More thoughts on religion and politics
I hesitate to bring up the issue of politics and religion again, but I ran across a couple more interesting quotes in relation to the topic. But before I get to the quotes, I think I should make a few things clear.
Firs, although some people are hostile toward religion in general, most people are willing to tolerate all religions. And in the popular culture, we are told that all religions are basically equal; they are all just different paths to the same God.
I, on the other hand, am an unabashed Christian. And Christianity affirms that there is no other way to God than through Jesus Christ.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
There is only one way to God, and therefore, not all faith is equal. The value is not in the faith itself, but in the object of the faith. An illustration helps to drive home this point.
You are about to try to walk on a frozen pond. In scenario one, you are convinced that the pond is frozen so thoroughly that you can safely walk upon the pond, and you boldly step out onto the ice that is less than a quarter of an inch thick. You have all the faith possible that the ice will hold you. Does your faith matter? No. You will fall right through the thin ice because it can not bear your weight. The object of your faith was not trustworthy.
In scenario two, you are not sure if the ice will hold you. You gingerly step out, slowly placing the slightest weight upon the ice, and very gradually adding weight, expecting at any moment the ice will crack. But the ice is frozen two feet thick. You couldn’t break it by driving a bulldozer across it. No matter how weak your faith is in this ice, it will bear your weight. The object of your faith was trustworthy.
And so, when I talk about politicians proclaiming their faith and being friendly to people of faith, I don’t want to give the impression that I believe it is good for a politician to have any faith, and the object of the faith doesn’t matter. On the contrary, the object of faith is crucial and is the difference between heaven and hell.
Secondly, I also don’t want to give the impression that I think a politician must have faith, or an explicit Christian faith, in order to be a good politician. Christianity (and other religions as well) teaches that we are accountable to a higher power, and we will be judged for our actions. Correctly understood, this is a check upon the abuse of political power. But that is not the only check upon unbridled political power. The founders of our country wisely understood the corrupt nature of man, and so provided us with three branches of government to act as checks and balances upon the power of any one branch. These restraints work upon anyone, regardless of their faith (or lack thereof).
Thirdly, I don’t mean that all people of faith in general, and Christians in particular, will make good politicians. On the contrary, many (and I consider myself in this group) are particularly unsuited to politics due to temperament and inclination. But also, there are many hypocrites within the visible church who will gladly abuse any power given to them, and would make worse use of the power given to them than many non-Christians.
Now with those cavies, here are a couple quotes on the subject of Democrats and expressions of faith.
A comment on Senator Joe Biden’s speech.
And then we heard from Biden, “Our friends on the other side love to quote the Bible” — he said that like that was something bad!
The Washington Times has an article on how the Democrats went out of their way to make a public show that they are religious. This is obviously a ploy to win the votes of church-goers, but there is a desire by both political parties to get this demographic. However, there is a growing portion of the Democratic party that are not people of faith.
More notably, voters who [Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg] called “secular warriors,” or “no guns, no prayer” voters, are becoming a bigger force in Democratic politics.
Mr. Greenberg said they make up 15 percent of the overall electorate, nearly equaling the 17 percent of voters nationwide who are white evangelicals.
One other quibble. The sentence two paragraphs above: “More notably, voters who he called ‘secular warriors’….” Shouldn’t that be “More notably, voters whom he called ‘secular warriors’….”
