I Found My Door (And Yet, I Still Could Never Be the Prime Minister)

I have written before about the implications of being a "teacher". According to James, those who do not keep their mouth shut, teach. Myself included. You might be there, too.

"Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should be teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot wants to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire." - James 3:2-5

So, with that in mind, I first want to apologize for where I had fallen short in this responsibility: my blog is a soap box for my opinion, however when speaking as a representative of faith, it's a good idea to back up my opinion with a little more context.

That said.

Let me be clear as I echo the words of Rob Bell (writer, speaker, opinionator):

"God has spoken. The rest is commentary."

I don't claim to speak The Truth; I speak my commentary.

First of all, I just want to thank those who participated in last week's discussion about whether or not a Christian can lead a nation democratically. If you haven't checked it out yet, I encourage you to do so - the comments are great, both on Facebook and in the "comment" section of the blog. I am actually pleasantly surprised about how respectful and Christ-centred the response was.

In his book Mere Christianity, CS Lewis explains that accepting the "faith" of Christianity is like living in a hallway. From this hallway are many doors; these doors represent specific theologies which branch from the hallway of Christianity. Once a hallway-dweller chooses a door, he or she is to enjoy the time in the room which is found behind the door, but not to criticize those who have selected other rooms or who still dwell in the hallway. For so long, I resisted finding my door - but after realizing that I had such strong convictions in regards to certain opinions, I think I realized what door I needed to enter.

After my most recent post, I have decided and concluded that I have chosen the Anabaptist theology as "my door". It's my personal life experiences which have led me to believe that this vein of Christianity is the right room for me: with an emphasis on pacifism, relative exclusion from government, and pursuance of social justice, I have found home in a room called Anabaptism.

I can understand that many would disagree with my stance in my last post. I wrote that post without any assistance from any external resources or theological support. So, to further support my "opinion" which now might be described as an "argument", I'd like to share a few voices from the Anabaptist family who echo my thoughts. Or, as it were, speak MUCH better than I do.

The basis of my opinion (which is, "Christians should not be leading government") stems from two main concepts:

1) To be a Christian leader, which is, to put Christianity before ANYTHING, defies democracy. Please don't confuse Christianity with bias - being a woman is a bias. Being self-employed is a bias. Those things are important but they don't come first. Christianity literally comes before anything else.

2) Second Temple Jews (or, the Jews in Jesus' day), expected a Warrior Messiah to be their saving grace. Not one Jew thought that a manger-born infant with an agenda for peace and social justice would be the Son of Man come to save the world. If God had intended for Jesus to lead with a gavel, He would have made it so. If Jesus' business wasn't political, should ours be? (And this is coming from a person who thought her life would be led by politics.)

But I also wanted to share some great points from Anabaptists who know a whole heck of a lot more about the issue than I do.

From the 1984 editorial "Basic Principles of Anabaptist Thought":

"Christians belong to a kingdom not of this world [John 18:36]. They stand for a high degree of separation between church and state. In Romans 12, speaking to Christians, one finds the pronouns “we” and “us.” In Romans 13, speaking of the state, we discover the pronouns “they” and “them.” The New Testament teaches a two-kingdom view of society. The state embraces all the population of a given geographic area; the church is made up of true believers in Christ. The church is spiritual in character and is ruled by love; Christ is the head; the task is to proclaim the Gospel. The state is political in nature and rules by force; the “king” is the head; the task is to preserve law and order. The attitude of Jesus was one of practical indifference toward politics. He never made any attempt to control the Roman government nor to dictate state policy. There were many evils in the government in Jesus’ day. Rome was a police state; slavery was commonly practiced; there were foreign-imposed taxes; there were state-controlled gladitorial amusements. The people wanted Jesus to get in there and clean things up, but Jesus ignored their appeal and looked at the real problem — man’s deep spiritual need. Five thousand people one time tried to take Jesus by force and make Him their king, but He escaped and fled to the mountains! [John 6:15]." 

For those looking for a little more relatable context, consider the statements made by Bruxy Cavey, lead teaching pastor at The Meeting House, earlier in 2012:

"Even the son of man has come to serve, not to be served. We become people who work for change... top-down legislation is the way of the state, not the way of the church. 

I am a Christian long before I am, and well after I am,  a Canadian. Our national identities are infinitely meaningless compared to our identity in Christ. If that's the case, that raises a question: how do we relate to the state in which we find ourselves? What is the Christian's relationship to the state? Romans 13 talks about the State and says the State uses the sword and takes revenge on God's behalf... it represents God's wrath and justice... and the Apostle Paul says support that, because that is the role of the state. Don't blame the state for being the state. 

We are called very clearly to represent a different kingdom. We are not only foreigners in the place we live, we are called to be ambassadors to the Kingdom in the place we live. That's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5. We're ambassadors. Peter put it this way: if we're foreigners and we're aliens, it would be similar to you living in a land where you have no citizenry... Say you have a summer work visa and you're living in England. You know what England would demand of you? While you're there, earning some money, you need to pay some taxes. But that's about it. Now as a Christian you want to contribute... you want to leave the place better than when it was before because you've been there, absolutely. But there are other aspects of being British that you wouldn't participate in. If England went to war for instance, guess what you would not do? As a visiting American, you would not be expected to enlist in the army... I'm not opting out of society but there are some things that as a visitor you just don't do. Now (as a Christian) you are a tourist in America (Canada) just as much as you would be in England. You are an Ambassador to America... on behalf of the King who has sent you. And so, the Anabaptists said... you know, if that's the case, what's the role of the church? We don't have to look far... in Romans 12, we read the role of the church very clearly. The Church rejects the sword... it leaves vengeance to God. It represents God's infinte compassion, we are to feed our enemies and love them... the role of the Church is different to the role of the state....Clearly we are called to model something completely different [than the state]. 

Does that mean we are to hide faith from government? Absolutely not. We have a role, but I don't believe that the role is to lead. Or, as Bruxy might add,

"Our governments can... be deprived of valuable influence when we hide our lamp in the public sector. If Jesus truly is “the Light of the world” we should let his light shine in more than just church circles. It should shine also in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Being a small-time blogger in a small-town-style online blogging community and having "opinions" can be challenging. I'm not going to tell you whether or not gay marriage should be legal or abortion should be permissible or anything about topics I'm uneducated about. But politics? Oh, I'll be weighing in on politics for life. And this topic has been burning in my mind for months.

So thanks for letting me have a moment on the soap box and helping me find my door.