Mixing Religion and Politics
Written by Mark Van Steenwyk : October 24, 2005
Check out this great post from William Willimon. Here’s a sample:
Politics is a risky business for religious people, particular Christian
people, who are the only religious people I know much about. Nobody
goes to church primarily for politics. Nobody chooses a church simply
because that church is politically to the right or to the left. People
go to church to meet God, to have their lives exposed to the glare of
God?s judgments and grace. It is the nature of religious faith that
whenever it is used for any other purpose, other than worship of and
service to God, then that religion is being used and therefore abused.
(This is a prejudiced Christian comment, the only kind you would expect
me to make, but I find it sort of sad when religious people allow their
religious convictions and their religious communities, to be degraded
by being simply used for certain political ends.)
Read the rest here.
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It’s a valid point, but what I find equally “degrading” is the idea that religion and politics ought to be separated. The Church ought to be a political entity, and as such, it needs to use its spiritual power to make heavenly changes in the political realm. It seems like the point William is trying to make is that being used by the worldly political system is not a substitute for this responsibility.
I agree. I don’t think Willimon goes far enough, but I like the tension that he is dealing with. I feel like he raises all the right sorts of questions and then goes “see how tricky it is!”