The Bible and Politics

I was recently reading something and the author made the argument.. "All I'm saying is that having a political view because the bible speaks "X" about it doesn't make logical sense to me."

It’s something I’ve heard over and over again.

If you think about it - most of the world would agree on how to make decisions – if you talk in the abstract. Let’s see if I can convince you of that.

I’m simplifying. but basically, you start with what you consider to be truth.

Then, on top of truth you place principles. Principles are fundamental, primary, or general truths from which others are derived. Principles can be thought of as ‘general truth’ that is applicable to all people in all situations at all times.

On top of principles you place ethics (morals). Ethics are simply the rules you employ to make distinctions between right and wrong. Ethics take specific principles and map them to situations where decisions about what is right and wrong are required.

Finally, the cherry on the top are values. We call them values because they tend to express how to make decisions when ethics/morals conflict. At times we have to assign ‘higher or lower value’ to our morals in order to make a final decision. If we think about this as our ‘decision making machine’ it looks like this:

[Truth -> Principles -> Ethics -> Values]

where the […]s are trying to indicate this is a complete, end-to-end process.

So, decision making looks like taking an ‘issue’ and running through our decision machine (brain) in order to form a decision or behavior:

issue -> [Truth -> Principles -> Ethics -> Values] -> decision/behavior

Inevitably, over the course of a lifetime, the ‘mechanics’ of decision making become so second nature to us that they happen, for the most part, without even ‘thinking about it’. That’s why I refer to it as a ‘machine’ in some sense.

The trouble, for some, comes, I think, when you get specific. For instance, there are two very distinct world views on the subject of truth. One, is that truth is objective. It does not change. The other is that truth is subjective – subject to change. That’s a pretty big difference right there. Now, you have to deal with Principles. Hmmm.. not sure you can build lasting principles on changing/subjective truth - so some periodic rethinking might be necessary here. And, if your principles are shifting – ethics will need to be constantly re-thought through. So, this might be an ever changing machine. But, most people would agree that this is the basic machinery of decision making.

Now, let me switch from a general view to a specific one – since I am a Christian. As a Christian – I insert one more link in the decision making machine. That link is God’s Unchanging Nature. Now, it looks like this:

[God’s Nature -> Truth -> Principles -> Ethics -> Values]

Most Christians (I hope) would agree that God exists. Next, they would agree that the Bible reveals to people God and His nature. From this, we derive what we believe are fundamental truths, principles, ethics and values. So, this is what most people are saying, I think, when they say they have 'views' (political or otherwise) that are based on the Bible:

[God’s Nature (revealed by Bible) -> Truth -> Principles -> Ethics -> Values]

Okay – almost done. Just one more point to make to address the author’s point. And that simply is that political views are hopefully internally consistent with one’s values. If so, the final picture looks like:

issues -> [God’s Nature -> Truth -> Principles -> Ethics -> Values] -> policies/politics

Logic concerns itself with making correct inferences (connecting things). Starting with small amounts of information and building to a greater truth. In my little pictures – think of logic as the arrows. As such, I think it is completely logical that a Christian would attempt to form political views based on what they learn in the Bible. It flows naturally from God’s own nature to our Politics.

The tricky part for Christians is to

• really know the Bible (or God’s true nature),
  
• understand the Principles and Ethics that are revealed in the Bible within proper context,
  
• to understand the difference between what God expects of Christians versus what He expects of non-Christians, and
  
• to stay connected to God so as we make errors in judgment (in our ethics, values, etc) that we can get feedback from God that allows us to correct our errors.
  

In all things – remember that God very early on in the chain tells us that one of His fundamental Principles is to Love One Another. You can spend a lifetime trying to integrate that idea into proper decision making. So, no-one said this is easy :-)

Your thoughts?