God's Politics?

Before I get carried away here, let me be clear, I am a capitalist. I am. As are 99.9% (totally made up statistic) of the people in the West who “hate capitalism”. Hemp clothes and necklaces be damned! You guys are capitalists too! “Not having a good job” doesn’t mean you’re not a capitalist because mooching off your capitalist parents and friends is capitalism too. So please don’t add this post to the ever increasing “thoughts on capitalism” editorials floating around out there by people who are dependant on capitalism. I’m a capitalist whether I think it’s a Christian value or not.

All I’m simply trying to point out is that the church in the West, and especially in the States, have found people “to tell them what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3). And in this case, we (the church) have embraced capitalism as, not only an American value, but also a Christian one. But it’s not. And those of you who come with the “God helps those who help themselves” quote need to know that you’re quoting John Smith, not the Bible.

Some will accuse me of becoming anti-American or liberal as a result of moving to Europe. Nothing could be further from the truth. I still absolutely adore America and still think liberals are as closed-minded as conservatives are. Just as moving from one denomination to another gave me the opportunity to give some honest thought to my former church’s doctrine, so moving outside of America has given me opportunity to consider just how Christian my politics are. And so, two years later, I find myself questioning much about the American church’s politics. Over the next few months I’ll be posting some of those questions in posts I’ll title “God’s Politics?” Here’s my first question.

Has the abortion issue been the easy way out for the church? I mean, standing against abortion is important, but it involves very little, if any, responsibility on the part of the church or Christian. At most we vote Republican and maybe even write our Congressman, but once a woman actually decides not to have an abortion, the responsibility is on them. In fact, we’ll even be happy to condemn that same woman for having too many babies and sucking the welfare system dry. Children die by the millions of malnutrition and easily curable things like diarrhea every year yet I don’t see the church standing up to do something about that. Could that be because those things would take our money, time and work rather than just our vote?