Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Religious Right and Other Thoughts

Thoughts such as the ones below have been rolling around half-formed in my mind for half a year or so now. This quote, and the book from which it comes, have helped me greatly in my understanding of much of Scripture and our cultural mandate as creatures and Christians. It feels good to clean out the cobwebs of improper understanding and shake off the restrains bad theology creates.

I am not overly political, but here's something I found interesting to think about in this politically-charged (us against them) environment we inhabit nowadays.

"Religious fundamentalism tends to see the world simply divided up into believers and unbelievers. The former are blessed, loved by God, holy, and doers of the right, while the latter are cursed, hated by God, unholy, and doers of evil. Sometimes this is taken to quite an extreme: believers are good people, and their moral, political, and doctrinal couses are always right, always justified, and can never be questioned. Unless the culture is controlled by their agenda, it is simply godless and unworthy of the believers' support. This persepctive ignores the fact that according to Scripture, all of us - believers and unbelievers alike - are simunltaneously under a common curse and common grace."

- Michael Horton, from "Introducing Covenant Theology"


Thoughts?

1 comment:

  1. Umm...these were my thoughts on Sunday! I was trying to find words to explain to J about the feelings on a sermon I heard. Ugh! I'm all for fighting for certain issues...but fighting against those certain issues still makes sense apart from a purely "evangelical" view. I just get frustrated when some believers show such ignorance when voicing their opinions. For example: "On September 11 we were attacked by men who thought they were getting their own planet with a lot of women." Umm...I think the SPEAKER might have mixed up these men and their beliefs with some Mormon doctrine. Anyway, thanks for the quote!

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