Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Why the Government Shutdown Is Unbiblical
Jim Wallis, on his God’s Politics blog at Sojourners, writes: “The issues here are deeper than politics now; they are moral, and, I would argue, theological. Too often our political affiliation drives our theological worldview instead of our theology driving our politics. The Bible speaks clearly about the role of government, and that is what really is being challenged here. It’s time for those people of faith who want to shut down the government to read their Bibles. Because pressuring the nation to shut down the government, instead of keeping debate within the political process, is contrary not only to our best political traditions, but also to what our Scriptures say.” He is not simply prooftexting here, not cherry-picking a few select verses to buttress his point. In other words, he is not acting in the manner of those who pull a single verse out of context to justify their caricature of poor people and show their disdain (“Anyone unwilling to work should not eat”), while totally ignoring verses like Proverbs 17:5 (“Those who mock the poor insult their Maker.”). Wallis is looking at the whole of Scripture and pointing out the overall theological and biblical principles that emphasize justice and compassion and that spell out human government’s two-fold purpose. Read what that two-fold purpose is — and all the other points he is making.
