Moderates Being Forced Out of Politics

Senator Joseph Lieberman, former 2000 Vice President candidate, lost the Democratic Primary in Connecticut to Lamont today. The primary was centered around his support for the Iraq war. He says he will petition to be on the ballot in November. There are allegations that someone hacked Lieberman's website, shutting it down.

This event shows how politics are becoming increasingly divided and moderates are being pushed out. People complain, on both sides of the aisle about politicians of the opposite party voting the party line. Here in Democrats say Anne Northup votes the party line. But the truth is people get upset when someone in their party doesn't toe the party line. They expect their representative to vote with the party, but they want people of the opposite party to be bipartisan. Moderates are doom to be hated by everyone it seems. We don't want our politicians to be bipartisan, in general we despise it.

This just shows the weaknesses of our two party system, and perhaps the fact that we have parties at all. Increasingly you are forced to take your personal political beliefs, discard, and choose what you see as the lesser of two evils. I'd venture, although I have no statistics to back it up, that many people's views don't line up for the most part to the Democrats or Republicans. (Maybe I'll conduct a phone poll. "How much do you agree with this statement?: I agree totally with my party's platform. I agree strongly. I agree slightly. I neither agree nor disagree. I disagree slightly. I disagree strongly.") George Washington when leaving office warned us to beware of political parties, and it would seem he was right. Although, its almost unavoidable though. People tend to associate with like-minded people, including in politics. The problem is there aren't enough exactly like-minded people to effect change. So, one is forced to compromise beliefs, values, ideas for the sake of a few of them. Perhaps the good thing is at least we have stability with a two-party system. In countries with many parties they have coalition governments which are unstable.

I wish Joe Lieberman the best of luck. I hope he wins his district. I wish there was a way to avoid the partisan nature of American politics, but I fear that is impossible.

Christianity and Government

I've written on Religion and Government, and now I want to cover Christianity and government. First of all, Christians are under obligation to obey the government when it doesn't stop them from practcing Christianity, e.g. worshipping and studying the Bible. Paul says in Romans 13 that "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities." Jesus himself said "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." (Matthew 22:21) Now when Paul wrote Romans, there was not a pro-Christian government in place, but rather a hostile government that persecuted Christians, and so clearly Christian obedience of the government is not contingent upon there being a pro-Christian government in place. Even in times of persecution Christians must submit when possible.

Now granted Paul did say "For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. So it is debatable if and when a government ceases to be legitimate and thus when one can disobey and even overthrow the government. However, I do not think that applies because a government is persecuting Christians, but rather when it is a terror to all citizens, both believers and nonbelievers, such as the German government under Hitler.

It's only when a government is democratic and the citizens have both the right and even duty to participate in government by voting, running for office, etc. that Christians can seek to use Christianity as a guiding light in politics, under the protection of freedom of speech, etc. Under such a democratic government, using politics is just another way to practice love and charity.

But one must keep in mind that the church and state are different. Those who belong to the church, or as St. Augustine would put it, the Heavenly City, may also be citizens of a state, or the Earthly city. But certainly not everyone in the state is a member of the church. If one tries to make the state and church one then they will end up with many people claiming to be Christians but not actually saved. Thus, a combined church and state is bad for Christianity and politics. So we must be careful how we go about using Christianity as a guide in politics.