Then Jesus said, “Big government is the salt of the earth…”
I hardly follow the day-to-day political squabbles. It didn’t used to be that way for me. In the past I would go from news sites and blogs to talk radio all day. It’s not that I think we should forget about politics or that political affairs do not matter. These issues do matter. What I want to see and participate in is the people of God being the people of God and living as disciples of Christ our King.
When we talk about the great issues of our day I’m particularly interested in the actions of the Church. What will my local church do, for example, when a family is without health insurance? Will their small group or missional community be able to help them? What if their bill is thousands of dollars? Can the church’s benevolence fund handle that? Should we pool X% of our income and designate it for emergency medical issues? What about the widows, orphans, and extreme poor of our local community? Are we doing anything at all at this present time to even know how to go about answering any of these questions? Merely debating (which we ought to do, including Congress which seems to never debate any more) how the federal government is going to supposedly reform healthcare is not really taking responsibility as the people of God to live as we ought. Thinking the federal government is going to live out “kingdom values” by enacting this or that legislation is a pipe dream. We must live them out ourselves.
Let’s face it – our power-hungry government confiscates our life’s blood and seeks to continually expand its control over every area of our lives. The less they are allowed to do this, the more we will be able to do for ourselves and others what big government cannot. The less they intervene where they shouldn’t, the less they will make things worse. The more we can keep of our own resources the more we will have to help others. At least that’s the theory.
Liberals are wrong when they delegate their responsibilities to the government. They are wrong for remaining satisfied with their good intentions even when the actions they favor actually make things worse. If you believe in redistribution of wealth, no one is stopping you. Set up a system where money and other resources are voluntarily redistributed among the members of your community and stop advocating that the federal government confiscate people’s money in order to do what you don’t do yourself. Show us by example what this looks like. Give us a model to emulate. Thankfully, some communities are doing this.
Conservatives are wrong when they do not use the wealth they already have to help others at the same time they are complaining about the government taking too much from them and doing too much on their behalf. Conservatives are also wrong when they rely on laws while refusing to take direct action themselves. For example, not even considering adopting a baby from a young, unmarried mother while agitating for pro-life judges. Or calling for illegals to be kicked out of the country while hiring them at cut-rates to do their landscaping. They are wrong when they cry that more government is not the answer while refusing to become the answer themselves.
I’m in favor of saying, “Big government, get out of our way and leave us free to act” but one side refuses to quit relying on big government while the other side won’t make use of the freedom they already have to help others now. And, of course, there are exceptions all around. So, both liberals and conservatives are wrong for, in their own ways, relying on the government to act while not taking direct, personal action. What would it look like for liberal and conservative Christians to focus on being the Church and following the teachings of Christ directly, firsthand instead of either farming it out to someone else or turning a blind eye? What if the time and energy we spent on laws and legislatures were spent on the strategies and actions of the Church? What if Christians spent as much time living kingdom values as we do electing government officials hoping they will do it for us?
Let’s find out.
Quote of the Day, Reformation Day Edition
[HT - Reformation Shirts and Article: Going His Way
500 Years Later, Retracing Luther's Steps to the Reformation]
Two things I would add:
1) “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31
2) And, there might not be beer in heaven but I expect there might be on the new earth when Christ fully establishes His kingdom: “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” Matthew 26:29
We’ll see!
Reformation Day 2009
Ah, October 31st, the day everyone has been looking forward to this month is finally here. What…Halloween? No! Today is what is known in some Protestant Christian circles as “Reformation Day.” What is Reformation Day about? Dr. Timothy George paints the scene:
“It was around two o’clock in the afternoon on the eve of the Day of All Saints, October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther, hammer in hand, approached the main north door of the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) in Wittenberg and nailed up his Ninety-Five Theses protesting the abuse of indulgences in the teaching and practice of the church of his day. In remembrance of this event, millions of Christians still celebrate this day as the symbolic beginning of the Protestant Reformation.”
Why should we care about Reformation Day? My primary concern is not necessarily that American evangelicals ought to observe this day as a religious holiday or use it as an alternative to Halloween. (Although, Reformation Sunday is a fine idea and Reformation Day festivals can be a lot of fun). What I appreciate about Reformation Day is that it draws attention to church history and historical theology. These are two underdeveloped areas of knowledge within evangelicalism and anything that might cause us to take a moment to read an article or two related to the history of the Church is a good thing.
The Reformation also had a tremendous impact on politics, education, social practice and Western thinking as a whole so Reformation Day could generate a bit of interest for those who are not terribly concerned with Christianity. If you’re in that camp you might enjoy Alister E. McGrath’s chapters “Humanism and the Reformation” and “Scholasticism and the Reformation” found in the online version of his book “Reformation Thought”.
Eric W. Gritsch provides a helpful primer on the events surrounding Martin Luther’s posting of his 95 theses and the message of Luther in: 1517 Luther Posts the 95 Theses by Dr. Eric W. Gritsch, ChristianHistory.net An obscure monk invited debate on a pressing church issue—and touched off a history-shattering reform movement.
Timothy George (mentioned above) reminds us “that Martin Luther belongs to the entire Church, not only to Lutherans and Protestants, just as Thomas Aquinas is a treasury of Christian wisdom for faithful believers of all denominations, not simply for Dominicans and Catholics” in: Reformation Day by Timothy George, First Things.
Andrew Jones, TallSkinnyKiwi, offers an intriguing critique of “New Calvinism” in his post, Why I Am Not A New Calvinist, By One Guy Who Should Be. One of his reasons: New Calvinism is “irreversibly Western and not accountable to nor appreciative of the emerging global-south based theology (afraid of the power shift?)”
Catholic-turned-Evangelical-turned-Evangelical Catholic Francis Beckwith, asks, “Is the Reformation Over?” in his blog-post of the same name. Beckwith relays this witty quote from Dr. Peter Kreeft offering a Catholic view of the Reformation: “The Protestant Reformation began when a Catholic monk rediscovered a Catholic doctrine in a Catholic book. The monk, of course, was Luther; the doctrine was justification by faith; and the book was the Bible.”
From ChristianHistory.net’s “Did You Know?”:
“Early on as a reformer, Luther publicly concluded that penance (the church sacrament involving confession of sin) wasn’t a sacrament at all. Yet he continued to daily confess his sins to another person for most of his life.” Herbert K. Jacobsen
[see James, chapter 5]
Want more? Eric “Gunny” Hartman, pastor extraordinaire of Providence Church (Plano, TX), has compiled a list of Reformation Day links at his blog, Semper Reformanda.
On a lighter note, you might learn more about what sparked the Reformation with these videos:
“If you havin’ Church problems then don’t blame God, son…I got ninety-five theses but the Pope ain’t one!” [lyrics]
Growing Online Database of Theological Resources
The Hekman Library of the H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies hosts an online resource center called The Post-Reformation Digital Library. The editorial board for the project is collecting “digital books available from Google Books as well as smaller digital libraries such as Internet Archive, which may have books not available on Google.” The board goes on to add, “All users are encouraged to contribute to this project by reporting new books with a note under “Comments” at the bottom of the relevant page.” This effort is a great way to collectively pool all relevant digitized works into one online location.
Sub-sections of the Digital Library include:
Patristic Theology
Medieval Theology
Early Modern Theology
Early Modern Philosophy
Bibles
Correspondence
Creeds & Confessions
Periodicals
Synodical Redcords
Reference Works
Bibliographies, and more.
The proliferation of digital resources such as these continues to be a great benefit to Christian scholarship. Potential benefit, that is. We have to make the effort to take advantage of these resources! [HT - @LigonDuncan]
Related: To learn more about current efforts to digitize extant Greek New Testament manuscripts, visit The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM).
Churches, Citizens Not To Blame For Hampering Efforts of Dallas’ The Bridge
More Shelters Do Not Necessarily Solve “Strain” on Law Enforcement
At a recent meeting of social workers, shelter representatives, and other homeless-related workers in the Dallas-area, a spokesperson for Dallas’ The Bridge voiced complaints about people who assist the homeless outside of the government-approved system. In the opinion of this representative, their work is being hampered by citizens who are directly helping the homeless rather than driving homeless persons to approved shelters or volunteering at The Bridge. When churches and private citizens hit the streets and directly assist the homeless, these efforts allegedly keep homeless persons away from approved shelters. This, in turn, causes a greater strain on law enforcement personnel who must respond to disturbances that otherwise would have been avoided.
These assumptions ignore the fact that a certain percentage of homeless persons simply choose to stay away from The Bridge. Last week I asked one of our homeless friends why he does not go to The Bridge. His answer: it is too crowded and there are too many fights. We have heard similar responses from others over the past several months. Sure enough, The Dallas Morning News recently reported:
“Two people were arrested after a disturbance late Friday [Oct. 7, 2009] at The Bridge, Dallas’ homeless assistance center, police said.
About 20 officers responded to 1818 Corsicana Ave. after an intoxicated man at the shelter became belligerent when told he could not sleep in a fire exit, officials said. Several homeless men then started shouting and throwing things at officers, Deputy Chief Vince Golbeck said.”
20 officers had to respond to this incident? Sounds like a “strain” on law enforcement to me. My point is not to blow this incident out of proportion. The article does goes on to state that Deputy Chief Golbeck reports the “police have not had serious problems at the homeless center.” However, shelters are not immune from incidents requiring the assistance of law enforcement officers.
To blame the efforts of churches and private citizens for reducing the effectiveness of The Bridge is misguided. Such a mindset assumes that the work of government agencies, churches, and private citizens are in competition with one another. It also assumes that government solutions are the only solutions. The only way to help the homeless, apparently, is to volunteer for official government entities or to drive homeless individuals to their facilities. All of these assumptions are, of course, false. Public and private efforts need not be seen as in competition with one another. An all-hands-on-deck approach ought to be welcomed. If the work of The Bridge is not living up to expectations, churches and individuals seeking compassion and justice for the poor and homeless should not be cast as the scapegoats.
For more information on how churches and private citizens can take action to assist the homeless, visit the Dallas Justice Revival website.
