The question in the title arises from a meeting at a local church on the same subject. My wife asked me to go with her, so I did, and when the pastor asked for discussion on the topic, I gave them my opinion. After just a few minutes, I was told by some unknown person to, in essence, sit down and shut up. Which I did, then sat through an extended period in which the entire rest of the group explained all the reasons why Christians ought to be involved. None of them asked me for any further explanation. After an hour or so, I just got up and walked out. I will never go back.
Politics. Before answering the question, it should be important to understand what politics actually is. If you do not know what politics is, then you cannot answer the question. Most people associate politics with government, as in this definition, taken from Merriam-Webster:
a: the art or science of government
b: the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy
c: the art or science concerned with winning and holding control over a government
Now, I do not dispute the description, but the word “politics” is multi-faceted (as admitted by Merriam-Webster) and can have many different meanings and connotations. During my comments at the session, I mentioned the saying that, “Politics is a dirty business”, and asked them if Christians should be involved in dirty business. To my surprise, a lot of people nodded their heads affirmatively, which only shows that they simply do not know what the “dirty business of politics” is all about. But then, American Christians, at least the modern kind, have never been known for their acumen and understanding of the way the real world works.
I also brought up a line from Billy Joel’s song, Piano Man, which should be familiar–“And the waitress is practicing politics as the businessmen slowly get stoned…”, and explained that politics, outside the government angle, is nothing more than the manipulation of people for personal gain, which, if true, ought to provoke outrage on the part of Christians toward the practice. It was at this point that I was quite unceremoniously booted from the floor and the rest is history.
“Politics is the practice of getting what you want by manipulating other people and is always at their expense, to their detriment.” (My own description of politics. Click the link, scroll down until you find it.)
Unfortunately, politics, even in government is manipulation of some people by other people, all with one purpose (usually unspoken) in mind: control and power. Control and power. Virtually everyone is consumed with gaining power over others so that their behavior and actions can be controlled. Christians usually bring up the subject of “morality” and the dire need to make people behave the way they ought to, that is, in the manner that Christians think they ought to, because, you know, the country is diving headlong into the sewer of “immorality” and needs to be rescued. Or else, there will be hell to pay. Of course! There always is. Whether anyone else wants their version of morality or not is irrelevant. It must be done! We must get involved! We must vote! Vote! Vote! Vote for the lesser of two evils, even if that means the System as a whole becomes more evil, which mechanism is really a rear-guard action that does nothing to stop the onslaught of evil, but only slows it down a little. In the end, evil wins.
“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false face for the urge to rule it.” — H.L. Mencken
“Voting is nothing more than choosing whose hand holds the club with which you are beaten. It does nothing to stop the beatings.” — another of my own quotes. You can quote me on that.
Should Christians be involved in politics? If politics is a “dirty business” and the manipulation of people for personal benefit, then the answer is an unqualified “No, they should not.” This comports with the message of the Gospel of Jesus to keep oneself unspoiled from the world and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. However, as Christians, we are also enjoined to act as leavening agents to affect the world condition in which we find ourselves so that the entire structure is bettered by our actions. This seeming contradiction can be resolved in only one way–by determining where and in whom we place our trust and faith. As Christians, we are enjoined to have trust and faith in God alone, yet we continue to disregard this advice in preference to putting our trust and faith in man-made institutions, especially the modern form of government, that is, the totalitarian State, which encompasses and controls everything. As Christians, we have sold our souls for a pot of message, and it is coming back to bite us as a very bad case of acid reflux and dysentery. If we continue to gorge ourselves on this feast, it will kill us.
Belief and participation in the world system lead to death. This is a fact we must face and recognize as truth. Yet, knowing this, we still labor under the illusion that we can sway and impact “politics” in a positive way, for the better, if we join in, work with, and merge into the prevailing protocol. We think that we can “clean up” politics and The System if we just engage it and add our voice to the cacophony, yet we fail to understand that, in doing so, we soil ourselves and reinforce the message that men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.
At heart, we refuse to trust God. We would rather trust government. We would rather be practitioners of “the lesser of two evils” than turning away from evil entirely. We would rather beggar our neighbor through the application of law than to love our neighbor in service to him. We prefer to think we are holy because we go to church on Sunday morning and practice all the “accepted” perfunctory deeds that are expected, yet we do not know that our lives are as filthy rags in His sight. Yes, indeed, and I am the greatest of sinners, to paraphrase the apostle Paul.
What, then, shall be done? How, then, shall we live? Well, there is nothing to do except to change myself into and in conformance with His likeness, to become holy as He is holy, to accept that there is no other name except His by which I am saved. This alone brings freedom. It is the only path to life. Nothing else will work. Everything else will fail.
You can rationalize all you want. You can make all the excuses you want. You can delude yourselves until the chickens come home to roost. In the end, you are only deceiving yourself. There is only one way. Everything else will fail.
Everything else will fail.
Poor Roger's Almanac 
RELIGION AND POLITICS ARE INSEPARABLE! Our religion determines our politics and our politics reflects our religion.
As Kingdom Ambassadors, our politics must then reflect and advance our King’s Kingdom and law, per Matthew 6:10 & 33 and related passages.
This begs a question:
At the very least, people who vote in the Constitutional Republic’s unbiblical election process, vote for the lesser of two evils. However, without knowing it, those who vote are sometimes voting for the worst of the worst. And always, the evil of two lessers.
BUT should we, as ambassadors of the King of kings and His kingdom, be voting in the first place? Is it God’s plan for us to vote for civil leaders or is this merely another of the constitutional framers’ “better” replacement ideas?
One of the dumbest things the constitutional framers did was to usurp the Bible’s one-God, one-vote election system (per Deuteronomy 17:15, etc), thereby turning election “discretion” over to We the People the majority of whom, according to Christ in Matthew 7:13, are in the broad way leading to *destruction.* If ever you’ve wondered how America’s ended up on the precipice of destruction, now you know!
Add to that Article 6’s Christian test ban whereby mandatory biblical qualifications (such as, Exodus 18:21) were eliminated and you have the perfect recipe disaster.
For more, see blog article “Constitutional Elections: Dining at the ‘Devil’s Table,'” at bible versus constitution dot org. Search title on our Blog.
For how the Bible’s election system operates, see blog article “Salvation by Election.” Don’t be fooled by the title.
For more regarding Article 6’s Christian test ban, see Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of free online book “Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.” Click on the top entry on our Online Book page and scroll down to Chapter 9.
Thank you. I like the way you phrased the comment, “And always, the evil of two lessers.” I am going to figure out a way to incorporate that into my arguments.
I am in total agreement with you on the issue of “We, the People” and have deep contempt for the concept. As far as I am concerned, it is nothing more than an idol, a false god set up to worship, and it is evident that the average person in America today bows before it. If We, the People, is our bedrock and foundation, then we are on very unstable soil.
I do not understand your connection between Deuteronomy 17:15 and the Constitutional election system. Deuteronomy 17:15 says, “You shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses: one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you: you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.”
This says nothing at all about the PROCESS by which a king (leader, president, etc.) is chosen, except that the members of society are to accept that God Himself has chosen him, which opens up a can of worms. HOW is this supposed to work? Does God supernaturally impose someone on the group in such a way that everyone recognizes him? Are we expected to follow the advice and wisdom of a “prophet” who has the word of the Lord? Which prophet? Do we accept a convocation of “wise men” and their consensus? You might say that the Constitution is a result of that and you know where it has gotten us.
Really now, doesn’t the quoted verse simply say that the leader is supposed to be drawn from among the group, as opposed to a stranger being brought in from outside? Doesn’t this comport with the constitutional requirement that the President must be a natural-born citizen, the child of a natural-born citizen, or have resided within the community long enough to have become part of it? I am confused as to how you twist that around to make it fit your viewpoint on elections.
Hi Roger!
Thanks for responding! I’m pleased to see we have so much in common.
If you’ll check out the two blog articles I cited above, I believe you’ll find the answers to your questions.
If you prefer audio, let me know and I’ll let you know where to find them.
Also, if interested, I’d love to send you (or anyone else here) a complimentary copy of the 85-page “Primer” of “Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective.”
I just need an address to send it to, which, for privacy, can be emailed me at t weiland @ vistabeam dot com.
Ummm, no. You didn’t provide any links. I’m not going to copy and paste, nor will I expect my own readers to do that. You put up something clickable, maybe someone will take advantage of it. Maybe not.
Or you could just explain in a few paragraphs exactly what you are driving at.
Good evening, Roger!
Many sites don’t allow for URLs, so I provided it as I did. My apologies.
Following are the links to the two blog articles I cited, along with the link to the book I cited:
For more, see blog article “Constitutional Elections: Dining at the ‘Devil’s Table,'” at http://www.constitutionmythbusters.org/constitutional-elections-dining-at-the-devils-table/
For how the Bible’s election system operates, see blog article “Salvation by Election” at https://www.constitutionmythbusters.org/salvation-by-election/ Don’t be fooled by the title.
For more regarding Article 6’s Christian test ban, see Chapter 9 “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land” of free online book “Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective” at https://www.bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/blvc-index.html
Roger, I offer a story, taken from an excellent novel on the Spanish Civil War. As you know, fascists vs. communists – although even within each label there were other groups, etc.
Barcelona was more favorable to the communist side. Being a Catholic in this region was almost certain to bring persecution, if not death. Now, I could take a shortcut here – bypassing the more sobering point to the story…well, I will offer the shortcut, then get to the more sobering point.
A Catholic in Barcelona would much prefer the fascists led by Franco. It doesn’t mean they thought godly everything that Franco touched. It just meant relative safety for them and their families.
The more sobering story: before the war broke out, one of the sons of this Catholic family donated blood to a man, saving the man’s life. Turns out this man was a fanatical communist.
He would go on to protect the family during the fighting – with firearms and whatever else – from his fellow communists. He said, to the mother: “not even God can get through me to you.” She would smile, understanding his point even though it was a very poor way to phrase it.
So, I am not sure what I am saying – and, for sure you know how I feel about the lot of them (all the likely winners are supporters of genocide; it doesn’t get more evil than this). Maybe instead of considering it as the lesser of two evils, we consider all as fallen, but some less fallen than others.
Even with this said, I still don’t know how I feel about any of it. The way politics is practiced in a relativist, atheist society, is ugly – even in its least-fallen form.
Bionic, I appreciate the story even though it was taken from a novel. Would something like this have actually happened in real life? It certainly could have and I am sure that similar things have, albeit under different circumstances.
In a very real sense, evil (and good) ride on a sliding scale. Obviously, telling a lie to an acquaintance is not in the same class as the torture, rape, and murder of a young woman, yet I have to keep in mind that if I know what I am doing is evil, then I am guilty regardless of the offence and it doesn’t matter the degree of evil.
Like you, I am using this blog to work my way through these issues and this is one of them. Unlike you, I am a little more aggressive and a little less refined in the way I put things. That might change, I don’t know. I can’t say. Sometimes, I try to provoke a reaction. Unfortunately, even those provocations usually result in silence.
I may be flogging a dead horse.
Roger, I appreciate your style and tone; yes, different than mine but always moving me to think. Your blog posts and your comments at my sits are always worth deep consideration.
I am going to write something on this topic at my original blog. I will link back to this post.
Thank you, Bionic, I will be watching for it.
[…] But, no, probably not. I’m in the process of cleaning myself up and, regardless how you might portray it, politics is dirty. […]