This post is written in response to Terry Hull’s post: “Coming Out of the Church House to Join the Conversation†(01/19/06).
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Terry, the effort of people, and it could be anyone, but in this case it happens to be Christians, to mingle with that with which they are unfamiliar can always be amusing. Christians are struggling with regaining a political identity. Unlike Jews and Muslims who have literally had to struggle for centuries with the concept and implementation of political identity, Christians, at least in the U.S., have not had to do so for a very long time. As a result, the word “Christian†does not describe a political orientation or identity. We have to add words like “right†to get an image. Muslims and Jews have had to develop political identity as groups in order to form nation states. When was the last time a “Christian nation†was formed?
“Political identity†is not “mingled†with a Christ-centered existence. It is caused by it or it disrupts it. What I find amusing is that Christians are generally giving lip service to political identity rather than developing one. Let us say a Christian favors abolition of welfare programs. Only if that same Christian substantively and economically supports church or para-church program(s) that meet the needs of the hungry, the widow and the orphan does that same Christian have a developed Christian political identity.
Finally, Christians who are dependent upon media with a non-Christian worldview for their knowledge of the world and events, rather than media with a Christian worldview, are constantly subjecting themselves to an incomplete informational picture, or worse. In the absence of Christian political facts upon which to base development of Christian political identity, worldly perceptions can contaminate the whole.
