A Case and Defence of
DEMOCRATIC CHRISTIANITY
Christians are separated politically.
Christian Democrats express their political allegiance in Christ's name by working within the political structure democratically. Their political involvement is not a compromise with the world, or a surrender to heathens or heretics, or a capitulation to influences of the word.
Instead, their civic mission is to saturate political life with "the more important matters of the law: justice, mercy and faithfulness (Matt. 23:23b)." Because our Democratic-Republic is not a theocracy, their mission is to carryout God's will within the structure of the State. Therefore, Christian Democrats are obligated to work with the given political culture, much of which is humanistic, naturalistic, materialistic, and empirically based. To fulfil their God given calling, they must patiently work to influence the political world in ways that bring it incrementally closer to God's ideal.
Christian Democrats are guilty of being social reformers. Like former Christian reformers throughout history they are not bringing something heathen or heretical into Christianity. On the contrary, they are bringing Christianity into the world*1." Their political mission is not to disassemble and reassemble institutional structures, but to the work within them to redeem and restore their moral political potential.
More importantly, the ultimate goal for the Christian Democrat is not to impose Christian morality on the citizens, nor is it simply the creation of a moral and just governmental structure, but Christian Democrats are called to assure a just and free environment in which the Gospel can flourish harmoniously within society.
Many other Christians consider Christian Democrats immoral apostates following the world's corrupt liberal passions. Instead faithful to God's calling, the opposite is true. They actually stand against the destructive forces of self-interest, which naturally corrupt moral judgement of any political system.
When considering matters of good and evil Christians of all persuasions rely on the Biblical record of Christ's life, teaching, death, and resurrection as their authority. Because Jesus didn't specify a specific political system Christians must seek to influence the existing system in conformity with Christ's principles; "love thy neighbor as thy self", and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Both D. & R. Christians must rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit to inform their moral intuition within political limits, which means any moral judgement that does not contradict the Bible or the Spirit is worthy of thoughtful political implementation. C. S. Lewis offers some practical suggestions in determining those political limits.
Lewis claimed that buried within each person's conscience is a universal consistent basic "moral intuition." It operates as an intuitive awareness that rules our appetites and passions. This moral intuition, over time retreats behind self-interest (sin). Nevertheless, Lewis described this moral intuition in its most basic form as an understanding that, "love is good and hatred is bad, and that helping is good and harming bad."*2 In other words moral intuition is the law of love given by Christ Jesus.*3
The ultimate desire of all Christianity is that everyone will enter a relationship with God through Christ and be saved from life-corrupting sin. So it is disappointing, that Christianity is divided politically, and that the wedge separating them is moral. Yet, the tragedy persists. It is not that one wants sin to continue and the other wants it to cease. It's a matter of how to best achieve the moral goals they share.
One side believes moral behavior can and should be forcibly imposed on a diverse citizenry, while the other side believes forced morality only compounds and increases immorality among those who choose to evade or profit from their defiance.
Therefore, the division between Christian D's and R's is not over an obligation to follow God's moral law, but the emphasis placed on two different means of achieving moral compliance. The R Christians and even the none Christians Rs, believe that top down governmental pressure can successfully demand obedience to the moral law, while Christian D's propose other strategies .
Throughout the Bible we are given proof that the law imposed from above is an ineffective method of producing morality in a nation or in individuals. Morality is not a trickle-down commodity. Establishing, or rather redeeming the rule of God's implanted moral intuition requires a change from the inside out, not the outside in.
Unfortunately, even though both D & R Christians can agree on the same moral obligations, they continue to argue over the most effective and just way of achieving God's moral ends politically. The problem then is two different points of view. One believes that government can and should mold the moral character of its citizens. The other believes political force can never do what religion is ordained by God to do. And so not only do they argue, but accuse each other of every form of evil imaginable, forgetting that both arguing*4 and slander are immoral.
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*1 St. Thomas Aquinas
by G. K. Chesterton
*2 Why I'm Not A Pacifist
by. C. S. Lewis
*3 Mark 12:30-31
*4 Titus 3:9
*5 2Tim. 3:15
