Tag: Christian

As Christians celebrate the Easter season, it is a good time to consider what (if any) political meaning can be found in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christians should not over-politicize the Easter narrative, or Christian theology in general. On the extremes of the spectrum, the tendency to reduce Christianity to some kind of political or social principles for political activity results in two distinct mistakes: It tends to remove Christ from Christianity, making it just another social program, and it tends to subordinate the ends of Christianity to the ends of some political agenda. In other words, Christianity has no particular political agenda, or any program for a particular set of political arrangements. To the contrary, in fact: It means that the political meaning of Christianity is more profound and fundamental than any particular political agenda could ever be. The resurrection is not just Christ telling Caesar that he cannot triumph over this particular subversion at this particular time in Rome’s history. Instead, Christians believe, all politics is subordinated to, and relativized by, the death and resurrection of Christ. To do so always ends up defining what it means to be a Christian in purely political terms. That is not the political meaning of the Easter story. Easter teaches Christians that their politics must answer to their Christian faith, not the other way around.

“We are the only party to give Christian and Messianic candidates parity in the candidates’ list,” said Avi Lipkin, the Orthodox Jewish head of the Bible Bloc Party, known as Gush Hatankhi in Hebrew. “For the first time in 2,000 years, Jews and Christians are … brethren and allies.” In Israel’s proportional system, a party must claim at least 3.25 percent of the nearly 6.4 million eligible voters—so roughly 200,000 votes total—in order to enter parliament. The Bible Bloc only won 367. 4 was a Messianic Jew; No. “Our goal is to establish a strategic Jewish-Christian alliance to stand up for all Jews and Christians around the world who are facing the threat of terrorism,” said the Bible Bloc ad, “as well as to preserve Judeo-Christian culture around the world and in the State of Israel.” Lipkin identified roughly 520,000 potential voters for his party, drawn from Israel’s Russian, Arabic Christian, and Messianic Jewish communities—and the Christians who have married into them. He also hoped their Arab candidate could better represent Christians. And CT reported in 2015 how 75 percent of evangelical leaders identified as “Arab Israeli,” rather than “Palestinian.” But Arab Christian support for the Bible Bloc is nil, said Botrus Mansour, co-chair of the Lausanne Initiative for Reconciliation in Israel/Palestine, citing other recent research showing Christians, like Muslims, oppose Israeli policies that divide the Arab community on the basis of religion. A Haaretz poll found 27 percent of Israelis support full annexation also of the West Bank; 42 percent support some annexation, and only 28 percent oppose integrating any Palestinian territory into Israel proper. Critical of Netanyahu’s government, Cowen is a member of the Yesh Atid party, which merged with Gantz’s Blue and White. “Messianic Jews and Arab Christians should get involved in politics but join broader-based and more popular parties,” he said.

Christians are called to avoid both. Maybe we should just drop out of the whole political system? But after 8 years of effort, he saw little change in the overall social and political climate, especially when it came to abortion in our country. I wanted to understand, since, from my perspective, a committed Christian cannot vote for a pro-abortion candidate. This would parallel my understanding of a Christian’s voting responsibility in the days of slavery. Reagan didn’t change things. It’s up to the church to change the abortion laws.” Now, you might disagree with his perspective, as I do. If we don’t cast our votes, we will quickly lose our voice – not just politically but in other ways. !” Well, I hate to break the news to you, but if we don’t vote and get involved politically, we won’t even have the ability to fight things like this. In the closing chapter of Donald Trump Is Not My Savior: An Evangelical Leader Speaks His Mind About the Man He Supports as President, I lay out seven principles to help us navigate these difficult waters.

With those things in the news, she said, many Christians “are wrestling with what do they believe and how should that influence the way they engage with the world around them.” But the book is not just about politics, the author said, and it’s not just for women. Khang talked to Religion News Service about raising one’s voice at protests, on social media and around the dinner table. I would say that, particularly if they did vote for the current president, they did something that is exactly what the protesters are doing — they took advantage of the tools that we have here in the United States to enact change, according to what we think the rules ought to be, based on our values. Those who share the same faith can believe differently because of our lived experiences or because of the way different decisions impact our communities. You write about social media. When and how is engaging online a productive way to raise one’s voice? It’s just this cesspool,” I say, “Well, actually, for a lot of people of color and globally, it’s been a wonderful tool to access information and make connections that were completely unavailable before.” It’s very easy to be somebody who only criticizes what is happening. I think that that’s really an important place where we can influence the people we love. Then again, the rules about being assertive and speaking up can be very dangerous for people of color. Having community around you, having friends who understand you and support what you do, is so vital.