Church and State: Using the Gov't to Legitimize Behavior

Jumping off my comment following SirCAL's comment on the drug post, I think this is worth a separate post. I have not heard a lot of folks float this idea around, though, I do not credit myself with creating it or anything, I just can't think of a cite for it off the top of my head. 

I think that the left and some right liberals (libertarians et al) tend to want to use the government to assuage their broken consciences. As I mentioned in my posts about the problem of evil, we have what I believe is an innate feeling of oughtness.  Not just about the world but about ourselves. Both the OT and NT tell us that the law is written on our hearts. Everyone knows they are a sinner. Having some authority above them give its blessing to their sin makes them feel better. 

Why for example do homosexuals, the vast majority of whom are non-monogamous, do not want families (as sick as that is) not settle for being merely left alone, but desperately want the State to marry them? I can totally understand that they want to not be criminally prosecuted for their sins. I cannot understand, outside of my present point, why they care so deeply that the State provide its imprimatur of acceptance to their lifestyle. 

Perhaps so much the same for prostitution, drug and other behavior crime advocates. Obviously there is an element there of just wanting to avoid arrest etc. But I think they are also motivated by a desire to feel as though their errant behavior is legitimate. After all, we implicitly understand, like it or not, that the gov't is a sovereign authority. 

Legislating Mental State

So there is a very interest series of articles concerning the criminalization of drugs over here.  I am wondering if my fellow bloggers might want to chime in with their opinions. As Christians should we vote for morality? Where does that line end (kept in this case specifically to drugs)? Freewill and liberty are also moral.  How do we balance these? I will be honest, my viewpoint has changed on this over the past year or so, but I am curious what you both have to say. 

At this point, let's restrict it to drugs, but it has ramifications for other 'victimless' crimes such as prostitution. To me any way, that is a much easier question to answer. As of now there are hundreds of thousands of women in slavery as prostitutes in this country. If prostitution were 'legal' I don not believe that situation would improve, but rather get much worse. 

I think drugs are a more difficult problem. On the one hand, there is no doubt that there is a criminal enterprise that exists only because pot (leaving out hard drugs, which I dont even consider an option for legalization) is illegal. There are millions of people in the justice system because of pot. This seems unjust and counter-productive. On the other hand, places with liberal pot laws have become bastions for harder drugs and other undesirable behavior. Sin will beget more sin. Thoughts? 

The Problem of Freewill

G.S. Bryan's post on Driscoll brought me to another topic: Calvinism, or Predestination. I know I've heard Bryan's thoughts in the past but it may have changed, and  I haven't heard my new blogging friend's opinion. In the punk world, everything is DIY, freewill reigns (actually MY will reigns), but when you become a Christian invariably SOME of you if not ALL is given to God's will, so how did you both deal with that transition? And on top of that, how much of life/us do you believe God controls and does it go as far as the Calvinist definition of predestination, where before you are born no matter what you do, God decided, ELECTED, who would go to heaven and who would go to hell, getting us awfully close to that Robot problem we spoke of earlier. 

Worst Person in the World?

This guy exemplifies why I think the end of the U.S. is near.  I just hope I can get my farm in the hill country set up before the end takes hold. 

Jesus was Dude

The NYT has up a piece on Mark Driscoll.  Predictably it makes him look like some sort of cretinous authoritarian monster in hipster clothing.  I would of course reserve that for ahem, Rob Bell.  But anyway.  Its worth taking a look at for sure. If the world understood what we believe, then we wouldn't be in this world. 

Health and Wealth Christians beware

Now, after saying my part in the last post, I feel obligated to obliterate the Health and Wealth Christians even moreso... you know the ones who say " It's not God's will that his people are poor or sick, so if you're a true Christian and have faith, you'll be healthy and wealthy. Just blab it and grab it, Claim it, and its yours, and if you don't have health and wealth, why, then your faith is weak and God's withholding his blessings because you haven't done enough to get that EVIL out of your life." 

      That's WAAAYYY less Christian than the numskull who gives all his money away to the needy, not only because they think they can use God's promises and blessings like he's some Genie in a lamp obligated to placate to our every whim if we word the chant just right to force his hand, but also as if in this sinful world where we're soaked in sin, "real" Christians get some sort of immunity force field to protect us. Tell that to every one of Jesus' disciples who were unhealthily Murdered, POOR (except of course John, who was just tarred and left for dead on an island, PENNILESS).  God must have been so disapointed in them. If only they had blabbed... and then grabbed... what God owed them in promises of faith. Stupid apostles.

Relevant Orthopraxy

Do you read Relevant Magazine? It is always interesting to say the least. As my wife often complains, it seems like a bunch of life-long Christian kids who are trying to be hipsters. Christians should create our own culture instead of poorly imitating the world's.  (It's always embarrassing how Christians who try to mimic culture are usually years behind anyway). 

In this issue there is a brief article about the meaninglessness of scriptural orthodoxy without a corresponding orthopraxy.  Fair enough. Agreed.  But, the chief example of orthopraxy given? You guessed it. Shouldn't we all like umm sell everything we own man, and give it all to the poor. (Except for your magazine subscriptions, form fitting clothing, and indie record collection.) 

Hey hipsters! Guess what? There are other important ways to live out our faith.  This obsession with social justice and tendency to constantly 'call' folks on it was shared by an infamous disciple. (I know, I know, there are caveats to this, but you get my point).

Helping the poor is awesome and is a necessity to living out a Christian life. It is not the only way to show fruits of the spirit, and it also does not require that you not enjoy life on earth or, (ahem) constantly judge others for not being ascetic enough for you. (Notice how everyone seems to set the 'rich' bar just a hair north of wherever they are?)