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by unit91 2861 days ago
Not political. Religious. For those of us who are Christians, our politics are driven by our religion, not the other way around.

The Heidelberg Catechism sums it up well:

> Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?

> A. That I am not my own, but belong — body and soul, in life and in death — to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

3 comments

monocasa,

HN won't let me reply to your next comment, but regarding:

> a reflection of their religious principles or their political ones

This is actually a common misunderstanding and what I'm trying to explain. "Religious principles OR political principles" means there are actually (at least) TWO categories of ideas a person holds, with specific items (homosexuality, death penalty, etc.) falling inside one of those categories.

That's a secular worldview, and it isn't how Christians think. We have one category: God. God is sovereign, he owns everything including me. As Thomas Aquinas said "all truth is God's truth". When we're being consistent (key caveat), we approach all issues as "what does God want me to do?". Political activities follow from there. We often disagree about those secondary conclusions (what God wants from us regarding issue X), but not the core starting point (ultimate allegiance is to God alone).

> This is actually a common misunderstanding and what I'm trying to explain. "Religious principles OR political principles" means there are actually (at least) TWO categories of ideas a person holds, with specific items (homosexuality, death penalty, etc.) falling inside one of those categories.

> That's a secular worldview, and it isn't how Christians think

And yet literally the previous comment you say

> Not political. Religious.

So which is it?

I was responding to scope of the statement:

> So he sees everything they do as political as well.

Obviously we have political views, but they're a only subset of religious views. By analogy, geometry exists and is a legitimate field of study. But if you said "all mathematicians think about is geometry" that would be false because it's too narrow in scope. If he's consistent in his Christian worldview "he sees everything they do as religious as well" would have been true.

Was funding a lobbying group to reinstitute the death penalty for homosexuality in Uganda a reflection of their religious principles or their political ones?
There's nothing Christian about the board at Chick-Fil-A