Principled Pluralist Perspective (Corwin Smidt) #4: The Rest of the Political Principles

2. The nature of the church: The church is a community that observes sacraments, preaches the Scripture, and exercises discipline. But it is not a community that exists in a vacuum. The church – even beyond the visible church – is to be God’s people, but they are also to promote God’s righteousness in the culture.
3. The nature of the state: There are two key aspects to the state. It has limited powers and should secure justice. Power is limited because God has delegated authority to communities other than the state – the family for instance. Government ought not overstep their authority. Governmental power is also limited for the Christian by their conscience. Submission to God trumps submission to government.
Regarding securing justice, governments are to make sure different spheres do not encroach on the others and to make sure justice is protected. It cannot enforce every moral code, nor should it, but it should ensure that behaviors that impinge upon others’ fundamental rights should be stopped.
4. An agent of common grace: The state has nothing to do with the spiritual welfare and salvation of people, but it is an instrument of God to care for order and the general good of all people. It is an agent of common grace.
5. The call to political engagement: All of creation is touched by the fall and God wants Christians to redeem every area in the cultural mandate. No area of life is so forsaken that God does not want Christians to make a difference.
6. Political modesty, toleration, cooperation, and compromise: Even if believers have the Truth, we still see through a glass darkly (1 Cor. 13.12). Toleration only comes when there is genuine disagreement between people, but the key to government is enforcing justice. That means, even if we don’t agree with everyone, we need to cooperate and compromise for the movement toward good and God’s values – even if we can’t have everything. “The perfect should not be the enemy of the good” (p. 149).
7. Principled pluralism and public policy: Using the Charitable Choice Act, Smidt shows how it practically works. The idea being that when there is a common interest for the good, church and state should work together – like poverty. Because the circles are different, working together will reach some groups that would fall through the cracks – and the common good is accomplished.

Principled Pluralist Perspective (Corwin Smidt) #3: Definition and Political Principles

Principled Pluralism
Kuyper advanced Calvin’s views to the idea of “sphere sovereignty.” The idea of sphere sovereignty is articulated in the Introduction to this section. This perspective is good because people recognizes the real presence of different spheres and that people are networked in different ways, which is a good thing.

The principled pluralist government should also allow for a pluralism of religious belief. It is not the role of the state to determine what is right and true, but to allow for a pluralism of viewpoints. God, not even believers, will determine who are His (Mt. 13.36-43).

Political Principles
What does this look like, finally? Smidt gives several principles after making it clear that the Bible does speak to politics on some levels, but on other levels it just doesn’t speak to politics. So here are some key principles he sees for a principled pluralist church and state relationship:

1. The vital role of communities: People are social beings and communities and societies are essential features of societies. These relationships are fundamental and prior to the state and form a shield against the encroachment of the state upon individual rights while not advocating a radical individualism that is contra Scripture.

This is such a huge reality in our culture. Relationships are vital and drive much of what drives ministry to younger generations. We’ll get to more principles tomorrow.

Principled Pluralist Perspective (Corwin Smidt) #2: The Theological Basis for Principled Pluralism

The theological basis for principled pluralism is the narrative that God created everything good and sin has corrupted it all. Therefore, Jesus must redeem it. The narrative structure forms the basis of how God’s sovereignty is properly exercised for the good of a fallen creation.

Creation: the cultural mandate
Creation was the initial work of God in Genesis 1-2, but the cultural mandate of “subduing the earth and filling it” (Gen. 1.28) is more than procreation. It is the cultivation of culture. Under this cultural mandate, government would be a likely development even if Adam had never sinned.

Fall: common grace
The Fall resulted in the corruption of all of creation. Total depravity in the Reformed tradition speaks to the “breadth rather than the depth” of depravity. The fall has separated all from God’s saving grace, though it is available to those who are chosen. However, God exercises “common grace” on all people (see Mt. 5.45). Government should be an operation of “common grace,” but it, too, is tainted by sin and will fall short of ideal “common grace,” but this does not mean it should be abandoned.

Redemption: cosmic in scope
Christ comes to offer redemption, not just to people, but to the created order (Rom. 8.18-23). Believers will not “save,” in a redemptive sense, the culture, but it can be transformed to what it is intended to be. This isn’t a return to Eden since the biblical witness ends with a glorious city (Revelation). Believers need to facilitate this redemption as their able.

Conclusion
What does this mean for the church and state? It is a two powers view, but unlike Luther, the Reformed position has the two working together. The state protects the church and the church serves as a prophetic witness to the state by calling it to “common grace” righteousness.”

Principled Pluralist Perspective (Corwin Smidt) #1: Introduction

Corwin Smidt articulates the Principled Pluralist Perspective that is, according to Cochran, similar to the Catholic position (see previous posts), but this comes from a Reformed/Calvinist perspective and is particularly indebted to Abraham Kuyper, 19th century Dutch statesman and theologian. The basic gist of this perspective is that there are multiple spheres of life and God has ordained different authorities within those structures that should not encroach on the others. For instance, the state should not exercise too much authority in the family because it has a sphere of sovereignty that is largely separate from the state. However, the state should intervene when a particular “sphere” is malfunctioning, such as a case of abuse within a family, or something of that nature.

This seems like a pretty reasonable position from the basic starting point – there are some thing that are out of government’s sphere, but there’s a role for government. I guess where those lines are drawn have something to do with what we expect from our government and how we vote. Thoughts?

Financial Crisis, Catalyst, and Dave Ramsey

A timely Catalyst interview regarding the financial crisis with Dave Ramsey. I'm no financial guru, but his challenge to not live out of fear was helpful. Check it out.

http://www.catalystspace.com/content/podcast

Children of the World were fantastic!

We had World Help's International Children's Choir yesterday for the kickoff of our missions week. They were a hit. And the OC Register covered their visit. Follow the link for some great pictures and a brief description of the morning.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/children-choir-hahn-2223024-country-church

New Blog

One of my missionary friends in Germany has a blog of his sketches. Pretty cool stuff. Sketches of Kandern, Germany and other nearby cities:

http://www.kunst-by-rob.blogspot.com/