Politics and Religion: Is There a Right Side for Christians

20th century Christian author GK Chesterton

Put not your trust in princes.  Wise words and yet we so seldom keep our skepticism intact when some smooth-tongued demagogue advances ideas we find attractive.  Recently my church has become more divided along political lines.  A recent article in Adventist Today remarked on how divided Adventists were on the issue of famed SDA neurosurgeon Ben Carson's 2016 candidacy for president and appeared to support efforts by Democrat progressives to "keep an eye on Carson."

Oddly enough the same folk who chided me for vocally supporting Carson, telling me Adventists were not supposed to get involved in politics, are posting one political article after another criticizing the new president and his policies and his cabinet picks - even though one of those picks was one of our own. I do not understand this in any other way than to assume that many of our magazine writers and a significant number of our influential SDA administrators and members have declared for the progressive left. If they have not, their writing and commentary certainly makes it sound that way.

So I don't get it. I sat in the same classes, the same Sabbath schools and heard the same sermons and attended the same evangelistic meetings. How does one get from all of that to progressivism?  Let me try and make my point with a little Q&A here.  Dividing the political spectrum into progressive left and conservative right, please tell me which side supports the following political goals. Remember, when I talk about the conservative right that does not mean TV evangelicals, most of whom lean to the left in their core beliefs. Okay, here we go:

POLITICS & RELIGION QUIZ:

Select conservative or liberal (progressive) as the political movement most likely to endorse the following policies:

1.  A single unified world government "with teeth" as proposed by Pope Benedict to be organized by church leaders, trade unions, industrial organizations and international political parties.
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

2.  A United Religions organization similar to the United Nations with the Pope as the logical head of the organization as proposed by Shimon Perez last year.
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

3. Signing a declaration ending the Protestant Reformation, resolution of all differences and reunification of the Christian Church under Roman Catholic leadership as proposed by Pope Francis.
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

4. Government in which individuals draw their rights from and serve the collective state rather than the state drawing its power from and serving the individual citizens as outlined in the US Constitution.
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

5. The utilization of fear of climate change, fear of big corporations, fear of not having healthcare, and fear of religion as the ultimate cause of all wars as a tool to rewrite the Constitution and impose a socialist state.
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

6.  Abolition of religion from all participation in the public square as proposed by the Freedom from Religion Coalition.
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

7. Increased regulation and government power to monitor suspect groups in opposition to the government and creation of a standing domestic army to be used to control the citizenry in the event of riots, civil disobedience or sedition as proposed by former President Obama.
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

8. Abolition of the Second Amendment and complete disarming of the citizenry.
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

9. The lobbying for and institution of Sunday closing laws as proposed by Pope Paul II and already enacted in European nations like Germany with full support of trade unions and progressive groups.
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

10. The deliberate collapsing of the US economy by overloading the welfare system in order to nationalize industry and gain control of economic organizations as outlined by Obama advisor Francis Fox Piven and Richard Cloward in their 1966 paper "The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty".
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

11. The use of techniques like unrestricted abortion and euthanasia of the elderly, disabled and sick to clean up the population of nonproductive members.
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

12. Control of the content of the curricula of local school districts by the federal government.
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

13. Free government day care for working mothers. Free government education at all levels.
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

14.  The end of personal ownership of land and property by individuals.
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

15. Guaranteed jobs, housing, food and utilities, funded by the government.
                 -  Conservative or Progressive

16. A cashless society in which the government controls whether you buy or sell (as one pundit put it, "It would virtually end crime because there would be no money to steal."

                 -  Conservative or Progressive


Scoring:

Ask yourself, if any of this creeps you out. If it doesn't, you must have slept through those evangelistic meetings, sermons, Bible classes and Sabbath schools. I know it looks like I rigged the quiz and I kinda did. Every single one of those proposed political goals I drew from a card-carrying progressive liberal. That doesn't mean Republicans won't participate in these kinds of shenanigans. Both parties are capable of serious corruption. It's just that, before you assume uncritically that liberalism is what Jesus would do, you might want to re-examine that notion a little more closely.

Just saying,

© 2017 by Tom King