Even though the following quote is written with the American political context in mind .. . it’s worth a little “pause” to think about … I’ll be talking with my political analyst friend & PhD candidate soon and see how all this works out in Malaysia.
“The Christian citizen of every nation has a moral obligation to engage at some level in that nation’s political life. We do not recommend withdrawal from the political arena. We admire especially those whose calling falls in this area—mayors, councilmen, senators, representatives, presidents. Theirs is as noble a calling as that of a plumber or pastor.
But Christians who enter that calling, and those who pray for and work with them, must not forget one thing: where hope for this nation, and the world, really lies, and where that hope is most manifest Sunday by Sunday.” ~ Worship as higher politics (via Mike Todd)
Fully agreed. Some thoughts I have on this:
When Christians isolate themselves from the political life of the nation, they are in fact expressing (albeit passively) agreement with the secular political climate. When the political atmosphere dictates that religion does not have a legitimate place in the public square, faith in God is rendered as a mere privatised affair. Some inevitable results of this are:
1. The Christian is no longer able to speak of societal affairs based on his faith, because it has now been pronounced irrelevant insofar as the public arena is concerned.
2. The government and society have no logically defensible basis for the moral values they claim to embrace. If moral values cannot find their warrant in the reality of a higher transcendental order, who accords legitimacy to these values in the first place?
3. The government has no logically defensible basis for the legitimacy of its own existence. Since the human sense of justice and peace was fractured by the Fall, secular government was instituted for the preservation of justice and peace in the temporal world order. Without an acknowledgement of human fallenness in accordance with divine verdict, what justification is there for the institution of secular government?
Thanks for the link. You have no idea how timely this article was for me.
thanks for the link. i’ve blogged on it, as the editorial connects with some thoughts i’ve been jotting down.
to live as a Christian will always have a political edge, because conversion covers every aspect of out lives, both privately and socially. however, it always also a dangr to “baptise” any one political system as the only way to embody our faith.