Religion and Politics Essay examples -- Papers Church State Separation

Religion and Politics Both liberals and conservatives have become quite adept at mixing religion and politics in our current society. One also continues to observe an ongoing practice of civil religion demonstrated by presidents and office-seekers on both the left and right. Generally, the leftist merger of religion and politics has received greater social acceptability because it has been cloaked in such rights' causes as civil rights, women's rights, or economic rights (the social distribution of wealth). The advocating of these rights issues have provided an appearance of transcending religion, keeping the left relatively free from criticism of any church and state overlap. Christian Conservatives, however, have found it more difficult to reasonably combine faith and politics because they have more overtly recognized that their political positions are grounded on faith assumptions. This has resulted in numerous attacks by both non-Christians and Christians alike against the conservative attempt to merge religion and politics. Three arguments have been used most frequently against the conservative mixture of religion and politics. In what follows each of these arguments is stated and then refuted. The first argument is that politics is too worldly. The essence of the argument is that politics is part of this world's system, and Christ clearly taught His followers to "love not the world," and to flee from worldly activities. There is a danger of becoming caught up in th... ...hermore, in the Bible there is much political activity by God's servants. The judges and kings ruled under God. The prophets and Moses were quite political. Daniel served in the civil governments of Babylon and Persia. Joseph governed in Egypt. The Apostles spoke of following God's rules rather than men's. In conclusion, to be obedient to Christ requires political activity. Jesus is quite clear about the need to overcome social injustices. If Christ tells us to confront the forces of evil, but society tells us not to, and even makes a law against bringing religion into politics, then who should we follow, the state or Christ? In the broadest sense, we are called to political activity because we are responsible to apply Christian principles and standards to all areas of our society, and politics is one of these areas.