Politics is theological
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 8:54AM
Kevin Meath in Commentary, Culture, Theology

A friend asked me on Facebook how the Republican Party came to be associated with Christianity. My brief answer, subject to FB's character limit, was not about history but about the gravitational forces that will always tend to pull people who hold a biblical worldview toward what is called conservatism. Here's my Politics 101 answer, slightly expanded.

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General rule: Liberals (more often Dem) tend to see people as naturally good, so they are big on personal rights, favor centralized power (calling it unity), and are therefore skeptical of property rights.

Conservatives (more often Repub) distrust human nature so they favor decentralized power, promote property rights, and see wisdom in putting some limits on personal rights.

The lines often get blurred. As if in support of the conservative view, sad and even tragic caricatures of both perspectives are not uncommon. But whether you trend right or left comes down to your response to: "What is Man?"

Politics is theological.

Article originally appeared on Kevin Meath (http://kevinmeath.squarespace.com/).
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