More evidence that I was right to leave Huck
One of the things that makes me most uncomfortable about what is commonly called the Christian Right is its utter inability to see the distinction between common decency based on God's witness to Himself in creation, and dogma based on His self-revelation in Scripture and, ultimately, in Christ.
Each have their separate purposes and realms. In Lutheran circles, we refer to these as the "Two Kingdoms."
God is the Ruler of both- although they have different purposes, and function in entirely different ways. These are not- as I keep hearing Reformed Christians, Catholics, and even certain Lutherans mistakenly insist- church and state. They are rather the realm of law- of rules and punishments and consequences- and of grace- of totally self-giving and unconditional love and forgiveness.
As Christians, we- only we- live in that second of the two "kingdoms," usually referred to as the Kingdom of the Right Hand. But we also live in the Kingdom of the Left Hand, even as Christians. We too have fallen natures. That's why even churchly meetings need rules, and presiding officers. That's why church discipline is practiced. All of these belong to the "Kingdom of the Left Hand," right along with political government.
You simply can't confuse these two without getting into deep trouble. Try to govern by grace and mercy, and you get anarchy. Make religion into a matter of following rules and jumping through legal hoops, and you've lost the Gospel, and Christ Himself.
God established the Church to proclaim the Gospel; even the governance of the Church, which properly belongs to the Kingdom of the Left Hand, has this as its ultimate aim. But God established the State to keep people from killing one another or abusing each other too outrageously. That task does not require that specifically Christian theology be employed. As Paul observes in Romans 1, the Law is written in the human heart. However imperfectly, it's reflected in every legal code on earth- through the basic sense of rightness and wrongness inherent in our very humanity, however distorted by the Fall.
It is not the divinely instituted task of government to make Christians; that's the job of the Church. And it's not the task of the Church to govern society. Rather, that's the common task of decent people of all religious persuasions- including those who think of themselves (wrongly, I believe) as having none at all.
All of us have that common- if distorted- sense of justice and moral rightness available to us in our consciences by virtue of being God's creations. It is accessible to all of us. It's true that in various circumstances Christians may have a particular "take" on a given issue that can be expressed in the language, not of special revelation, but of reason and the common sense of decency we all share. There is- the Left to the contrary- absolutely nothing wrong in our doing so; indeed, doing so is our duty.
But the divinely given task of the government is not to make society Christian; it's to protect the weak from the strong. Just as injustice is the inevitable consequence of ignoring our common conscience (and even the witness of our Western ethical and legal tradition), so any attempt to make the Good News of Jesus either into the province of the State or the basis of secular government is to cause it to cease to be good news, and become just another arena of rules and regulations and legal compulsion.
It's not just that confusing the Two Kingdoms results in violence done to consciences, as bad as that is in itself. The worst thing about confusing them is that to do so utterly destroys the character of the Gospel as good news. It makes Jesus and everything He came to be, and to say, and above all to do of no effect by obscuring that which is specifically constitutive of the Christian faith: the Word of God's grace.
There is nothing distinctively Christian about the Ten Commandments; every society on earth has a rough equivalent, since the Law is written on the human heart. What is distinctively Christian is John 3:16.
That, and not any set of ethical or legal prescriptions, defines what is and what is not Christian.
That said, please view the below, and discuss:
Each have their separate purposes and realms. In Lutheran circles, we refer to these as the "Two Kingdoms."
God is the Ruler of both- although they have different purposes, and function in entirely different ways. These are not- as I keep hearing Reformed Christians, Catholics, and even certain Lutherans mistakenly insist- church and state. They are rather the realm of law- of rules and punishments and consequences- and of grace- of totally self-giving and unconditional love and forgiveness.
As Christians, we- only we- live in that second of the two "kingdoms," usually referred to as the Kingdom of the Right Hand. But we also live in the Kingdom of the Left Hand, even as Christians. We too have fallen natures. That's why even churchly meetings need rules, and presiding officers. That's why church discipline is practiced. All of these belong to the "Kingdom of the Left Hand," right along with political government.
You simply can't confuse these two without getting into deep trouble. Try to govern by grace and mercy, and you get anarchy. Make religion into a matter of following rules and jumping through legal hoops, and you've lost the Gospel, and Christ Himself.
God established the Church to proclaim the Gospel; even the governance of the Church, which properly belongs to the Kingdom of the Left Hand, has this as its ultimate aim. But God established the State to keep people from killing one another or abusing each other too outrageously. That task does not require that specifically Christian theology be employed. As Paul observes in Romans 1, the Law is written in the human heart. However imperfectly, it's reflected in every legal code on earth- through the basic sense of rightness and wrongness inherent in our very humanity, however distorted by the Fall.
It is not the divinely instituted task of government to make Christians; that's the job of the Church. And it's not the task of the Church to govern society. Rather, that's the common task of decent people of all religious persuasions- including those who think of themselves (wrongly, I believe) as having none at all.
All of us have that common- if distorted- sense of justice and moral rightness available to us in our consciences by virtue of being God's creations. It is accessible to all of us. It's true that in various circumstances Christians may have a particular "take" on a given issue that can be expressed in the language, not of special revelation, but of reason and the common sense of decency we all share. There is- the Left to the contrary- absolutely nothing wrong in our doing so; indeed, doing so is our duty.
But the divinely given task of the government is not to make society Christian; it's to protect the weak from the strong. Just as injustice is the inevitable consequence of ignoring our common conscience (and even the witness of our Western ethical and legal tradition), so any attempt to make the Good News of Jesus either into the province of the State or the basis of secular government is to cause it to cease to be good news, and become just another arena of rules and regulations and legal compulsion.
It's not just that confusing the Two Kingdoms results in violence done to consciences, as bad as that is in itself. The worst thing about confusing them is that to do so utterly destroys the character of the Gospel as good news. It makes Jesus and everything He came to be, and to say, and above all to do of no effect by obscuring that which is specifically constitutive of the Christian faith: the Word of God's grace.
There is nothing distinctively Christian about the Ten Commandments; every society on earth has a rough equivalent, since the Law is written on the human heart. What is distinctively Christian is John 3:16.
That, and not any set of ethical or legal prescriptions, defines what is and what is not Christian.
That said, please view the below, and discuss:
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