Religion and Politics Essay

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Religion and Politics
Both liberals and conservatives have become quite adept at mixing religion and politics in our current society. One also continues to observe an ongoing practice of civil religion demonstrated by presidents and office-seekers on both the left and right. Generally, the leftist merger of religion and politics has received greater social acceptability because it has been cloaked in such rights' causes as civil rights, women's rights, or economic rights (the social distribution of wealth). The advocating of these rights
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This argument has frequently been used by Christians from Anabaptist or Pietistic traditions that believe that political involvement can taint one's sanctification. The assumption is that politics is intrinsically evil, and that a person cannot remain unsoiled by becoming involved in it.

A simple and more formal stating of the argument could read in the following way:

Premise 1: Politics is part of the evil system called the world.

Premise 2: Christians are called to deny the world and flee from worldly activities ("Love not the world").

Conclusion: Therefore, to remain untainted by the world, Christians must refrain from politics.

In countering this argument, one must ask whether the premises are true. Concerning premise one, is politics necessarily part of an evil world system separated from God? To answer this, one must begin by defining politics. Politics is actually morality socially applied, or, rather, how we live together in society. Is God interested in human political activities? Absolutely, God is definitely interested in our social relations. Many of the Ten Commandments deal with social relations. To say that God is not interested in politics is to say that God is not interested in social ethics. Individuals cannot be separated from