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blue bits. red rocks.
Monday 1 March 2010

At the heart of the rule of God is the concept of justice. The Bible speaks unrelentingly of the importance of caring for the poor, the widows, and orphans, and of welcoming the foreigner in our land. Jesus himself taught us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, to show compassion for the poor and hungry, and to expose acts of injustice to public scrutiny. There is simply no way that one can live in the way of Jesus without becoming involved in politics – the systems by which the State determines how wealth and resources are acquired and allocated. Even the failure to act is itself a political act. “[T]he social inaction of the church implies – whether consciously or not – a political stance,” writes Jorge Tasin in The Justice Project, a recent compilation of essays on the subject of justice, “By remaining silent and uninvolved, the church tacitly supports the status quo and the powers of the moment.” If Tasin is right, then even the “wall of separation” must be seen as an impediment to God’s rule, and bringing down the wall won’t be easy. Some, for example, fed by a steady diet of radio talk shows and cable news punditry that promote a self-interested worldview, no doubt find much comfort in a faith that is safely compartmentalized from the political. Yet I believe it is important to begin to engage the imaginations of our faith communities with new visions – ideas that are not motivated by the politics of Left or Right – but by a prophetic vision of what our communities, our nation and our world might look like as it is transformed by the in-breaking of Heaven. The Myth of Christian Political Neutrality

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