Each year, as you may know, we focus on a facet of our lives that affects our faith and hopefully vice versa. In the past we have focused on Faith and Science, faith and the Arts and this year, we are venturing into Faith and Politics. No, this is not going to be a diatribe on particular candidates.
What it will be, is a conversation about what our Reformed faith says about our involvement in society, how we can participate in civil discourse and where we can make a difference. The first place we start is with why be involved? Isn’t faith a private matter?
Some Christians believe that the “world” is evil and impossible to redeem. We are called to a private, individualized faith. Some believe that a holy people should stand apart from the sinful world and our best hope is to distance ourselves from culture as much as possible. This kind of monkish behavior may make us feel like we are holier than the other, but we know from the Bible that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Distancing yourself or or de-culturing has never been an appropriate choice for our historic Presbyterian Faith. Jesus said that we should be wise as serpents in dealing with the world and our society. It is significant that Jesus entered into the everyday world of the Jews and later the Gentiles, bringing light, healing, peace and love to all he encountered. Those who looked in scorn at the “sinners” soon found themselves on the outside of the rooms of the banquet.
John Calvin, the founder of Presbyterianism, saw no distinction between the actions of the civil government and faith. He believed that the government was an arm of God, bringing about the kingdom of God on earth. A Christians responsibility was to make that government as fair and just as one would make their own church or their own life.
Read more about it. Check out the Faith and Politics section of our library over the course of this year.
