now, let me go on record and say that I am happy enough not to be walking around, looking like an extra for a low-budget movie about Elton John’s early career; I enjoy having nice, new things and not being stared at for all the wrong reasons as I walk down the street.  My point is rather this: be aware that not all the effects of capitalism are unconditional goods, consistent with the gospel and with the Christian mind-set; we need to be as self-aware of the impact of this way of life as that of any other.”

“Christians are to be good citizens, to take their civic responsibilities seriously, and to respect the civil magistrates appointed over us.  We also need to acknowledge that the world is a lot more complicated than the pundits of Fox News (or MSNBC) tell us.  We must never engage in the kind of inappropriate behavior of those who carry around pictures of our appointed leaders as criminals, or who scream mindless abuse at those with whom they disagree.  Christian politics, so often associated now with loudmouthed aggression, needs rather to be an example of thoughtful, informed engagement with the issues and appropriate involvement with the democratic process.  And that requires a culture of change.  We need to read and watch more widely, be as critical of our own favored pundits and narratives as we are of those cherished by our opponents, and seek to be good stewards of the world and of the opportunities therein that God has given to us.”

“We need to avoid this marginalization of the voice of Christians in politics by realizing the limits of politics and the legitimacy of Christians, disagreeing on a host of actual policies, and by earning a reputation for thoughtful, informed, and measured political involvement.”

Glenn Beck and the Gospel

Culture, Life

Interesting article over at Moore to the the Point about Glenn Beck’s recent speech.  The best part of the article had little to do with Beck or Mormonism . . . it was a poignant point about American Christianity.

“Too often, and for too long, American “Christianity” has been a political agenda in search of a gospel useful enough to accommodate it. There is a liberation theology of the Left, and there is also a liberation theology of the Right, and both are at heart mammon worship. The liberation theology of the Left often wants a Barabbas, to fight off the oppressors as though our ultimate problem were the reign of Rome and not the reign of death. The liberation theology of the Right wants a golden calf, to represent religion and to remind us of all the economic security we had in Egypt. Both want a Caesar or a Pharaoh, not a Messiah.

Leaders will always be tempted to bypass the problem behind the problems: captivity to sin, bondage to the accusations of the demonic powers, the sentence of death. That’s why so many of our Christian superstars smile at crowds of thousands, reassuring them that they don’t like to talk about sin. That’s why other Christian celebrities are seen to be courageous for fighting their culture wars, while they carefully leave out the sins most likely to be endemic to the people paying the bills in their movements.” 

Read it all.