God and Politics #2: The Law and The Cross

This is the second post of a four part series on God and politics. Ok, ok so it took me longer to get this out than I thought. But I have almost edited this thing to death trying to get it right. (And probably still is not enough)

Last time it seemed like I had a problem. So you ask, "What's the big deal Alan" Here is my problem with the political idea of God put forth by the average Republican. It’s incomplete. Why is this? Their version of God has to cover Catholics, Mormons, Jews, and Protestants. All have differing ways on how they try to get to God. You try fitting one version of the cross in that mix. I sure can’t. Sure, Jesus exists in the GOP version of God, but the Cross is a very vague and muddied, if not a distorted picture. And when their politics determines your view of God you wind up with…. Ta..da! A very vague and muddied, if not a distorted picture of the Cross. (As if you didn't see that one coming.) How do I know this? I have listened to enough talk radio to last me a life time.

This idea put forth of God and left unchecked and taken at face value, leads to moralism. You see, there is little to no idea of Grace there is only the Law. The Law says: You should do this and this, and your life and society will be fine. But what it fails to account for is when we fail. It may pay lip service to Grace, sure, but this ideal of God and the Law put forth knows nothing of the true concept. Why? Because the highest ideal of Republican God is the Ten Commandments, not the cross of Christ. The Law was designed to point to Christ not to be the end means that so many have made it. Sure you follow them perfectly and you will have a wonderful life. Break them, your messed up pal. So who can keep them all? But this part is skipped over. The Law of God is left there all by its self. So left to that it leads to two things: legalism and self-righteousness. And that my friends, is a dangerous place to be. I think Jesus had a lot to say about that.

Next time we will look at how Jesus himself treated politics.

God and Politics #1: Good and Moral God, Good and Moral Alan

This is the first of four bite sized post on God and Politics. Look for them to come out in fairly rapid succession. ( I know its weird I am blogging again)

I guess no one wants to interact here so I'll just stick with my ideas. (They are obviously far superior to yours). So lets just get down to the nitty griddy. Eh? This quote got me to a thinking?

We're willing to call Hugh Hewitt and Michelle Malkin and Scrappleface "GodBloggers", but on the flip side those kinds of "GodBloggers" are completely unwilling to link to (for example) aomin.org or TeamPyro. Their reasons are, well, their own, but the bottom line is that they want to be affiliated with the political idea of God and not the actual person of God because frankly, somebody might get hurt.

Just as an aside, I am not terribly familiar with the guys that Centuri0n, here was mentioning, I don't wish to question these guys salvation. I don't even read their stuff. But what I am familiar with is what he is trying to say about God being a political concept. The God of politics ( i.e. The Republican Party), is a pretty good guy. He is very black and white, so is the God of the Bible. He is against homo-sexual marriage, so is the God of the Bible. I could probably think of more, but I'll spare you the long repetitive prose of it. The point is these guys are right about some things that God is for.

I personally, have fallen into the idea of God being strictly a political idea. The idea that I was moral because of the party I voted for (or did not vote for) and my politics were my righteousness. Politics (and the God of politics) was my end all be all. Instead of God being the end all be all, my view of God was just one more thing to tack on to my idea of my own righteousness. This is one of the "good" things I held on to when I was lost. So I let my politics define my God instead of my Bible.

Next post we will look at the problem with this view God is.