EXPLORATION #1 Politics

Lately I have been pondering the Christians role in politics. To know exactly what Jesus would have us do concerning politics. I have seen two extremes and a ton of grey area in between. You can be hyper political in your Christianity and try to set bills in congress that make it a law that you must love your neighbor (or else). Or the other extreme is complete passivity not taking note or care of the political arena.

I always hear the argument that you shouldn't be able to write laws that are moral because you can't force your morals on other people. That's a load of hog wash though. Every law that has ever been written is a moral law in some way or another. Even traffic lights are moral (though also practical). The fact that I don't want you to run over my son when he is crossing the street is moral in nature; the traffic light that helps prevent that is the practical solution. To the point though, let a murderer tell you not to impose your morals on him. Murder is a moral decision.

Even though laws are moral, does that mean Christians should try to intervene their moral set into society? If so, to what extent? For a long time (and even now) I have been under the conviction that strictly moral laws should be legislated (i.e. don't murder), but that socially moral laws should not be legislated (i.e. helping the poor and widows). Social convictions of Christians are actually evils if not coupled to the good news message.

Suppose you were a brain surgeon and somebody comes to you with a headache. Upon investigation you discover that this man is in early stages of brain cancer and it is completely treatable if you act now. Rather than telling the man his problem, you give him anesthetics for his pain. You hand the man a Tylenol (or morphine etc) and send him on his way. Now, you've done a most grievous evil. If the man were still in pain he would seek to find the problem and get a cure. But you have inoculated his pain and in thus, inoculated his knowledge that he needs to be cured. It is like this with social laws. I hate to see people in pain or in need of housing, food, and healthcare, but to the extent that such suffering causes people to seek the root of the problem, I am grateful.

I would like to solve all the social ills in the world, but would not choose to do so if the explanation of the root of those ills were not also shared with the world.

This is just one of many things to explore in Christians meeting politics. Even in this instance, would it be right for me to protest something like Healthcare legislation and to be active politically? There are about a hundred reasons why I'm against the current healthcare legislation, but does that mean I should be active in trying to sway my congressional leaders? I'm an American, but I'm a member of God's kingdom first. I'm only an American to the extent that I'm Heaven's ambassador.
Heaven has only one primary message: "Repent and Believe the Good News".

Paul desired to share this Good News in every major political city of his day. He even shared with two kings and Ceasar.

This isn't a theological statement, but rather an inquiry or exploration. I would love for everyone to comment.