A Vague Disconcertion

First of all, I really like the conception of this discussion (hats off to you, Matthew). I have had a vague notion for some time that something approaching this issue is central to the future movement of the Church--the Religious Right movement (and particularly the pro-life aspect thereof) set us on this path decades ago. Of course, that is just in America--I'm hardly qualified or versed in recent cultural history to speak about the West in general or the world, for that matter.

Still, as I read recent posts, I find a strong push from several voices towards moving the discussion into the realm of the individual and the family. If this tendency among us were for the purposes of illustration or simplification I'd hardly object, but what I hear is a strong leaning towards a kind of libertarian familial isolationism... and against that, I have to... well... interject that it makes me uncomfortable.

Certainly, I don't plan on entering politics personally--rather, I want to do more or less what my parents did: raise a family in its own culture not entirely divorced from, but certainly not overly credulous of, that which surrounds it. But is this really what the Church as a whole is being called toward? Is it the heart, somehow, of Christianity? Is it a symptom of decay and decadence? Is it purely a cultural preference that we hyper-individualistic Americans latch onto with a vengeance, scenes and half scenes of Little House on the Prairie flashing momently through our brains?

And for all of that, what do we say to those Christians who do enter politics? 'Play by the rules, but kind of try to change things to fit Christian values a little bit, but not too much because we don't want to seem like we're melding Church and State?' No. When it comes down to it, I don't really know where I stand on this issue, but I don't think either extreme is going to work. To turn the Church into the State corrupts inevitably; but to remove the Church from the State will serve only to turn the latter into a very twisted reflection of the former.

We can escape politics personally, if we choose, because we live in a Democracy that functions reasonably well with only a small minority of people really getting involved--actually, widespread apathy seems to be one of the pillars that holds up the system--but just because it's not our problem to deal with, or because we have been called into service in another area of the polis where our politics and our religion don't seem to run into one another, does not mean that discussing the ideal, or most practical, or most stable form of the chimera which is religious AND political life is wrong or wrongheaded. I know precisely how cheesy this sounds, but honestly if all Christians withdrew in that way, we'd have some weird inversion of the tale where Belaraphon slays only the lion portion of the monster by filling Pegasus' belly with molten lead... then walks up and offers himself as a mid-afternoon snack.

For all that, the extremes are respectable if you are willing to accept the consequences of their actuality... but perhaps that's another discussion for another time. I'll just say that I would be sorry to see this vital discussion morph away from what seems to me a very important issue: how on God's mostly blue Earth do we, as Christians, deal with politics?