cup a joe

They are on to something there. Peoples presuppositions and worldview greatly effect how one votes or governs.

Thomas Jefferson's 'separation of church and state' was originally intended to keep the nations leaders from forcing the people into any particular established church. Sadly, however, the years since Jefferson have eroded the meaning of the phrase to the point that it is used to justify the divorcing of one's faith from one's actions.

This is yet another reason why we must allow a relationship with King Jesus to effect all areas of our lives.

Here is my favorite quote from that article:

"Since everyone's political positions reflect their foundational commitments, it doesn't seem fair to say that those grounded in a secular philosophy can draw on their traditions, but people whose political outlooks are rooted in religion have to mute themselves."

That is exactly what secularism does. It tries to cut out the whole Christian Worldview by labeling it a "religion" while claiming that secularism is not a religion.

I recently wrote a short post about this topic in response to a reader's comment: "Don't Mix Religion and Politics?"

At the heart of the misunderstanding that some Christians even have is the false idea that Christianity only applies to a spiritual realm. In actuality the spiritual realm gave birth to an entire natural realm of which God still expects us to take dominion!

God cares about all of life, including the realm of civil government! The Bible actually talks about this topic!

I like the way I've heard Gary DeMar talk about this: If a baby has a dirty diaper one doesn't decide that the baby is unclean and avoid it, one changes the dirty diaper and cleans the baby up!

Christians should not avoid "politics" because it is a dirty arena of life, Christians should instead work to clean it up!

And for fun here is another thing DeMar said (my paraphrase): "Politicians are like baby diapers. They tend to get filthy and need to be changed often." :-)

By the way...

Hello Josh Hopping! I am currently visiting your blog to see what it is all about.

Are you a Northern Illinois Local?

Blessings,

Jon

This comment has been removed by the author.

One little thing I forgot to add:

I have no idea if I agree with the book that the article was reviewing. While I believe that Christians should be involved with politics (and with all of life), it is also possible for Christians to be involved in the wrong way based on a bad set of principles!

So not only should Christians be involved in civil government, we should do so from the Foundations of a Biblical Christian Worldview!

Sorry Jon, I didn't get notified about your comment...

I think you are correct in that Jesus followers need to be involved in all areas of politics. The rub is trying to do that while staying faithful to Jesus as the nature of the beast is one that demands loyal to itself or to a party. Yet somehow Daniel managed to do it through multiple empires and governments.

Oh, and unfortunately I'm fairly far away from Illinois as I'm in southwestern Idaho about an hour north of Boise. =)