Christians and politics

[Sadat13]

David,

I agree whole heartedly with all that you said. And I did understand what you said the "First" time without all the extra explaining. But, it sure was nice to hear someone with an intelligent mind speak.. God Bless You.

And 50 Cent Dog.....Don't put yourself down. You are not stupid... A person can have all the intelligence in the world but if they dont have "common sence" it doesnt mean a thing. And it sounds like your commons sence is just fine..

[apothanein kerdos]

I have no clue what pragmatism, naturalism, and postmodernism is. I don't know how to quote like you did. To be honest I am a male airhead.

I had a feeling that when I said that life isn't important people would take it the wrong way. What I meant was nothing is more important than having a relationship with Christ. We were not created to live apart from Christ. At this point I feel stupid but what is more important than knowing that you have eternal life?

It's okay mate...basically materialism has been developed out of those philosophies. To give a very, very, very brief summary:

Naturalism: The only true things in life are those which are observable

Pragmatism/Post-Modernism: Truth is what you make to be so long as it works for you

Those have essentially lead to materialism (to really over-simplify the subject).

Anyway, I understand what you mean now. You are right...without Christ there is no point to life. I'm reading Schaeffer's "The God who is there" and he actually deals with that....people without Christ cannot adequately explain why they live. Why do they love? Why do they have families? Why do they act as if though they have purpose? So you are bringing up a very valid point that is extremely true. Sorry I misunderstood.

[deadman1204]

I have to agree with some points of the original poster.

We spend to much time and energy in politics, far to much. Christianity can never truely achieve much in the political arena. Being the minority, real christians will never be able to stear a government. There are a great many who link themselves to chrisitans as they form a powerful political group - but how many are there for God, and how many have lost thier way, or never had it?

You cannot legislate morality. It wouldn't matter if American law exactly followed the word of God. Its not what people do, its why they do it. Stopping someone from doing something immoral doesnt help you or him. He isnt avoiding it for God (the true measuring stick,) he is avoiding it outta fear of the law.

Think of it another way. How many millions of man-hours are spent every year on political campaigns of varying sorts by christians. Imagine if we could instead apply these millions of hours to preaching, living by exanple, speading Gods word and love. Instead of trying to pass laws to keep someone from commiting a sin (who will then hate christianity because it is balking him in what he views as an unfair way.)

I would actually say that heavy politicalism has hurt the church more than anything in the last 100 years. The church is for causes, the church opposes people who dont support thier politicians or groups. All the opposition, and deal making, and distrust, and anger ect. Christianity has stopped being an "ism". Its a group of people who are trying to force thier ways onto a country. And those people who don't agree are now the enemy. Look at the blatant hatred on this board for democrats. People who spend 100x more time talking about helping the poor than the party most here support. People who are human, people who can know and love God too. People who are viewed as the enemy because they are opposition. I fail to see how Jesus could condone drawing such lines between the sides.

edit: typos and clarification