Politics...
Sunday, 12. February 2006, 14:03:52
There is the old joke about the governor's son. The governor had high hopes for his son's future: he had majored in poltical science, and had all instincts necessary to be a good lawyer (if that's not an oxymoron!) and a better politician. You can imagine the governor's surprise when his son, instead of announcing his acceptance at Harvard or Yale's laws schools, proudly proclaimed that he was going to seminary instead. The governor demanded, in strident tones, for his boy to explain himself. The son replied, "Dad, I want to be a preacher to get out of politics!"
Recently in the news we have seen two major examples of politics that has everybody in an uproar. One is Hamas. They were fairly and squarely elected despite the desires of many western governments, and particularly the U.S. I am reminded of the reaction of several of my wife's co-workers, who, when George Bush was re-elected, sadly commented on the "failure" of democracy.
The failure of democracy? Do I hear some proverbial sour grapes here? I think the problem is that we like democracy when the people we like are elected and the policies we prefer are pursued. When the opposite occurs, and we have to share power with those we don't like, then democracy becomes a bit more of problem. But democracy itself hasn't failed, unless we react in such an extreme way that we ourselves threaten the principles, as certain liberal commentators back in the days of the moral majority suggested that folks like Jerry Falwell be prohibited from publishing their ideas or lobbying. What was going on with that? The moral majority was simply using the same methods as their opponents had used for decades, and being at least moderately successful, and so let's curtail their freedom of speech, right?
And so now we have Hamas. The problem is their past history of violence and terrorism as a means of political persuasion. Ok, that's a problem. But they has also been elected to parliament. Do we simply ignore this? Does the will of the Palestinian people mean nothing? And do Israel or the U.S. have the right to overturn a lawfully elected government? Will we respect our own democtratic ideals at this point, or will we allow self interest to govern our actions to the point of violating the principles we claim to hold dear? Of course, Israel had her own history of violence back when she was still the Zionist movement, and the U.S. has had no problem supporting totalitarian governments as long as doing so seems to be in the long-term interests of the country...
The other major problem here is Iran and their desire to have a nuclear program. The question: why does the U.S. or any nation have the right to determine the domestic policy of another nation? How would folks in the 1940's have felt if some superior political entity had shown up at the door of the Manhattan project and said "no, no, no, you can't do that, find another way to bomb your enemies back into the stone age and provide potentially environmentally damaging energy sources to your people?" Yes, folks, the good ol' USA, the home of apple pie, baseball, and various mothers, is the first nation to develop WMD's and the only nation ever to employ them in wartime. What right do we have to forbid this technology to others? If we determine another nation's domestic policies, how does that make us different from the old Soviet Union, or the ancient Roman Empire? Don't like their policies? Send in the Tenth Legion, boys, and watch the hold-outs at Masada, they're kind of tough...
Actually, what I'm doing here is an exercise in presuppositions. The problem is not politics, but the fact that people are politics, and the Bible assures us "that all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God." No political system can be perfect (except the government of heaven), because it's made up of sinful people. Total depravity rules, and unless that depravity is limited by common grace and/or the Christian commitment of sufficient of the politicians, all the fine rhetoric and constitional documents in the world won't make much difference. Democracy will then become tyranny as surely as lions will eat meat, because that is our nature... The surprise is not that governments go bad, but when a government like that of the U.S. works as long as it has as well as it has. The real answer is not political, but theological, and Christians call that answer "the Gospel..."
Recently in the news we have seen two major examples of politics that has everybody in an uproar. One is Hamas. They were fairly and squarely elected despite the desires of many western governments, and particularly the U.S. I am reminded of the reaction of several of my wife's co-workers, who, when George Bush was re-elected, sadly commented on the "failure" of democracy.
The failure of democracy? Do I hear some proverbial sour grapes here? I think the problem is that we like democracy when the people we like are elected and the policies we prefer are pursued. When the opposite occurs, and we have to share power with those we don't like, then democracy becomes a bit more of problem. But democracy itself hasn't failed, unless we react in such an extreme way that we ourselves threaten the principles, as certain liberal commentators back in the days of the moral majority suggested that folks like Jerry Falwell be prohibited from publishing their ideas or lobbying. What was going on with that? The moral majority was simply using the same methods as their opponents had used for decades, and being at least moderately successful, and so let's curtail their freedom of speech, right?
And so now we have Hamas. The problem is their past history of violence and terrorism as a means of political persuasion. Ok, that's a problem. But they has also been elected to parliament. Do we simply ignore this? Does the will of the Palestinian people mean nothing? And do Israel or the U.S. have the right to overturn a lawfully elected government? Will we respect our own democtratic ideals at this point, or will we allow self interest to govern our actions to the point of violating the principles we claim to hold dear? Of course, Israel had her own history of violence back when she was still the Zionist movement, and the U.S. has had no problem supporting totalitarian governments as long as doing so seems to be in the long-term interests of the country...
The other major problem here is Iran and their desire to have a nuclear program. The question: why does the U.S. or any nation have the right to determine the domestic policy of another nation? How would folks in the 1940's have felt if some superior political entity had shown up at the door of the Manhattan project and said "no, no, no, you can't do that, find another way to bomb your enemies back into the stone age and provide potentially environmentally damaging energy sources to your people?" Yes, folks, the good ol' USA, the home of apple pie, baseball, and various mothers, is the first nation to develop WMD's and the only nation ever to employ them in wartime. What right do we have to forbid this technology to others? If we determine another nation's domestic policies, how does that make us different from the old Soviet Union, or the ancient Roman Empire? Don't like their policies? Send in the Tenth Legion, boys, and watch the hold-outs at Masada, they're kind of tough...
Actually, what I'm doing here is an exercise in presuppositions. The problem is not politics, but the fact that people are politics, and the Bible assures us "that all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God." No political system can be perfect (except the government of heaven), because it's made up of sinful people. Total depravity rules, and unless that depravity is limited by common grace and/or the Christian commitment of sufficient of the politicians, all the fine rhetoric and constitional documents in the world won't make much difference. Democracy will then become tyranny as surely as lions will eat meat, because that is our nature... The surprise is not that governments go bad, but when a government like that of the U.S. works as long as it has as well as it has. The real answer is not political, but theological, and Christians call that answer "the Gospel..."
WIDGETIZE