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Editorial
October 2001 - Week #3
An Evangelical
Christian Perspective:
Schundler’s Just Society
When Bret Schundler weds his political ideals to his
religious convictions,
When asked about his faith Schundler replies, “Everyone has
a religion.” He is absolutely
right! Everyone has an underlining
philosophy of life. Call it a
religion, call it a system of beliefs, call it a higher power; but everyone has
a philosophy that gives a basis for
political decisions. That
philosophy may be darwinistic (survival of the fittest) or pragmatic (the
greatest good for the greatest number of people) or the Biblical philosophy
reiterated by Schundler,
(“Therefore
all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to
them” Matthew
When evaluating a candidate, one must not only question where he stands on a particular issue, but question his underlying philosophy. During the course of his term, new issues will arise and we must be confident that his philosophy will lead to right choices. The American political system has shoved this kind of evaluation under the rug. Either we are too obtuse to think beyond immediate issues, or we are afraid that revealing our underlying beliefs will be the death of a political career. The latter is my hunch. How refreshing it is to have a candidate that honestly outlines his source of choosing right from wrong.. Have we forgotten that our founding fathers gave political speeches that were akin to sermons? They taught the people a system of political beliefs--nothing like the platitudes we hear today. Have we forgotten the religious words of John F. Kennedy who said
“The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God”?
It is not the religious man that I fear, but the man who does not have any absolutes or systems of belief--those politicians who act on the whims of the moment or on whatever satisfies the polls. What kind of legislation will we get from leaders who act for the sake of political survival or merely to appease the voters temporarily? The Christian faith warns us to “beware of the error of unprincipled men.” (2 Peter 3)
Just having a
system of beliefs is not the ideal; it must be a good system.
This is where Schundler shines.
He espouses the colonial American tradition that the role of government
is to create a just society--quoting
passages such as Micah 6. “He
has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the
Lord require of you, but to do
justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Many are not aware of
the political model to which Schundler is making reference to; he is
referring to the Christian covenant theory of government.
The duty of government is to seek justice and equity for the
people—rewarding the innocent and punishing the guilty.
This precludes that the government is not to create a religious state or
to convert men; that is the covenant given to the church.
Therefore, we don’t
have to fear religious intrusion from a Biblically-based Christian candidate.
The very reason we have democracy in