Thursday, August 23, 2007

W2K Part Two: Whose Christian Agenda?

I've made this observation before, but I find it curious that those who advocate the Church's active role in social and political affairs spend so much time arguing for the transformation of culture that they rarely get around to answering an even more important question:

"Transformation into what?"

The reason for this omission, I think, is that we all know what kind of culture we're aiming for (wink wink). This explains the woman's comment (recounted in the Christianity and Liberalism post) that church planting in the Pacific Northwest would be so much easier if there were more right-wing culture warriors up here. This also explains the commenter's question (under the Exclusiveness of Christianity thread) which implied that the two kingdoms doctrine assumes that God is neutral about the sinfulness or uprightness of society.

The answer, of course, is that less sin is always better than more. But let's stop for a moment and ask why American Christians fear sins like fornication and homosexuality (which he listed) but rarely lose sleep over such "white-collar" sins as the exploitation of the poor and the lust for power, whether corporate or imperial.

So next time a well-meaning Christian passionately advocates the Church's role in the redemption of culture, just experiment a bit by responding, "I totally agree with you! So what ideas do you have about putting Nike out of business?"

(Insert blank stare here)