Christian Thinking

A friend was walking from a restaurant to the parking lot and briefly posed that a Christian in politics should not use Christian-based justifications to validate his thought process.

Here’s how that can play out.

You decide to vote for a larger highway bill and although you feel God has honored your prayers for guidance, you instead tell the press you made the decision based on the potential boost to the economy.

You decide to vote against late term abortions and although you feel God has clearly told you that the practice dishonors him, you instead tell the press you made the decision based on the potential danger to the mother’s health.

You decide to vote against gay marriage and although you feel God has put you in that very place to make that very vote, you instead tell the press you made the decision based on your constituency’s overall disposition on the issue.

Here was her reasoning.

If you tell people “because the Bible tells me so” then your opinion will not have grounds with a pagan polity who does not also hold to the authority of Scripture.

If you tell people “because God has made it clear to me” then your opinion will not have grounds with a secular public who may not even believe there is a God.

And why does that matter?

Because, it is implied, the office has potential for good and to undermine your own authority by using a misunderstood reasoning-base you put in jeopardy your very office.

I also think there is another unstated reason that you want to appeal broadly to the people, reaching the thoughts of those in concert with your thinking and those not similarly aligned.

But is it the best way?

I can make a rational, Bible-free, case against the main issues like murder, rape, stealing and so on. Should I make my cases Bible-free? My friend pointed this out to me saying how much of the Bible is common sense, but surprising followed up with, “Do you think adultery should be against the law?

Here’s why I think the entire Bible deserves to be regular law.

What is there that the Bible says is bad that is actually good. You might answer: the individual can make decisions as they like. I would respond: no one acts individually, personal decisions impact others – there is no getting around it. Drunkenness should be illegal, adultery should be illegal, even neglecting to rest one day a week should be illegal. Close your eyes and picture the resulting society and then try and say today’s real world of 50% divorce is better.

That’s a weak final line, but I am leaving it with that.