Politics and My Worldview

I have previously written three essays on my general worldview.  My feeling is that there are three main questions that a person’s worldview should answer.  Firstly, where did I come from?  Secondly, why am I here?  And thirdly, where am I going?  If you are curious, those three essays give my answers.  One may classify this essay as part of the answer to the second question.

If you have read some of my writings, you may be asking yourself why such a deep thinker as Dave/Doc Dave/Granddaddy would deal with such a mundane topic like politics.  Everyone knows that politics can be corrupt, subjective, and divisive.  Politics are also confusing because one never has all the information and what he does have is changing.  It may be a fool’s errand to even write about it.  But I am looking for the human being who does not have a political opinion.  That opinion may be well-thought-out or haphazard; it may be a daily fine-tuned process, or it may just come out of hibernation during certain falls of the year; it may be inflexible or adaptive to new input.  Historically, we have seen politics that kill and heal.  Politics can make politicians who are revered or who are revolting.  For some of us, politics is like a hobby.¹ But there is a possibility that, in the future, politics will take on a more serious role for all of us.  So, how does all this fit into one’s worldview?  Let me revisit the second general question: Why Am I Here?  The answer has many components; politics is just one of those components.

Jesus was talking to a crowd on a mountainside.  He said, “You are the salt of the earth.” and “You are the light of the world.”² One might ask, “How can a human being be salt and light?”  Both word pictures imply that people can be something and that people can do something.  Both are positive.  Both also impact others. The number of ways in which a follower of Jesus will manifest being salt and light are many, but one of them is relating to government.  I think that man would be happy if God just kept His nose out of it, but the Creator chooses differently. “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.”³ The Bible does not say much about the method of how those “governing authorities” got there to begin with.  Those of us living in the USA get them by an election which basically is who gets the most votes with electoral college votes determining the presidency.  We have a method in choosing and we have a responsibility to obey those chosen.

So, back to the salt and light concept in relation to politics.  Salt has a preserving function, a maintaining function, especially in olden times when meat was salted.  In politics, what is worth preserving?  The Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the rule of law are good places to start.  Did the Constitution need to be amended?  Yes.  Do laws need to be fine-tuned and new ones established?  Yes.  Can bad laws be enacted and require some salt?  Yes.

Now, light is different.  Its main function is to eliminate darkness, physically, mentally, and on a lower level of importance, politically.  I am not claiming to have the light for all these places of darkness, but I know the One Who does.  And based on the Matthew passage, He wants His people to be involved in that process.  Light also is intimately connected to truth.  Truth is not a popular topic nowadays, and it is getting to be an unwanted restriction for modern man who prefers “his truth.” Examples abound of people regarding truth as not real or not worth seeking out.  Striving for truth and even yearning for truth has never been easy, but integrity has never been easy either.  I do not know anyone, including myself, who always shows integrity and always has a handle on truth.  Even the best among us have their lights flicker; the “maybes” overwhelm us, and we have to fight to remember that there is right and wrong, there is truth and there is falsehood.

Now, back to politics.  For the Christian believer, there is the realization that we live in a post-Christian nation, or rather a post-nominal-Christian nation.  Whatever the stage, at least there was a notion of separation of Church and State, which was originally designed to protect the Church from the State, not the other way around.  Even during the founding of the United States, there was the sense that freedom could not be simply be defined as “don’ts,” but rather by the “do’s” found in Biblical principles of love and sacrifice.  These principles enjoyed a level of respect that has pretty much evaporated.  So, when the believer is faced with a slate of candidates for political office, there is usually not the “Christian choice” vs. the “anti-Christian choice.” He or she is just faced with a choice.

We most often have to struggle with being in the uncomfortable position of pragmatism⁴.  We would like to have a candidate who loves Jesus, who is unquestionably qualified, and who is a person of integrity.  But we always get someone who is less than the above.  We are also handicapped by the fact that we do not have divine insight.  God is sovereign and we are not!  I remain a conservative in politics, as well as in theology, finances, grammar, and manners (the spoon and knife to the right and the fork to the left).  I believe that God has provided and conserved a governmental structure that has protected the Church and the freedom of religion.  I prefer what is in place vs. endless possibilities; I prefer what has worked pretty well vs. experimentation.  As one reads Romans 13:1-7, one realizes that God is not passive in ordaining governments and rulers.  It behooves us to strive after His model, in spite of the fact that history is full of aberrances.

Fortunately, we are not left without some guidance in choosing our worldview and our leaders.  Thinking in Biblical terms–I will not give specific references, but they are available upon request– what does a believer look for?  Bulleting my thoughts may help (the order is arbitrary).

• Honesty
• Protecting of pre-born life
• Maintaining God’s definition of marriage, not man’s
• Elevating the traditional family
• Maintaining that people are accountable for their actions
• Working for one’s own well-being is normal and expected.
• Government functioning to protect us from bad people
• Encouraging charity
• Sacrificing for others is noble.
• Truth in the sciences is to be pursued

So, there you have it: an overview of politics contained in a worldview that answers the question of “Why am I here?”   If the reader is not a Christian believer, the above may sound too restrictive and old-fashioned.  Certainly, everyone is free to formulate his/her own approach to living and to living with the reality of the limitation on one’s time.  The above is my answer to a profound question on how to then live.  What is yours?

1. A process in which a person invests a lot of time, derives pleasure, and is hopelessly convinced of continued improvement. It is poorly understood by those who do not share that particular interest.
2. Matthew 5:13,14
3. Romans 13:1
4. In philosophy: an approach that assesses the truth of meaning of theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application. My Definition: what works the best or who fits the best