Category Archives: Politics

Where church and State diverge: Marriage

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Yesterday we talked about the overlap between the church and the State regarding marriage. There was a time when church and state were one, and this marriage (all puns intended) of civic and religious responsibilities made sense. Even when the two separated, they walked in the same direction for many years, so things still worked. That’s no longer the case.

Marriage in society in general and marriage within the Kingdom are two different things. We need to recognize that fact. It’s not just now becoming true with some places allowing gay couples to marry; it’s been true for a very long time.

Our society looks on marriage as a temporary state. It’s a contract with an easy escape clause. There is no stigma attached to marrying and divorcing multiple times. Couples join, and jokes are made about how long the union will last. That’s not the same marriage we teach in the Kingdom.

When couples exchange their vows in front of an Elvis impersonator in a Las Vegas chapel, that’s not Kingdom marriage. When couples sign prenuptial agreements before saying “I do,” that’s not our marriage. When a man and a woman decide to “tie the knot” after having their third child, that’s not Christian marriage. I could go on and on, but we need to recognize that society’s marriage and the church’s marriage are not the same. By joining the two, we aren’t strengthening society; we’re weakening the church.

Even if the two marriages continue to be intertwined, we need to teach our children the difference between the two. We need to teach our adults, for that matter. The State isn’t the church, and the church isn’t the State. We are citizens of the Kingdom of heaven and need to remember, no matter how judges rule and politicians legislate, we answer to our King. For us: “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.” (James 4:12)

For citizens of the Kingdom, marriage is what it has always been.

Where church and State overlap: Marriage

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We’ve been discussing some, over the last few weeks, Christians and social issues. I wanted to take some time to talk about marriage.

For many, this issue became of importance when some began pressing for the legalization of same sex marriage. I think things have been in a mess far longer than that.

Many countries have a clear separation of civil and religious aspects when it comes to marriage. There is a civil ceremony, which is the legally binding act. There is a separate religious service, which allows each person to have a ceremony in accordance with their beliefs.

In the United States, we have the strange situation of church and State overlapping with one another. Unless I’m mistaken, a wedding is the only officially recognized act that a minister can perform. Baptisms have no legal status. Ministers take part in funerals, but the State gives that no particular validation.

What’s even more puzzling, a minister can marry you, but he has no say in divorce proceedings. In what way does that make sense?

This has gone on for so long that the church accepts the situation as normal. It’s not. The State has no say in who can and can’t be baptized. The State doesn’t determine who is eligible to take the Lord’s Supper. If we believe marriage to be a religious act, we should not align ourselves with the State when it comes time for a wedding.

Would it be helpful if we switched to a system of dual ceremonies, a civil ceremony and a religious one? That would free the church to set its own standards and relieve ministers of the burden of being an agent of the State in any capacity. It would also empower the church, I think, to better address the question of divorce.

Or how we can we better separate that which is holy from that which is not?

photo by grietgriet on morguefile.com

If you want to do something about abortion…

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Abortion laws won’t stem the tide of abortions in this country. Rulings by federal judges won’t change the situation. It’s time that Christians woke up to that fact.

Writers like James Davison Hunter (To Change The World) and Gabe Lyons (The Next Christians) have tried to help us see the truth. Lyons has an excellent study of how the homosexual community has successfully promoted their agenda in this country… and it wasn’t through politics (at least not primarily). Now they’re able to make gains through politics, because of the decades of work in the arts, in education and in other fields.

But what about the average Christian who feels passionate about doing something about abortion? Here are a few ideas:

  • Talk to young people. Better yet, listen to young people. Let them see you as a person they can trust.
  • Make yourself available to young people. Let them know that they can call on you at any time. To talk. To get a ride home from an uncomfortable situation. To have a place to stay should they need one.
  • Identify yourself as an agent of God’s grace. I don’t know if that expresses the thought well, but what I mean is that they need to know that God will forgive any sin that they commit… and you will too. Young people need to know that nothing they share with you will make you withdraw in disgust or make you reject them in anger.
  • Encourage your church to step up as family to pregnant young women. Should one of your church members become pregnant, the church should surround them with an atmosphere of love and forgiveness (unless, of course, they are unrepentant). They need to know that the church will do everything it can to help them bring this child into the world in a good way. That means help with doctor visits, rides to and from work (or school), babysitting, diapers, the whole works. Everything that a loving physical family would do. And, ideally, the church would be able to extend this love even to non-Christians.
  • Consider the children. Adopt a child. Work at a children’s home. Raise money for children’s homes. Let the world know that there are positive alternatives to abortion.

I could go on, but you probably have better ideas than I do how this could play out. Some are probably thinking, “Yes, that’s fine for my community, but what about the nation as a whole?” The nation as a whole will be changed as individual communities are changed. We have to begin with our sphere of influence, and most of us don’t have influence at a national level.

This is much harder and personally involving than the political approach. It’s much easier to forward e-mails, attend rallies and vote for candidates based on a single issue. But you’ll have much more impact for good working with individuals right where you live.

 Photo by Kenn W. Kiser

It’s time to stop wasting energy on politics

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The last few weeks, I’ve been talking about Christians speaking to politics from outside the system. The idea is that we need to approach social issues in a holistic fashion, speaking to broad issues rather than political talking points.

There’s much more. A while back, I did a series of posts on James Davison Hunter’s excellent book To Change The World. If you missed it, you can start with this post and read as much as you’d like in the series. Hunter points out that one failing of the modern church is how we’ve come to see the political system as the only vehicle by which we can change society. The reality of the situation is, that system is ill suited to bring about the kind of change we’d like to see.

Take the issue of abortion, for example. For many Christians, this topic is all about getting the courts and legislatures of this country to declare abortion illegal. That will stop the killing of babies, many assume. Funny thing is, the facts say that this just isn’t true.

Do you know what areas of the world have the highest abortion rates? Africa and Latin America, where abortion is illegal in many areas. Do you know what nation has the fewest abortions per pregnancy? The Netherlands, where abortion is legal and easily available. [It’s admittedly hard to cite studies on this, because most are published by groups on one side or the other of the abortion debate. Can I cite the World Health Organization? Here’s a link: Facts on induced abortion worldwide]

Am I supporting the legalization of abortion? By no means. I’m saying that the church has been distracted from the real battleground, which isn’t the electoral college nor the Supreme Court. If we really want to do something about abortion, we’ll stop wasting time, money and effort on politics and spend it dealing with the problem itself.

Why don’t we? Because it’s much cleaner and simpler to put all of our moral eggs into the political basket. We get to feel self-righteous and superior to others, even when some of those people are spending their time ministering to pregnant women while we’re off at political fundraisers.

There’s a raging debate about the statement: “You can’t legislate morality.” I’d say that it’s obvious that you can; look at the Islamic states around the world. But I’d fix the statement by saying: “Legislating morality is ineffective in changing behavior.”

I’ve got some ideas on dealing with abortion, which I’ll share tomorrow. I’d like to hear yours, as well as your thoughts as to political efforts to curb abortion.

photo by Xenia Antunes — By coincidence, two days in a row for this lady from Brazil

An unexpected result of the 2012 presidential campaign

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We should have seen this coming. I’m sure some people did. But it caught me by surprise. One of the major impacts of the 2012 presidential campaign was the insertion of Mormonism into the good graces of mainstream Christianity in the United States. Will that situation last? I’m not sure.

Mitt Romney was the first member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints (LDS) to be nominated for president by a major party. In some ways, the situation was similar to that of John Kennedy, a Catholic, in 1960. The major difference I see is that white evangelicals overwhelmingly supported Romney in this election. (that designation by race and religious belief is used by pollsters; it reflects the fact that this group tends to vote as a bloc) That wasn’t true of the Kennedy campaign.

American Christians had to decide between a man whose politics they disliked (Obama) and a man whose religious views they disliked (Romney). Many accuse Obama of holding to other religious views, but for the purposes of this article, let’s take his statements about his personal beliefs at face value.

This was a complicated choice. Many in this voting group, the religious right, hold to the ideas of returning America to mainstream Christian values. Historically, they have considered the LDS to be outside of those values. Could someone who didn’t fit their definition of Christianity be the champion of Christianity in the U.S.? Many decided that he could.

So how to deal with the cognitive dissonance between political and religious beliefs? Many chose to redefine how they viewed Mormonism. Probably the most famous example is the Billy Graham Evangelical Association, but others did the same. While stopping short of embracing Mormons as brothers, they toned down their teachings against Mormonism.

Will that attitude remain? Has Mormonism turned the corner and become an accepted part of the evangelical community? Time will tell. They’ve certainly worked hard at it. (I hadn’t heard of the book The Mormonizing of America until recently, but it seems to express well what is going on)

To me, especially considering my views regarding kingdom and politics, this was perhaps the biggest impact of the 2012 campaign.

Photo by kahanaboy on morguefile.com