There are several subjects banned from churches and pulpits and one of them is politics. The sad consequences of banishing politics from the church is now the public wasteland we are all experiencing where Christians hold so many contradicting positions where the culture has filled in the gaps more than the Scriptures. I am happy to see Tom Wright's new book God in Public deals with this important topic of how the Bible speaks truth to power. Either we choose raw power over love or we choose the power to love when it comes to our relationships and politics.
The world is now run by the rich and powerful with whoever has the best technology and biggest bombs wins in the end. Even liberal democracy is up for grabs as national elections are bought and sold by the highest bidder. Secular politics has tried to banish God as the church takes on a persecution complex and another special interest victim mentality. N. T. Wright rightly says that true spirituality is world renewing, not world abandoning. Can the many little ways the church tries to tell power stories turn into love stories? Can resurrection and new creation be a renewed focus in a world that strives to force others to their polarized side?.
Can Christians speak about eschatology where the new creation is the aim rather than escaping the messiness of the world? Rather than simply seeing ourselves living in the "last days" (that has been going on for over two thousand years), why can't we also be living in the "first days" of the beginning of a new creation? Would this not speak and impact our views of the church and society and stretch us in new ways? What if today's political revolution was lead by a counter-cultural spiritual revolution? What would happen if the world was filled with joyful, selfless, sacrificial serving Christians that gave the world a message of hope?
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