Politics and worldview

I have been thinking of the Christian worldview for a long time now. This is one of my pet peeves in the church... that there simply is no Biblical worldview in much of the church today.

As those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know, I am standing as a candidate for the ACDP in the South African local municipal elections on March 1, 2006. It is a thoroughly Christian party where every little bit of policy is checked against the Bible. The ACDP is not just another conservative party here in South Africa and it is much less just another party that is anti-ANC.

Being completely aligned with what the Bible says about issues, it is easy for the church to marshal its people to vote for the ACDP. And, in fact, if the polls and statistics are correct, then South Africa is majority Christian with about 72% claiming just that! On the other hand, when we look at the election results of previous years it proves that most of those who claim to be Christian in polls have no idea what it means to be Christian.

A case in point is a member in our own church who used to be a member of the ACDP. For some odd reason he has decided to leave the ACDP and stand as a candidate for the ANC! Now if this doesn't strike you odd, I don't know what will! His reasoning for this is that many people at our church vote for the ANC! Yea... the devil too! His reasoning is as sound as the teenage boy who wants his ears/belly button/nose/tongue/etc pierced because "everybody else is doing it!"

Now for those who don't know, the ANC is in the business of rushing controversial legislation through parliament so that laws can exist to favour them. They stand FOR abortion, pornography, same-sex marriage, disarmament of the people, early release of violent criminals and much more! Their worldview is the complete opposite to that of the Christian worldview. How a Christian can vote for the ANC, never mind standing as a candidate for them is completely beyond my understanding!

The fact that so many "christians" do vote for them can mean one of two things: they are not Christians or their worldview has no bearing on what the Bible says.

Who should be blamed for this? Who else but the church? For too long the mantra has been "Don't mix church and politics!" What? As Christians, can we live a political life--voting and complaining about politicians--and also live a separate Christian life? This simply points to a Biblically uninformed worldview. Everything that we do should be informed, touched and transformed by the Bible. IMHO, I believe that when a pastor discovers that he has people in his church who vote for someone like the ANC or standing for them in an election, that he should approach them with great concern. These people are in effect standing with the kingdom of darkness against the kingdom of God. When God says "You shall not murder" these people are saying "No! We will murder!" When God says "You shall have no other gods before me" they say "We are god. We stand for humanism!" How can a Christian stand for this!

When a pastor does not make clear who his people should stand for, they will stand for anything, especially if his church is filled with people with no Biblical worldview! If we as Christians are to affect all spheres of life, why are pastors so reticent to voice their Biblically informed opinions in matters of politics?

Maybe pastors who do not voice their opinions do not want to upset those who vote for the enemy of God's kingdom and as a result lose these people? But then again, what do I know?

Continue to Politics and Worldview 2...