So I do a bit of writing on politics, law, and religion. I was even fortunate enough to have one article published by an academic journal last year. This isn’t my primary vocation, but it’s a solid second calling. It’s more than a mere hobby. And the further I’ve gotten into this field, the more convinced I am that Christians really don’t know how to think about law and politics. There are very large segments of the Christian population who have severed themselves completely from Christian jurisprudence, namely the far-Left progressives and the Libertarians. These folks can certainly be true Christians. They are just very mistaken about how that relates to politics. The majority of “Evangelicals” find themselves in the middle of the GOP spectrum, some reluctantly and some happily. And a few other well-intentioned Christians stick with the “moderate” and “independent” labels. Hardly any of them, however, are terribly confident as to whether this is actually a consistent Biblical outlook, and those that are “very confident” are also often very mistaken.
Now let me quickly add that I don’t think I’ve got it all quite figured out either. There are a number of contemporary political issues of which I am not totally sure what the best approach is. But one thing I have managed to do over the last few years it to get a comfortable grasp of the guiding principles of traditional Christian legal thought. Notice that I said principles. Principles are different than positive commands and prohibitions. They go back to basic concepts and founding themes and ideas. Principles can often take different expressions depending on the rest of the context. Still, basic morality never changes.
One of the perennial questions is always regarding what role religion should even play in politics. Continue reading
Wedgewords 