By Timothy Keller
I recently wrote about how churches should not destroy unity or fellowship over political differences. The replies I got show that many American Evangelicals have no coherent understanding of how to relate the Bible to politics.
Here are two biblical moral norms: (1) It is a sin to worship idols or any God other than the true God, and (2) it is a sin to marry someone of the same sex.
If you ask evangelicals if Americans should be forbidden by law to worship any other God than the God of the Bible—they’d say ‘no’. We allow that terrible sin to be legal. But if you ask them if Americans should be forbidden by law to marry someone of the same sex, they would say ‘yes’.
Now why make the first sin legal and NEVER talk about it and the second sin illegal and a main political talking point ? There are many other biblical morals we don't make law either. Why?
At the very least, it shows a lack of knowing how to apply the Bible to politics. Since we can't simply say, "If the Bible says its sin it should be illegal"-how do we choose which morals to politically champion? Please don't say, "I just want to see the 10 commandments made law in society." That's too simplistic and we don't do this already. The Bible tells us that idolatry and ignoring the poor are grievous sins. But it doesn’t tell us exactly HOW we are to apply these norms to a pluralistic democracy.
We are to help the poor, but the Bible doesn't tell us which political strategy (high taxes and government services vs low taxes and private charity) to use. The Bible binds my conscience to love the immigrant-but it doesn't tell me HOW many legal immigrants to admit to the U.S. every year. The point is the Bible doesn’t tell me the best political policy in regards to immigration.
The current political parties will say that their policy most aligns morally with the Bible, but we are allowed to debate that and so our churches should not have disunity over debatable political differences! It is also why I have never publicly or privately told Christians who they should vote for. I have also never told anyone they should vote Democrat or Republican. Depending on the policy we can find more or less alignment with Biblical morals. I believe all Christians should be active in politics, but it is unwise to identify Christianity with any particular party. (Please discuss the principal of WHY we have synchronistic picking of morals to be laws and keep current policy debates at bay). For more see:
I recently wrote about how churches should not destroy unity or fellowship over political differences. The replies I got show that many American Evangelicals have no coherent understanding of how to relate the Bible to politics.
Here are two biblical moral norms: (1) It is a sin to worship idols or any God other than the true God, and (2) it is a sin to marry someone of the same sex.
If you ask evangelicals if Americans should be forbidden by law to worship any other God than the God of the Bible—they’d say ‘no’. We allow that terrible sin to be legal. But if you ask them if Americans should be forbidden by law to marry someone of the same sex, they would say ‘yes’.
Now why make the first sin legal and NEVER talk about it and the second sin illegal and a main political talking point ? There are many other biblical morals we don't make law either. Why?
At the very least, it shows a lack of knowing how to apply the Bible to politics. Since we can't simply say, "If the Bible says its sin it should be illegal"-how do we choose which morals to politically champion? Please don't say, "I just want to see the 10 commandments made law in society." That's too simplistic and we don't do this already. The Bible tells us that idolatry and ignoring the poor are grievous sins. But it doesn’t tell us exactly HOW we are to apply these norms to a pluralistic democracy.
We are to help the poor, but the Bible doesn't tell us which political strategy (high taxes and government services vs low taxes and private charity) to use. The Bible binds my conscience to love the immigrant-but it doesn't tell me HOW many legal immigrants to admit to the U.S. every year. The point is the Bible doesn’t tell me the best political policy in regards to immigration.
The current political parties will say that their policy most aligns morally with the Bible, but we are allowed to debate that and so our churches should not have disunity over debatable political differences! It is also why I have never publicly or privately told Christians who they should vote for. I have also never told anyone they should vote Democrat or Republican. Depending on the policy we can find more or less alignment with Biblical morals. I believe all Christians should be active in politics, but it is unwise to identify Christianity with any particular party. (Please discuss the principal of WHY we have synchronistic picking of morals to be laws and keep current policy debates at bay). For more see:
Opinion | How Do Christians Fit Into the Two-Party System? They Don’t (Published 2018)
The historical Christian positions on social issues don’t match up with contemporary political alignments.
www.nytimes.com