Biola professors Kevin Lewis and Scott Waller brought biblical wisdom to last weekend’s fast-paced seminar designed to discover the proper foundation for Christian participation in politics and government.
“Sanity in the Voting Booth: Understanding the Christian Role in Politics and Government,” took place Oct. 28-30 in three class sessions. These sessions explored the proper model for Christian involvement in public discourse, policy and activity. Speakers gave attention to the intelligent analysis and critique of key social issues with respect to the Christian worldview as well as techniques for the public defense of the Christian position.
Law, history, economics and the most controversial policy issues debated today were sifted through thoughtful, biblical teaching to bring light to dark times just before Tuesday’s election. Graduate credit toward the master’s degree in Christian apologetics was also available for the class.
“If we are going to be Christians in the public square, it is likely we are going to have to be better than our contemporaries who follow Christ,” said Waller. “We need to understand arguments that have been held against us.”
Discussing how Christians should be involved in elections
The class discussed questions concerning the role Christians can or should play in the November 2010 election. Do we vote, campaign, contribute, or stay out of the whole worldly mess? And if we do get involved, how do we sort out the complex issues to know what to do?
Thursday and Friday night’s sessions discussed the current constitutional order and the nature of politics from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday’s session focused on Constitutional law and went from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Speakers looked specifically at the 14th amendment, which has changed American government, and unpacked the first amendment, exploring religion’s true role in the public square.
Speakers address relationship between Christians and culture
Waller discussed how Christians are soaked in a culture that thinks religion needs to be private. He showed the major ideas and pitfalls that Christians might encounter in the public square, emphasizing that Christians need to understand the major ideas in society and need to interact with people. Waller went over the current Constitution order and explained how separation of powers works.
Lewis focused on convincing the audience why Christians should be in the public square. The U.S. is going through a major worldview shift, what began as a Christian nation is now moving to naturalism, he said.
“We own this culture and we gave it away,” said Lewis. “We have got to play offensive in our culture. We have been playing defense for so long. As the church becomes weak, the culture becomes weak.”
Lewis said the word “evangelical” has lost its meaning.
“The word ‘evangelical’ is worthless now,” Lewis said. “There are liberal evangelicals, post-conservative evangelicals and probably a SpongeBob evangelical.”
Attendee’s reactions to the seminar
Attendees said they were interested in the topics discussed.
“This is an area that I need to be more informed in,” said Talbot student Chris Shaddix. “This is definitely something that I wanted to get a better idea of. What is our role as Christians in politics? Are we to be activists and protesting everything? Or are we to completely withdrawal? I have my own ideas but I wanted to hear from these guys and see what they thought.”
“I have been interested in this for a long time,” said attendee Lisa Nowak, who has no affiliation with Biola. “It just helps to inform me better about issues of today so that I can be an influence in the community. This talk has been really interesting and very understandable. They have done a really good job of pulling history together with current events, in particular the upcoming election.”
