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Mar

25

Christianity, Politics & the Culture of Death

Posted By: 'Okie' | 11:54 am — 3/25/2005 | 6 Comments See comments below:

I was reading posts by some of my fellow SoCal Bloggers’ Alliance members this AM and ran across one at 21st Century Reformation that discusses a personal struggle with how to be Christian and participate in the body politic — or not.

I am on a journey to understand where Christianity and politics overlap, but, as I stand, I simply cannot integrate the two spheres.

I’m edgy today, for good reason, so I hope that what follows is taken as being from someone that sympathizes with his dilemma ’cause I have been there, but have figured it out, at least for myself, at least I think so . . . Here was my comment to his post: (Some links have been added here to other writings that I think are pertinent to these issues.)

I am not sure how a Christian can come to the conclusions that Brad has, although I can certainly understand how a professed non-Christian such as mojoey could feel/believe this way.

If one investigates even a little the Terri Schiavo case, and I have been blogging about it continually for over a week now, you understand the overwhelming amount of mis-information that has been propagated by the MSM, and the “Culture of Death” advocates. [See this post by The Anchoress on how much mistreatment of Terri has taken place since 1992!]

Yesterday, the LA Times even ran a piece extolling how “euphoric” and “painless” dying by starvation/dehydration is, and how natural it is. This slope leading to a “death focused” society is very slippery and we are sliding fast!

To make the argument that a semi-responsive, as opposed to an actual brain dead, human has no worth to anyone or to society is pure narcissism. Worth exists on many levels and what is experienced and learned from loving and caring for someone like Terri has great worth in and of itself.

Terri was NOT dying until they removed the tube and began KILLING her via dehydration and starvation. That Judge Greer has prohibited anyone from giving her fluid or food by MOUTH, even though she can swallow her own saliva is so bizarre I cannot comprehend it, except as a directive from Satan being executed via our judiciary. [The Anchoress has a wonderful post on those that are glorifying "Death".] (Hey, what can I say, she writes well!)

If Christians don’t enter the political debate and work diligently against the dark forces, the most noble experiment in government since the beginning of time will crumble and fall as did Rome. We lament the constant & legal killing of the unborn, and now we can add the infirm to that list. What criteria is next? Being Christian?

“I am not sure how a Christian can come to the conclusions that Brad has.”
I want to make it clear that I am not calling Brad’s Christianity into question in any way, I simply can’t understand this position. He’s a pastor of a church, and I’m probably the most backslidden member of our blogging group! (Trust me.) Many Christians evidently feel this way, so it could easily be me that is out of touch with God’s community, and that my passion for politics is evidence of my “living too much in the world”. I’ll have to pray about this — a lot! (db)

Sphere It
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  • http://www.21stcenturyreformation.blogspot.com/ brad

    Thanks for the link…I am radically pro-life. I have been to jail for civil disobedience. This isn’t an issue of not being pro-life. I simply find better ways to exercise love than to tell other people that they are of the culture of death. Maybe calling non-christian people to account for their lack of moral clarity is good.Certainly Jesus did this. BUT it seems to me that Jesus had his house in order and I simply do not see the ethical acion of the church having enough purity to give us this authority in the world. That is the essence of my dilemma.

  • http://mysandmen.blogspot.com/ Mr.Atos

    I was recently attacked (via my comments) for being a ‘bad evangelical Christian’ for my stance on the Schiavo issue and for my affiliation with the Republican party. I found this odd, in the sense that I do not frame any of my arguments on issues of faith. I write from the standpoint of a philosophical Objectivist and deliberately base my arguments on secular principles. That is not to say that I don’t maintain my own issues of faith at a personal level. Rather, I believe that, when discussing the political manifestation of existence, doing so on the basis of faith alone is a handicapping effort. The opposition merely has to take an agnostic position to render your point mute and ineffective. Regardless of what one might think of her personally, Ayn Rand left us a tremendous legacy in modern philosophy reminding us that Reason is a powerful weapon at the disposal of the Rational Men. We have that weapon on our side in this fight and every other, and need not handicap ourselves by falling back to a wall of Biblical dogma. Yes it informs a great deal of legal doctrine in the form of natural Law, but so to does Aristotelian philosophy. The Founding Fathers recognized the propriety of both when defining the nature of existence and a government’s role among free people. There is a redundancy that is to be capitalized upon and that is where we need to maintain the discussion… especially in the face of those who demean with labels while denouncing the very hypocrisy upon which they thrive. They’re weak and miserable little men who have no power beyond the ammunition that we give them and the swords that we use on one another. Don’t give them the satisfaction of corraling your passion to their ends. Destroy them with the very concepts of reason that they think they posess, but have never ever wielded.

  • http://okieonthelam.com OkieBoy

    Brad, thank you so very much for responding to my inquiry and further explaining the struggle that you feel. To persons of faith, it does seem presumptuous of one to call another to count and question their moral clarity; however, the “opposition” has no such qualms and attacks us at will.

    My fear is that if we do not stand up to the forces that are ever more aggressively trying to eliminate us from the public square, and we see this happening every day, our very right to worship as Christians will be threatened.

    I also agree with Mr. Atos, if we go into the world and argue everything purely from a position of faith, then those without faith will never acknowledge the validity of our arguments. The horns of this dilemma are sharp, and I think the bull’s head is getting wider!

    Thank you again, gentlemen. Lively, respectful discussions such as these are what polite blogging is all about. (db)

  • http://www.21stcenturyreformation.blogspot.com/ brad

    OkieBoy,

    Jesus gave us a promise that “a city set on a hill CANNOT BE HIDDEN”. The problem is we have lost our “saltiness” and therefore are good only to be trampled under foot by men. The saltiness he refers to is our obedience to the sayings on the sermon on the mount. Our moral distinction and our moral beauty as a community will speak. Your fears of being somehow unable to witness to the Lordship of Christ because we do not have a place at the political table just isn’t the testimony of scripture. If we instead begin to search to come under the Lordship of Christ in every area of life, I do not think this focus on the renewal of the church will harm our witness. Quite on the contrary, our quest for worldly political power is what undermines our witness and our holiness.
    My a-political side speaking.
    brad

  • http://www.suebobsdiary.blogspot.com/ Sue Bob

    I would suggest that any Christian who has questions about fully integrating all aspects of living (occupation, public servcie, m academia) read Nancy Pearcey’s book Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity. It is excellent.

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