Political Friday

A good friend of mine and I hit up a conference today put on by the Family Policy Council of West Virginia. The conference featured keynote speaker Wayne Grudem, who discussed his new book Politics According to the Bible. Although I registered Republican, I'm fairly, or perhaps, extremely a-political. However I don't think that's a great stance to take-and neither does Grudem for that matter-so in addition to some good fellowship time, I figured it was worth hearing another voice on this issue.

In the end, he summed up some wrong ways to view religio-political (my words not his) involvement, like politics promoting/enforcing religion, politics are the realm of the devil, do evangelism not politics, etc, and presented what he thought was the correct view.

It gave me something to think about. And he did remind us that the body of Christ is made up of parts and there will be those who go deeper into politics than others. We should respect those who may feel called to a more active political involvement without blasting others who feel called in different directions. And vice versa. Still, I'm thinking through such involvement more so now than before.

The most moving speaker was a lad speaking on behalf of International Justice Mission, which seeks redemption and justice in the international slave trade. There were numbers of heart-breaking but redemptive stories of rehabilitation for victims and justice for traffickers. My friend and I were blown away. I'm going to look into this one further. Here's a helpful website mentioned in the talk called the Polaris Project involved with stopping the lucrative slave trade industry.

Unfortunately West Virginia is one of the "dirty dozen" states which has failed to keep up with proper recognition and legislation against this prevalent evil. You can check that out by going to the above link as well.

The conference concluded with some lad who continued to appeal to the founding fathers and the need to speak up for the right to assemble in worship. The right to assemble was being threatened, so somehow the church doors were threatening to close. He was my least favorite, mainly because freedom to assemble has NEVER stopped the spread of the church. Rome and China seem to come to mind. I felt he might have been a bit alarmist, even though he was a lawyer working cases relating to religious freedom. He was a little too "founding fathers," morality centered, and Religious Right for my taste.

In the end, the conference proved helpful to think through how my faith should drive my politics and political involvement. I think the I.J.M. seems like the best place for me to explore.