FPC Northshore - Danvers Campus Adult CE

1. Engaging Politics
Engagingly
ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL, FPC DANVERS, SEPTEMBER 18, 2016

2. Who’s This?

3. Ok, But Who is This?

4. Well Done, but Who is This?

5. Well Done, but Who is This?
Martha Healey
Attorney General
Commonwealth of Massachusetts

6. Quick Review of Week One
Seven fold framework for the class
Engage – Engagingly
Politics is “downstream from culture”

7. Engage, Engagingly
1. God’s Glory is our end
2. Justice and Shalom are our goals
3. Jesus is our model, of course, but WWJD is not that helpful
1. We are to follow Jesus, not “mimic” him – James K.A. Smith
4. The Holy Spirit is our guide… motivating and directing us
5. The scriptures are our “spectacles” to read God’s creation for identifying appropriate norms for
political life…
1. A lamp unto our feet… one doesn’t stare at the lamp, one uses the lamp to keep one’s eyes
on the path
6. History is our teacher (we are not the first to think about these things: from Augustine to Skillen
at least)
7. Humility, Civility, Persuasion, Prudence, Wisdom and Discernment are our means

8. Why this title for the class?
 Engage = to become involved
 Engaging = winning, attractive, pleasing
 Too often Christians either dis-engage, or they
engage “enragingly” rather than engagingly

9. Politics Downstream from Culture: At
least these three ideas in mind…
1) If the culture is not in favor of a law, the law is meaningless
 E.g. Long list of silly laws… see Legal Zoom for one example

10. Politics Downstream from Culture: At
least these three ideas in mind…
1) If the culture is not in favor of a law, the law is meaningless
 E.g. Long list of silly laws… see Legal Zoom for one example
2) If the culture is in favor of something, then NOT
having the law be in synch with the culture is ok
E.g. Abortion could be “legal”, but there may be no abortions
because the culture has decided on abstinence and adoption as
superior alternatives

11. Politics Downstream from Culture: At
least these three ideas in mind…
1) If the culture is not in favor of a law, the law is meaningless
 E.g. Long list of silly laws… see Legal Zoom for one example
2) If the culture is in favor of something, then NOT having the law be in synch with the culture is ok
 E.g. Abortion could be “legal”, but there may be no abortions because the culture has decided on abstinence and adoption as superior
alternatives
3) If we want to change the laws, we need to
change the culture first
 Good example: Wilberforce and slavery
 Not-so-good-example: same sex marriage: Will & Grace, Ellen, et al

12. Weekly Agenda
1. Short Bible Study
2. Political Philosophy Lesson and / or
Current Event “exegesis”
3. Very Short Book Review
4. Cool Tools for further exploration
5. Open Ended Discussion Question

13. Agenda Item One:
Short Bible Study on John 18:33-38
Q: how many times did Jesus say the
word“church”?
Q: how many times did Jesus say the
word “kingdom”?

14. Agenda Item One:
Short Bible Study on John 18:33-38
 Q: how many times did Jesus say the word“church”?
 Q: how many times did Jesus say the word “kingdom”?
A: only three, and over 100

15. My Kingdom is not “of this world”
John 18:33ff: So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called
Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus
answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others
say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your
own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to
me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is
not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my
servants would have been fighting, that I might not be
delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from
the world.”

16. Discussion questions on John 18:36
What is your first reaction to this text
relative to Christians and Politics?
Does it make you want to be more
engaged or less?

17. John 18 – Textual Questions
 Greek: ouk estin ek tou kosmou toutou… ouk estin enteuthen
 DTV: “Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world…
my kingdom is not from here.”
 Two things in view:
1.) the kingdom that is Jesus’ and no one else’s;
2.) the kingdom that is from another place

18. What kind of king is Jesus?
 Hebrews 7: “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek”
 King of Salem (Jerusalem) (also, shalom = peace)
 King of Righteousness (Hebrew, melech = king + zedek =
righteousness)
 Priest and king (and prophet too)
 NOT a king like Caesar, or Herod, etc

19. Implication One
Reading the bible should influence
how we think about politics.

20. Implication One
Reading the bible should influence how we think
about politics.
But sometimes how we think
about politics influences how we
read (translate) the bible.

21. Implication Two
 Jesus is the King -- of all places for all time
of Heaven and Earth,
in the past, NOW, and in the future
 His kingdom does not originate in this world, but his
kingdom is over this world and for this world.
 His is an earthly Kingdom (and a heavenly one), but
not a “worldly” kingdom

22. Implication Three
 The character of Jesus’ Kingdom is not like any in this
world
His is a “Peaceable Kingdom”
 (but not exactly as Hauerwas would have it)
His is an “upside down” Kingdom
the first are last, the leader is the servant of all, etc
In His Kingdom the power of persuasion not the
power of coercion is key
v. 36 If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would
have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the
Jews.

23. Agenda Item Two
Political Philosophy Lesson / Exegesis
of Current Event

24. Political Ideology in a “Secular Age”
For Christians, God is sovereign
Who is sovereign when God is cut out of
the picture?

25. Political Ideology in a “Secular Age”
Who or what becomes sovereign when
God is cut out of the picture?
People are sovereign

26. Political Ideology in a “Secular Age”
 Who is sovereign when God is cut out of the picture?
 People are sovereign
But… which “people” are sovereign?
Individual people? Or
The collective people?

27. Republican’s Platform - https://prod-static-ngop-
pbl.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/DRAFT_12_FINAL[1]-ben_1468872234.pdf
 We believe that people are the ultimate resource
 … many sections of this platform affirm our trust in the people, our
faith in their judgment, and our determination to help them take
back their country. This means removing the power from unelected,
unaccountable government.
 And this means returning to the people and the states the control
that belongs to them. It is the control and the power to make their
own decisions about what’s best for themselves and their families
and communities

28. Democrat’s Platform-
https://www.demconvention.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Democratic-
Party-Platform-7.21.16-no-lines.pdf
 Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict,
unity is better than division, empowerment is better than
resentment, and bridges are better than walls. It’s a simple
but powerful idea: we are stronger together.
 We believe in protecting civil liberties and guaranteeing
civil rights and voting rights, women’s rights and workers’
rights, LGBT rights, and rights for people with disabilities.

29. Discussion…
Which seems to focus on the “collective
people”?
Which seems to focus on the
“individual”?
Which sounds better to you?
Which is more Christian?

30. People versus The People
The State
Individual Men / Women

31. Civil Society / Mediating Structures
The State
• Schools / PTA
• Families
• Churches
• “voluntary associations”:
Eg. The Mason, The Elks, YMCA
Family Promise, Wellspring House, Place of Promise
Individual Men / Women

32. Agenda Item Three:
Book Review
See also:
The Scattered Voice
By Jim Skillen

33. Five Views on the Church and Politics
edited by Amy Black
 Amy Black, Pol.Sci. Prof at Wheaton College in Illinois
 Reformed view written by James K.A. Smith from Calvin
College and Cardus’s Comment magazine
 Other four views:
 Lutheran (paradoxical)
 Anabapist (separationist)
 Black Church (prophetic)
 Roman Catholic (synthetic)

34. Reformed View
 “The drive of Calvinism stems from optimism as to God despite
pessimism as to man” Roland Bainton
 Reformation from the beginning was a political movement (as
well as a theological movement)
 Long line of Reformed thinkers for us to focus on: from Calvin to
Kuyper to Dooyeweerd, Woltersdorff, Mouw, Chaplin and Skillen
 Reformation is bound up with convictions about creation,
culture and the common good.

35. Reformed View
Focus on the “sanctification of ordinary life”;
all of life is lived coram Deo, before God
all vocations can be holy
imago Dei; “we bear God’s image to his world by
taking up the cultural mandate”

36. Reformed View***
Politics and / as Human Culture
“the political is made by us, it is
normed by God”
The way things are is NOT the way they are
supposed to be; our job is to work toward
Shalom and justice, ie setting things right

37. Reformed View
Structural / Systematic Nature of Sin
Culture is man-made, but we can’t make it any way
we want
“Governments need to be reformed, perhaps even
overthrown, precisely because they fail to conduct
themselves according to God’s order for social,
communal, and political life.”
Disorder is a call to reorder

38. Reformed View
Sin is not just an individual issue, it takes on a life of its
own in structures that transcend the individual
JT Note: See Goudzwaard’s three step process of cultural
idolatry:
 We make idols
 We are remade in the image of our idols
 We create society in our idol-molded image
“Good policy won’t save anyone, but neither will revival
sweep away systems of unjust privilege”

39. Reformed View
 Thy Kingdom Come: Eschatology and Cultural Life
 The goal of social reform is not soteriological: it “is pursued as an end in
itself in service to the Lord of every square inch of creation. Such reform
is not a pursuit of salvation, but rather an outcome of regeneration”
 “horror at disorder”: not only offends God, but hurts neighbor
 “Disorder harms the common good; reform pursues the common good”
 “Shalom is the human being dwelling at peace in all his or her relationships: with
God, with self, with fellows, with nature” Nick W. quote
 Our eschatology should curtail any utopian activism –
JT Note: tentative and preliminary efforts – humility

40. Reformed View
 Diversity and Development in Creation.
 Gen 1-2 “all kinds of kinds” – the very good is an affirmation of
diversity
 “A reformed social vision affirms a plurality of social realities as
inherent to – and called for – by a good creation itself”
 Kuyper’s sphere sovereignty – see his Stone lectures
 Mouw and Griffeon’s associational pluralism

41. Reformed View ****
 The Role of Government and Christian Participation in Politics
 Govt is part of the Good Order of Creation
 This vision propels believers into government and politics as “necessary vocations for
creatures created in God’s image and recreated in Christ”
 Both church and government should be limited to their “sphere”
 No room for idolizing govt or thinking the pursuit of shalom is only about politiecs
 Holy ambivalence: hopeful of good, but with tempered expectations
 Politics is the art of the possible and requires compromise
 Civil society institutions are essential
 Church as institution and as organism
 “the church as institute is distinct from the state, but the church as organism is called to be
faithfully present and a reforming influence in every sphere, including the state”

42. Reformed View ***
 Principled Pluralism and Christian Influence “in the Meantime”
 Govt should make room for other spheres with other responsibilities: structural
pluralism
 Govt should uphold confessional pluralism – no discrimination for any faith or no
faith
 The Reformed perspective values the religious freedom of institutions not just
individuals (NB: Civil Rights Commission report on the contra side of this point)
 Common Grace: The Spirit Works Outside the Church, Too
 Xns have license for “strategic, selective, ad-hoc collaboration with “co-
belligerents”
 Law and policy can be channels of such common grace

43. Anabaptist View: Separationist
 Movement started in 1525, “rebaptism”
 Focus on personal ethical behavior and unity and purity of the community
of believers
 Withdrawal came to characterize their posture, but in many ways this was
forced on them by persecution
 Jesus in to be not only worshiped but followed
 Gospels > other scripture, Sermon on the Mount > all other scripture
 Nonviolence
 The Church is to be a “visibly distinct community… over against the
surrounding world”–
 Leads to disengagement, separatism???
 Yoder and Hauerwas are key contemporary advocates

44. Reformed Reaction to Anabaptist’s
View
 Anabaptist principles of political dis-engagement are “simplistic and naïve” in the
account of political life as an aspect of human culture
 They write off large swaths of creation as not only fallen but nearly diabolical
 And conversely they see the church as much “purer” than it really is.
 They limit the scope of Christ’s redeeming work and exclude the political from His
work
 The “gospels are a canon within the canon” and the Sermon on the Mount the most
canonized
 We are called to follow Jesus, not mimic Him
 Reformed folks are only after “proximate justice” knowing final justice waits for the
paraousia

45. Agenda Item #4
Cool Tools for Further Exploration
 From Alan Thompson:
 https://www.isidewith.com/
 From Lydia Okumura:
 www.albertmohler.com/the-briefing
 From John T.
 http://www.cpjustice.org/public/page/content/guidelines
 And for the millinials in the room: sharedjustice.org
 http://www.publicfaith.us/#home-section

46. Agenda Item #5
Discussion question
If Adam had not fallen into sin would
we have a government today?
If not, why not?
If so, what would it do?