Christians and politics?

Although compared to the US, Australia's politics is less dominated by ideological issues and religious movements, more or less, its policies are still influenced by various religious groups. Christian Democrats have little influence now, but in the Federal Senate, Family First still holds a seat, and performs as the balance of power with the Greens and the South Australian independent member.

Looking at US politics, it is even more so; Religious Right groups seek to exert their points of view, and that is fine, but quite often, they seek to legislate morality; and that is very unfair and counter productive to the cause of the Kingdom of Heaven.

There are some Christian denominations and sects that totally abstain from politics, and I respect their choice; but I do not believe it is a rule for all Christians to abstain from politics.

In fact, there are quite a few examples in the Bible where followers of Yahweh were involved in politics. Starting from Joseph, Moses, Daniel, King David, King Solomon, Esther though was not directly a politician, used her privilege as the Queen to save Israel, even King Nebuchadnezzar, a gentile king, was so loved by God that he experienced so many miracles, including dreams and a fulfilled prophecy--turning into a cow, which finally led him to the knowledge of Yahweh. (Funny though, I always had this misconception that in the Old Testament time, all gentiles were condemned and only Israel was saved; now looking back, though in totality Israel was the elect of God, most of them were rebellious and did not really know God on a personal level.)

If the followers of God could be politicians, why can't we? But before we jump into the other extreme and start trying to advance our "religious cause", let us learn something from the Old Testament politicians, I believe there are somethings that we can learn from them.

First of all, these politicians all did stand as a witness of God. They were not perfect, some were better behaved than the others, but their hearts were all toward God. They served their position for the good of the people of that land.

Secondly, for them being witnesses for God did not mean they were all using their power to enforce their religion to the rest. Well, King David was the King of Israel, which was the elect of God, so it was right for them to worship Yahweh. But in reality, God's kingdom is not of this world, but above. Israel was a symbol that pointed to the Kingdom of Heaven. And therefore, on earth, there is no single country or a political entity that is the Kingdom of Heaven. So the example of Israel does not apply. In fact, we are all living in the heathen land. That's why we could use Joseph and Daniel as our examples. They were both powerful men in the government of Egypt and Babylon respectively. And they did not command others to worship the same God they were worshiping. They did not force their religion upon everyone else. Their duty was to govern the nation, to serve the people. When Joseph was the Prime Minister of Egypt, the Pharaoh did not convert to Joseph's religion; when Daniel was the Prime Minister of Babylon, he stood as a witness for Yahweh the only and true God, he told the King who only could interpret dreams and explain prophecies, but in the end, King Nebuchadnezzar's conversion was entirely the work of God.

Too many Religious Right groups today see their involvement with politics being for the sole purpose to convert everyone else or to legislate morality. But don't they know faith is not something that can be forced, let alone love of God. If you cannot force anyone to love God, you have no way to force them to become Christians; and if they are not even Christians, what is the point to force them to live like Christians? As if they could be saved through living like Christians without the substance of Christianity which is, the love of God, a personal relationship with God?

No wonder many people hate Christianity today, and this hatred is not that they want to persecute us, in fact, to the contrary, it is their reaction to our persecution of them. The Bible's prophecy of true Christians is that we shall be persecuted, true Christians shall not persecute those who do not agree with us.

Jesus never exercised force to convert people, if we think we can use political powers to make people followers of Christ, we are seeing a wrong picture of God.

If Christians ever get involved in politics, it should be for the purpose of serving others. Not to force this world to become the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blogged with the Flock Browser