21 October 2010

Constantinian Power Ethics

or

Lies in the cause of Constantinianism


Sharron Angle has been running numerous political ads which can only be described as dishonest and dirty.

Besides her really bizarre and almost unintelligible statements, she continually makes comments that can only be described as racist. Though this heresy is openly rearing its head in Theonomic circles at present, it has long been a latent tendency among the white Evangelical community. It needs to be condemned. Evangelicals have recently revised history and suddenly made Martin Luther King into some kind of hero they identify with. It's very strange, because only twenty years ago he was denounced by white Evangelicals. I was taught to despise him, but now we have people like Colson who not only praise him, they try to 'claim' him as one of their own!?!



King on many levels can be described as a hero or an inspiration, but a Christian? I'm somewhat dubious. For a Sacralist this is a problem. If he's good, we have to claim him, for anything 'good' MUST be Christian. I would rather say in the case of King, his Christianity was heretical, yet his voice for black Americans was a good thing. I can acknowledge good in unbelievers because of Common Grace. Even the lost may help the unredeemed and unredeemable world.

Most Christians reject these concepts, and despite the lip service, we find a strong racial undercurrent to much of what is happening right now in American politics. I argue it's largely fed by Sacralist sympathies. Christian equals American, and for white Evangelicals, the American mythos and vision don't include people of other races. This whole way of thinking needs to repented of. The off-colour jokes and little knowing nods of the head that are conducted in private cannot be hid by someone like Angle. I'm sorry to say it, but she doesn't seem to have enough wit to hide her true feelings.

While hardly a fan of Harry Reid we need to think about what's happening here. Reid is a Mormon and thus quite lost. Angle professes to be an Evangelical Christian and thus I'm afraid her actions need to be examined. Since she professes Christ, the standard we judge her by is quite different.

While I expect politicians to lie and manipulate, a so-called Christian politician must exclude this type of behaviour and tactic. Does this mean they will fail? Oh well, then they fail. We don't go to Egypt for help, we don't fight with Saul's armour. If Angle is really fighting the Lord's battles, which she's not, she should tell the truth and try to conduct herself and her campaign in a Christian manner. Has she done this?

Somehow we are to believe that Harry Reid has enacted tax cuts for illegal immigrants and tried to extend social benefits to them? Look up her ads on YouTube. The claims are illogical and dishonest. Illegal aliens aren't filing taxes, looking for refunds, they're not registering to vote, and I'm sorry they're not able to get federal loans for college or sign up for SSI. Conservative commentators make these types of statements but if you bother for two seconds to look into it, you realize how silly it is. This is nothing more than racially based fear mongering. In fact many Christian commentators also make statements about the poor and other groups that show they have virtually no understanding of the realities people face nor how the system works.

How did Christianity become respectable and middle class in its values and sympathies? That's another discussion, but one rarely asked in American circles.

Recently Angle made some ridiculous claim that Reid supported Viagra for convicted sex offenders. What she means is that there wasn't a specific proviso in the health reform legislation that excluded sex offenders from possibly having access to something like Viagra. Therefore, under this tortured logic, since Reid supported the Bill, he must indeed want sex offenders to have access. It's not merely absurd, it is deliberately manipulative and dishonest.

As one commentator pointed out today, under that same kind of logic we could say…since Angle supports extending the Bush tax cuts, but hasn't argued for a specific provision to exclude convicted sex offenders from participating in the tax cut…therefore Angle supports tax cuts for sex offenders. It's ridiculous.

The problem here is Sharron Angle and her handlers are not interested in truth, because they're not Christians and have no idea what it even is. They're Americanists and nothing more. I'm afraid I have to conclude she is pawn, but those who selected her certainly made a poor choice.

Again, I expect people like Reid to lie, but when professing Christians like Angle, O'Donnell, DeLay, and Gingrich engage in this type of behaviour, it belies their rejection of Christ and the embracing of power. They are worshipping an idol which permits an end justifies the means type of ethic. In the Pennsylvania Senate race, the Christian Pat Toomey has denounced Joe Sestak as a radical leftist. Sestak is a retired Admiral with over thirty years in the Navy. Is this honest? A retired Admiral, a leftist?

We could also mentioned Newt Gingrich leading the charge against Clinton. He was a perjurer in the Lewinsky affair. No doubt, but what a disgrace that we now know that Gingrich was at that very moment involved in an adulterous affair. Today, he's cheered by Christian audiences and there's even talk of him running for president. We could go. We could talk about Sarah Palin and the absurd and really disgusting mess in Kentucky involving Rand Paul where the name of Christ has become something of a football.

Of course through all this, the enemies of the Lord have great occasion to blaspheme. Christians cannot hope to compete in the power-game with pagans and not be compromised. It simply doesn't work and is incompatible with the portrait presented to us in the New Testament. Sacralists love the Old Testament, but do not understand it. Rather than seeing Christ on every page, they see nationalism, power, and the sword…just like the Pharisees of the first century who missed the Messiah when He stood right before them.

So again, whether you're left, right, or hopefully neither....as Christians we ought to be concerned with what's happening in Christ's name, in the realm of American politics.