We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

473047670_9128a398c9

God and Our Political Platforms

Rachel Held Evans posted a blog today on the stir created when Democrats booed the passing of “an amendment to the party platform reinstating language that identified Jerusalem as the rightful capital of Israel and that referred to people’s “God-given potential” in its preamble.” Of course this fed into the belief that if you’re a democrat, you must hate God. Hmmmmm. How far have we come when the validity of your faith is so closely tied to your political affiliation? Rachel hit the nail on the head when she said:

There seems to be a misconception among many American Christians that fighting the good fight of faith means keeping God’s name on our money, in our speeches, in our pledge, and on our bumper stickers. But this is the danger of civic religion: it convinces us that God’s name is the same as God’s presence; it convinces us that we’ve “won” when we hear the right words, regardless of whether we’ve seen the  right fruit. 

But God’s name is not enough, and America has a troubled history of slavery, ethnic cleansing, and the destruction of creation to show that invoking God’s name is not the same as earning God’s favor.  As Susan B. Anthony so wisely put it, “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”

Ironically, we render God’s name more meaningless each time we use it carelessly to advance our own agendas.

We hope you’ll read the entire article. And remember: Jesus is not affiliated with any political party. He transcends all of our categories and agendas. Let’s keep the Kingdom holy.

Image by takomabibelot. Used in accordance with Creative Commons. Sourced via Flickr.

Related Reading

Podcast: Should Christians Seek Political Office?

Can a politician even be effective at politics if they are faithful disciples of Jesus? Links: Greg’s book: “The Myth of a Christian Nation“ http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0024.mp3

Video Q&A: Do you think Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons are saved?

Does Greg believe that everyone goes to Heaven regardless of their beliefs? Find out here.  

Sermon Clip: Love: It’s All About the Cross

In this sermon clip, Greg Boyd talks about how Colossians 3:14 and the definition of love. God designed creation so that we would live in community with God and express God’s love towards each other and creation. However, sin disconnected us from God. In this sermon, Greg shows how we were created in the image…

Beyond Theoretical Salvation

Profession of Christ’s lordship in our lives isn’t a magical formula. It’s more than a theory about how we can get saved if we confess the right doctrines. The confession has meaning only when it’s understood to be a genuine pledge to surrender one’s life to Christ. (See yesterday’s post.) But I want us to…

Guest Post: Culture War Neighbors by Bonnie Kristian

Matteo Parrini via Compfight The first time I was aware of meeting a gay person, I was 18. I took a summer job waiting tables, and it turned out two of my coworkers were attracted to people of the same sex. One, a waiter in his 40s, fit every stereotype on Will and Grace. The…

The Problem with Mixing Church & Government

Image by fusion-of-horizons via Flickr Some people insist that the only reason that neither Jesus nor anyone else in the first several centuries of the church tried to dominate the political system of their day was because they were a small minority of people living in a nondemocratic and hostile environment. By contrast, the argument goes,…