Love Truth Blog

Dear Christian friends, I pray that things have been well. This Election Day marks the end of long process which in my humble opinion brought out the worst in a good many folks, and what a relief it is to know the election season has passed. I hope that you did indeed vote today, plan on voting, or have already voted early. Voting is certainly a civic calling that Christians in the United States ought never pass up. God has set things up in such a way that we are living right here and right now in this epoch (Acts 17:26), and it just so happens to be in a land where citizens are called upon to vote for their leaders. We are given a voice, and we can speak out at the polls. We do have a say in the appointment of our leaders, the lawmakers who will set the laws that govern this nation. That is a good thing. Law defines the way we as a people will view right and wrong. Our laws can then promote the common good. Troubles do come when we declare something that is wrong to be right ...

Well this is another election year, which makes the Tuesday after the first Monday in November the terminus ad quem for all the political madness that comes beforehand in the USA. With all the mudslinging, rioting, and overall incivility, it is hard to believe were still have over five months to go. I am going through the Book of 1-2 Kings at the moment, and the refrain “Only the high places were not taken away” caught my eye, and as I began to meditate upon them, I found them to be a bit helpful in grappling with all that goes on during these turbulent election years. Here a little background is needed. After the days of Solomon there came about a civil war that divided the children of Abraham living in the promise land into two nations—the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. There eventually came about a series of rulers in the kingdom of Judah whose reigns the biblical writer describes this way: Jehoash did right in the sight of the LORD…Only ...

These are the days when politick runs thick like a dense fog on a cold night. It is Presidential election time in America, when the politicians present themselves in the best light and their opponents in the worst. One issue often talked about during these times is the faith of the candidate. Does the faith of a Presidential candidate really matter? I believe a popular answer is the politician can leave his personal beliefs out of the policy making equation. In 1960, for example, in an address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, as a response to concerns on the way his Roman Catholic faith would affect important national decisions, President John F. Kennedy offered a clear response affirming the separation of church and state. Much of what he said was understandable; however, there is a point which I have to respectfully disagree. Kennedy said: “I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for president, who happens also to be a...

The thought that some superman like hero can rise up to the occasion and save the day I find to be wonderful. Oh to find that one great leader who can turn the social tide around for the better! But then I also think God would have us look beyond the search for an earthly leader to solve the world’s woes. I think we must seek God, who is the ruler of all things, and in Him we can find the right leader, a man after God’s heart. God brought the Hebrews into their promise land, and the priest governed the people under a type of theocracy. As time went by, however, the priesthood fell into corruption. Samuel the Prophet appointed his sons to judge, but they took bribes and perverted justice (1 Sam. 8:2-3). The people then appealed to the prophet to appoint a king like all the other nations. They were searching for the one great leader to rule and solve their woes. A king would make them like the other nations. Were they supposed to be like the other nations? When the prophet inquired a...

Every now and then I’ll come across a statement about faith and science, faith and politics, or faith and economics being mutually exclusive. So one can speak openly in public on science, politics, and economics; however, one must always keep faith or religious matters private. Some might even attempt to expunge from its science, political, and economic vocabulary anything that might be considered “religious.” This is something of a fact/value split, which places faith in an upper story of personal, private, beliefs, and science, politics, and economics in the lower story of public matters. Nancy Pearcy in her book Total Truth observes that this fact/value spirit ultimately “traps Christianity in the upper story of privatized values, and prevents it from having any effect on public culture.” She then encourages Christians to overcome this dichotomy and to recover their rightful place in the public square through developing a biblical worldview. It is a worldview that beings with the...

After days of non-violent civil protest, the people of Egypt unified to bring about a change in regime, which came to realization with the resignation of Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011. Was social media the weapon in this revolution? Perhaps we might begin to say that the social network is mightier than the sword. Egypt has certainly inspired others living under totalitarian regimes. Whatever the case, many people wonder what would become of Egypt after the changing of the guard? Are we just witnessing one totalitarian rule being replaced by another? Pray for the best to come out of this situation, and I say, “Let there be democracy!” Modern democracy can offer a representative form of government that is of the people, by the people, and for the people. This does not mean the majority rules, but that the common good can be upheld. 1 Modern democracy can also offer a system of government with checks and balances so that civil leaders can be kept accountable to fulfill the duties ...

Anne Rice in her diatribe on quitting Christianity yet remaining committed to Christ said “I refuse to be anti-Democrat.” This of course implies all Christians are in fact Republican or political party of another stripe asides Democrat, which is something that is Christianity yet not a real commitment to Christ. The same sentiment appears to be implied in loaded questions like “Why are most Christians Republicans?” or “Why are so many Christians conservative Republican?” I really wonder how people who have thought deeply about politics and privy to the political landscape of Christianity could assert such things. To say Christians are “anti-Democrat” is quite presumptuous. This statement really marginalizes all the Christians I know personally who are committed to following Christ of genuine faith and registered as Democrats. How bigoted it would be to go to them and say, “Oh, you’re a Christian, you must be a Republican?” In a Pew Forum survey to the question “do you consider your...