Hoyts make Dom Post
Russell Norman on the ANZ/deforestation bizo [YT vid, feat Rob A]
From a discussion panel with Richard Hays, Richard Stubbing and Stanley Hauerwas [60MB mp3], here are Richard Hays’ three sets of three questions around the topic of How does scripture inform how we think about politics in a situation very different from that of the NT Christians?
Questions for evaluating those who govern or seek to govern
- Are they in fact punishing evildoers?
- Are they defending the poor and weak, or are they siding with the wealthy and powerful?
- Are they acknowledging their limits as God’s instruments who are subject to God’s judgement, or are they claiming an authority that does not properly belong to them?
Questions we often do ask but for which there is no basis in the NT
- Are these rulers promoting our economic self-interest?
- Are they fostering our national security?
- Are they living exemplary personal lives?
Questions we should ask ourselves
- To what extent are our political leanings and commitments motivated by self-interest?
- Are we living sacrificially for the sake of others?
- Are we (the church) living as a visible alternative community? How is God’s kingdom being made manifest in us in such a way that the world can see that this is a community that is living in expectation of God’s coming order of justice peace and righteousness?
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Our current government fails.
Possibly not as much as the next most likely alternative.
I think the first and third of the first set of questions need some serious translation before I could make a lot of sense out of them. Who gets to define evildoers? Where can we find a list of the sorts of authority that properly belongs to government, and is the list static through time? When the National Party says it believes in limited government, is that what Hays is talking about?
The current government and the next most likely alternative and probably several after that all fail.
Good questions, except I don’t get why he disses “Are they living exemplary personal lives?” It seems to me the NT strongly promotes practising what we preach. I don’t think there are specific requirements for politicians, but the requirements for church leaders say, “If you can’t rule your own house well, don’t think about ruling anybody else’s.”
Even in common sense terms: if someone’s a liar and backstabber in his “personal life”, I’d rather he not govern others’ personal lives.
What does he mean by “personal life” anyway? Is my fidelity to my wife part of my personal life or my public one?
He deals with that in the Q&A.