10.21.2017

Christian Politics?




Politics is the squabbling over who gets to polish Caesar's throne.

We are called to serve a different King and embody the ethic of a different kingdom and in so doing we will largely ignore Caesar and his throne.  Perhaps the greatest critique of all for those who bluster and swagger is to simply ignore them and get on with the business of life.

This isn't necessarily a call for a retreat from political engagement (although that might be appropriate at times) but rather a clarification about what we should hope for, and where we should turn for justice.  The irony is that those (on both sides of the aisle) complain about Caesar's past injustices, while simultaneously expecting Caesar's future justice.  Those who hope in Caesar for justice ought not be surprised when Caesar delivers.

Here is what Roman justice looks like:





-----

...our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Philippians 3

10.18.2017

Fighting Injustice: An Alternative Vision

“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains ... an un-uprooted small corner of evil.
Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.”


― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956