Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Christ and State

Hugh Hewitt recently interviewed J.P. Moreland on how Christians should think about government.
Why all of a sudden do we think the Bible doesn’t have anything at all to say about the state and the political life? Why that just makes no sense whatsoever. The problem is not that the Bible doesn’t teach about these things, the problem is that the Church is illiterate because there’s been a lack of teaching on it.
Moreland recommends two practical steps: (1) Christians should be mobilized to vote as part of their calling as Christians; (2) Pastors should teach on four topics: (a) the culture of life; (b) a minimal view of government, recognizing the distinction between negative and positive rights; (c) promotion of government that is strong against crime; (d) the necessity of charity (leading by example in reaching out to the poor, providing education, food, clothing, job training), which should be the job of the church rather than the state.

Those are undoubtedly controversial recommendations, but I think this is more biblical than the left-of-center reading of Scripture.

Discuss (nicely) among yourselves.

[Rule of thumb, though: if you want to criticize, you should read the whole thing rather than just relying on a summary.]