So, I pose this question? As followers of Jesus, if we are called to live in ways that are different than the ways of this world, how are the politics of the Christian community interacting with America's current political landscape?
We can say these are hard questions, and they are. But, are we practicing good theology? Are we struggling with the call of Jesus to be peacemakers? Are we pulling the logs out of our own eyes before we look at the eyes of of neighbors? And are we somehow confusing the role of church and nation?
I ask this all because it seeems that we are either about the teachings of Jesus or we are not. There is not 'in between' here. Either we have a theology based on the ways of the Christ or we do not.
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I will add some more thoughts to help confuse the black on white. In the days of the kings of Israel, the kings were always rated on the basis of " He did right in the eyes of the Lord". Much of the rating came from whether they destroyed the worship places of the idols or not, and if they both by example and decree lead the people too worship the true God. We can talk about seperation of church and state, but if they had this seperation they would have not earned the quote, " He did right in the eyes of the Lord". So for their own country, anyone in authority needed to lead the people in the right way. Back in the days B.C. I do not find many references to evangelism of the other nations. We do know there were other God fearing people in the world, but how they knew about God, I am not sure. I am sure that war is not the best way to witness that we can find. I also am sure that I do not want America representing the God of love that I have come to know. There is however a sense of duty to humanity that we, as pilgrams in this world, must respond to. When we know of a leader of another country that uses his people to test the effectiveness of his latest chemical project,then we must step in to stop the Holocost. I have said right from the start, do not go to war unless the United Nations is behind it. However once again the world didn't listen to me. So now we are in this mess how should we proceed from here? How can we help the world to see the Christ? In Irac we now must try to help them establish some form of government that will restore peace and humanity to the people. In the devastated areas we must seek to be as diligent as we can be in the humanitarian effort. During all of this we as citizens of the kingdom must do what we can to help others find the King. I hope this stimulates some more comments.
Hmmm. One thing that we need to remember is that the Israel of the O.T. represented God to the nations. The presence of God existed among this nation. With the coming of Christ, and untimately symbolized in the tearing of the curtain seperating the most holy of places from the people, a new reality was established.
This is where much of fundamental Christianity still gets it wrong. The chosen people are no longer represented by a nation. Jesus Christ came as the new Israel. The chosen people are no longer found within one nation.
While the president should have policies that reflect his faith, they should also be policies that reflect an undertanding that America is not God's blessing to the nations.
The Jews of Jesus day were thinking along those lines; so when the Christ arrived then never figured it out. They were expecting a military campaign, but Jesus chose quite a different route.
So, how does a Christ follower lead America? That will have different answers, but we do know:
~ Jesus told us to pursue peace.
~ We know that we are told to be humble and think of others first.
~ We know that Jesus loves all people regardless of their belief system or nationality.
~ We know that a pre-emptive war strategy puts us in a position of 'knowing what is right' for all people and nations. It also suggests that we have many more wars to fight.
The first part of this post seems to be going back to the question of God working through nations. As I said before, I do not believe God works through nations post old testament. Please see my previous post for more of my thoughts on that topic.
Moving on. As to the qustion of if we should have gone to war the way we did, is a bit more tricky to answer. I do not believe in lettion people intentionaly abuse other human beings. I do believe in the sancity of life. However, in my mind, when there are no other countries of the UN willing to go in with us, that raises a few red flags. As in what info do they have that we don't. It just seems a little too fishy for my liking, but then again politics never offers a clear answer. I do not believe in cries of war that does not have enough background info to be convincing enough to more than one leader. Ironicly, we later learn that most of the intel was false. As a Christian, I do beleive it is important to not only rush forward with what may be good intentions, but consider all angles of the problem. Another soulution may be lurking, we just have to dig to find it. Sort of like God doesn't just lay our life plans out in front of us, but sometimes we have to pray and seek out the correct corse of action. I do not, however, dwell on this too much. As far as I'm concerned, it is a mute point. It already hapened and no amount of disscusion can change it. We can only learn from it.
Exit Stratagy. There is no great answer to this question. If we leave now/immediatly, only caos is left in the wake. Setting up democracy? Could be a good plan, but how long has it taken us to get where we are now? We are going to be there for a long time to come. The people there have no sense of democracy at all. We expect them to just pick a leader and know what they are doing?? They could set up an alternate gov. A gov. somwhere between democracy and dictator. We couldn't help them with that. We don't know what it's like to live under a dictator. No easy plan, no easy solution. Doesn't matter realy. Either way, we're stuck there for a long time. Not so sure Bush thought about that before hand either. There just wasn't enough time to do some deep critical thinking before hand.
As for other wars... There are many hurting people all over the world. Going to war with all of these countries is not the answer though. As Christians, I have to think about how Jesus treated the hurting and persecuted. In that, I do believe lies the answer.
ok. I'll quit rambling now. I do apologize for any spelling errors in advance. I have been staring at a computer screen for 6 hours doing various things. I do belive my eyes are about to go bulistic. Have a great day!
O.k. not exactly related, but has anyone seen the movie Hotel Rwanda? It's a must see!!!
The only theater in Michigan playing Hotel Rwanda is in Detroit. It is only playing in major cities across the US. I saw the movie trailer a while ago on quicktime.com and it looks awsome. I wanted to go see it, but my chances of that happening are somewhate slim. Ah, the advangates of living in a large city :)
Maybe we need to organize a day trip to Chicago to see it? :) I like road trips, and it's been almost two months since I've gone anywhere... I would deeply love to see the movie.
It is now playing at Celebration only. Not sure why there was a delay, or if the other theaters will be showing it in the future.
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