Torrey Gazette is the combined work of everyday Christians blogging on books, family, art, and theology. So pull up a seat and join us. Family Table rules apply. Shouting is totally acceptable.
All tagged Politics
James says that pure and undefiled religion is to serve the widow and the orphan. In many ways the modern church and our social justice campaigns have changed James’ words to say: “Pure and undefiled politics is this, to serve the widow and the orphan.” In so doing we’ve assuaged our guilt of not truly serving the widow and orphan because we live under a government that claims to do so.
The truth is that every kingdom of man will fall before the Kingdom of God. Yet the way the Kingdom of God prevails is through suffering servitude. When the kingdoms of men pick up the sword against the Lord's anointed we are not to draw our swords like Peter did in the garden (John 18:10).
Hansen rightly states that a Trinitarian worldview is both the One and the Many, but the thesis of his article leaves too much room for fascism—especially Christian fascism in the name of “loving your neighbor.” This fascism, if not invoked by policy, would certainly be invoked by cultural coercion.
We've been conditioned to believe that our views only hold public weight when they are confirmed through an election or the cultural elites of the New York Times. What this has created is entire generations of Americans who believe they must validate their views and perspectives through national laws. Nothing could be more destructive to communities.
The insistence that we approach the Bible to find out what it "says to me" opposed to a historically informed reading is heavily influenced by postmodern thought; regardless of how
Libertarianism is sometimes treated as a complicated moral, political, and economic system. While there may be some relatively complicated positive applications of it, libertarianism is a simple system of principles.
What I'd like to do in this post is simply share some of the most powerful quotations from this essay with you all. I found, as I read this essay, that many of the deepest presuppositions the Modern West surround the concept of war. Consider the following as an extra dose of "food for thought:"
We are woefully blind to the fact that even if one party (democrat or republican) won every seat in the senate and the house AND won the presidency NOTHING WOULD CHANGE.
The pursuit of peace apart from Jesus (the Prince of Peace) or His gospel (the gospel of peace) is doomed to failure because it (the pursuit of peace apart from Christ), just like the Galatian Judiazers, is based on works of the law which cannot bring true peace.
Much of our post-modern world is very inconsistency in the way its views hold together. People aren't taught to think how economic policy and gay mirage hold together and are connected. That's why you can have "conservative" pundits claim that all they care about is the economy and want to leave the "moral" issues out of politics.
In pulling our Christian message out of the false forms of the world we finally make it suitable to be sent into the world as a representation of Jesus Christ "in the present as Lord."
I recently got to preach at Texas Oaks Baptist Church. For those interested: Sermon Link.
For those interested in seeing my notes. It looks like this might turn into a mini-series so check back in the next couple of week!
