Christian Political Action: Defined

The Christian political task is to bring to the whole world, in the political way and for the political side of its life, the blessing of Christ’s redemptive concern for the world. It is a task directed to human society in the world. It is genuinely Christian and meaningful only when it is an activity of service to the world, to all mankind. For this reason it can never be a camouflage effort to further the interests of particular Christian citizens, or more or less Christian communities or even of the Christian churches as they are instituted in a particular time and space. Christian political action is, as they say in the Netherlands, “Het volk ten daag,” this is to say, For the good of the (whole) people. Coming out of the integral Christian task of renewal, Christian political action seeks, not as an activity of any instituted church or group of churches, but as a political activity of the Body of Christ, to reform the world in its political aspects, so that there too as acknowledgement may come of the good and holy Law of God and that thus the blessings that follow upon obedience may be showered upon the life of humanity.

H. Evan Runner, Scriptural Religion and Political Task, 2^nd ed. (Toronto: Wedge Publishing Foundation, 1974), 42.

Lynchburg Letter for Life...And For A Death

Kudos to the Lynchburg News and Advance for, after nineteen days since submission, finally printing my recent letter to the editor.

It was a prolife piece. I wrote it in response to a horrifying case in nearby Bedford, wherein a mother strangled her two year-old son. The week that followed the case, all I heard was how unbelievably despicable and wicked the mother must be, how the parents waited four hours before calling the authorities, because they were operating a meth lab, how grieved folks were for this inconceivable loss, and so on. We, too, grieved, prayed, and prayed for the family.

Throughout that week, though, I couldn’t help but wonder at the fact that, despite everyone’s conscience functioning properly and all having a due sense of the situation’s gravity and depravity, all the same folks—many of whom I’ve shared fetal models and post-abortive pictures with—go day (3,000 aborted) after day (another 3,000) after day (yet another 3,000) without so much as casual concern for the thousands of abortions committed each day in America.

So, finding few redeemable aspect to dear little Jordan Smith’s murder, and being disgusted by my culture’s (and church’s) apathy toward abortion victims, I felt that I could honor baby Jordan by allowing his death to (God please!) help possibly save some lives of his little preborn fellows by means of this letter.

Making the Prolife Case: The Deadbeat Mom Argument

Here is a recent letter, I (Kevin) had published in the Bedford Bulletin earlier this month. Every literate Christian can do something about the American genocide, abortion, even if it is simply writing a short letter to the editor of his local paper. This letter is an illustration of what Israel and I call the Deadbeat Mom Argument, which Israel basically formulated a couple of months ago, during some table talkin'. 

Be creative, be logically consistent, and be bold. Christ, who is Truth, is on our side, which makes the prolife position one of the easiest to communicate and defend. Regardless of what you do for the cause, do something--like 3,000 helpless, voiceless lives a day depend on it, because they do!

____________________________

Imagine that Bob’s loose behavior resulted in getting a woman pregnant. Mary hadn’t contacted Bob since that one-night encounter. She called Bob to notify him of his responsibilities toward their then-forming child. Bob refused.

Later, Bob received a certified letter; the state demanded Bob take responsibility for his child. Suffering garnishment, Bob changed careers, doing cash-only jobs to avoid having his parental arrearage forcibly taken. Bob was then notified that his income tax refund check would go to Mary and the child. After $5,000 in arrears, Bob looks forward to prison. Meantime, he enjoys his picture being on the state’s “Most Wanted Deadbeat” list.

Most share in common one thing concerning Bobs: We love to loathe them. We consider them losers, irresponsible, immoral, shameful “deadbeats.” This valuation is often well-justified. Our legal system agrees and acts. Parents are morally and legally obligated to care for their children. From child-like intuition to jurisprudential scholarship, we know Bob is wrong.

How about when women decide they don’t want to be mothers? Like Bob, Mary could make her decision the moment she discovers she’s a parent. We’ve been conditioned to celebrate Mary’s decision as a constitutional right to privacy and personal autonomy; we condemn Bob for the same act. Since 1973, over 53,000,000 of these decisions have been made—abortion. The pro-abortion propagandists have driven culture to the absolute dereliction of all moral and rational sense, woefully idiocy. We’ve come to “call evil (Bob’s decision) good (Mary’s decision), and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20).

Abortion Arguments are Sexless │ Here’s a Good Way to Demonstrate the Fact

Over on his blog, Josh Brahm considers how to present a winsome response to one of the most tedious pro-abortion objections: “Shut Up! You’re a man; you have no right to make judgments about a women’s issue—you’ll never be pregnant!”

The temptation is to play Captain Obvious and announce the palpably evident ad hominem fallacy involved. However, when someone makes this objection, it provides proof that the individual is not at all concerned about clear reasoning and logical consistency. At this point, she’s sharing her crass indignation not her careful inferences, arbitrariness not argument. So, announcing her guilt in the fallacy is only one of a million other ways to poorly end the dialogue.

Josh’s conversation illustrates the several many ways (sorry, village idiom) to actually establish connections in common ground with his interlocutor.

He concludes the post pointing out other fruit that the approach bears, which significantly influences the trajectory of the dialogue toward very fruitful fields.

It’s a must read for anyone interested in obeying Christ in our culture. However ironic it may sound, it’s just for us guys—men only! (Not really, we all can profit from many of the points, because of our shared humanness. ;)