political ideologies are subject to salt and light

I will admit to something…I have been all over the map politically…from flaming liberal Democrat to squeakily conservative Republican.   I was wrong on both ends.

Now I might generally favor some aspects of either party over the other, but as I sit today…both parties need some salt and light by followers of Christ.  In fact, the other lesser known parties need it too.   It is because the main political parties, collections of interests of differing issues, overall are represented by an ideology.   I’ll define that as a collection of ideas, supposedly coherent in nature in that they depend upon each other and  fit together as a kind of philosophy.   I mention the word supposedly because sometimes the parties grab upon some issue to make it their own and then try to convolute the issues to make them fit into a coherent whole.   For example…the Republicans are a party for national defense, right?   Does anyone remember that the Democrats led the nation through WWII, the Korean, the Cuban missle crisis, and the beginning of the Vietnam conflict?  The Nixon came along, and conservatism (there’s that ideology again) and now the Republicans supposedly have a handle on that.   Then there were the big spending Democrats and along came G. W. and the deficit balloons.  It was to someone’s political advantage to do it…

The question is, are either (or any other) of these approaches Christian?  Is Christ reflected in the actions of a government when it comes to issues of justice, the poor, immigration, national defense, the economy, foreign policy, environment, etc.   Can we know that they are?   Is there enough scriptural evidence that either of the ideologies practiced as tools for political power have all the answers?    There simply isn’t.   When Christians are involved in politics, can you tell they are Christian?  Do they represent Christ, are they ambassadors for Him?  

When is political action undertaken merely to protect one’s own interests, even if (I have to be careful here) our interest is merely seeing that our feelings of offense at some issue are taken care of by throwing some money at it?  I would say the difference between a “bleeding heart liberal” response and Christ-like response is sometimes in the motivation for the response.   Is it to do good or to make us feel better?   Does it cost us or does it merely cost someone else?    That’s always easy…spend it when it is to your advantage and not your cost. 

 I do mean to imply that the political system is worldly and controlled by “powers” of greed, self-protection, self-interest, pride, racism, and more and I don’t mean to imply that there aren’t forces for good–self-sacrificing, well-intended, perhaps even loving powers working for good, but I would say they are rare.  

 The ideology of political freedom is hard to find in the Bible, yet for some, it is Scriptural.  The ideology that the Constitution is somehow an inspired piece of government may even be true,  but I can’t find that in Scripture either.   Free market capitalism doesn’t seem to care about some of the issues that deeply hurt people.  Socialistic responses don’t seem to care how tied down we all are as choices are reduced.  There are philosophical reasons for preferring the Government  doesn’t do much–there are also philosophical reasons for the Government to do a lot.   Which are salted by following Christ?   Which political actions reflect loving God and loving our neighbors–all of them?  

I think that whatever side you’re on, it’s important to inject Christ into the discussion–whether it is by how we do it or what we do.   Let’s call all sides to account, not just theirs.