It looks like I have my own thread again!  Yay!  Yahooooo! 

On the one hand, Greg wants to say, that the Church should not tell Ceasar what to do.  Yet on the other hand we are suppose to be Kingdom people who are to help the oppressed, the poor and the needy.  Again, as in my other thread, part of doing that is to become politically involved.  So basically, what I'm saying in this letter to the editor is that government must treat ALL of it's citizens with equality and in fairness.  It must remain neutral (though the public school system will not be neutral).  Yet it seems, according to Greg, that I can't be a priest or a prophet and advocate for just schooling policy.

Greg tells us that we shouldn't be pointing fingers at government.  But how is government disproportionately funding one system and ramming everyone through it NOT unjust treatment of the diverse citizens that exist in our culture?  Is this not systemic evil?  See here?  I'm not being liberal or conservative.  My position goes against the values that liberals hold because it has too much church/state cohesion.  At the same time conservatives won't like it because it is too much government(!) i.e. with funding comes strings and secularization.  Too socialist!

So what would Greg have us do?  If we are too stupid to make any move or too selfish to make any move then basically we do nothing.  We become immobilized with no moral fibre in our bones. 

Greg worries that every action creates a reaction.  And that everything is too complex and ambiguous and that we'll have infighting and question each other's Christianity.  Division, division, division!  As if this is a bad thing.  But that is exactly the beauty of it.  Why?  Because if as Greg has pointed out in his books that we are co-regents with God then even this can be seen as a part of our "working out our salvation with fear and trembling."  God would have us "figure things out."  He leaves that space or alots that space for us as his children to do this.  Why should this been seen as a problem?  Wouldn't God rather have us be obedient instead of right?

As human beings we have been given the "cultural mandate."  We are not only social but cultural beings and in the normal course of our lives we cultivate or develop the world around us.  Normally, we do not do this in a haphazardly but orderly way as God intended.  That is, humanity's culture-shaping activities are in accordance with God's creative intention.  As we go about living our lives in God's world we continually discover the potentialities he has built into his creation.  This includes not only agriculture and industry but also the various arts and sciences as well as politics.  Politics is a cultural activity.  Thus the working out of forms of government in specific settings, i.e. democratic, socialist, communist, liberal, conservative, etc, is the task for human creativity and freedom coupled with a large measure of wisdom, discernment and understanding of the context.

Today I go and vote to "force" Ontarians to give tax money to support not one all encompassing system designed for the majority but to support a government which will show fairness to ALL citizens.  No more "churning out" cookie cutter same 'ol, same 'ol status quo kiddies.  Ontarians will no more need to fear that "The Man,"  that "Big Brother" is going to make steal their kids away and make them zombies! Noooope!  Free at last! Free at last!!  Thank Gaaaaad Almighty I'm free at last!!! 

Post Edited (BBBCanada) : 10/10/2007 9:23:29 PM (GMT-5)

I'm with you on the issue of justice. But I don't think the description I gave of American politicians has to do with compromise. It's deceit. We know enough now about Bush wanting to deal with Iraq before 911, etc. to know his foreign policy goals were kept secret in his first campaign--nor were his foreign policy goals particularly humble. Same with Clinton and some of his 180's. These people aren't stupid. They just know what needs to be said to get elected. Maybe Canadians have more reason to trust their politicians than Americans.

My son is doing a paper for which he checked out the notes taken by framers during the constitutional convention. In that convention, one of the framers was talking about the time (in his future) when America would own Canada!! Do you honestly think he would campaign on that? Or that his fellow framers would reveal his goals to his fellow-Americans? No way. There was talk again, just prior to the Civil War, of taking Canada to avoid internal war, by some American politicians.

That's why voting for a lesser of evils (as Americans are apt to say they do) is not so easy as they think. It takes information to do that. And there's just enough deceit and spin in American political rhetoric to make accurate information difficult to obtain. In a country whose government isn't war-mongering where no-brainer justice issues are being debated, things are different.

Oh duh!  LOL.  I meant to address that as deceit.  Yeah, I hear ya on that.  Canada is the same thing.   Ontario just voted in Dalton McGuinty last night.  This is the first time in 70 years that Ontario has had a second majority government in a row.  The Liberal leader was like Bill Clinton who straight bold faced lied about his pledges.  When Mike Harris, the PC (Progressive Conservative) leader was in government many didn't like his policies but guess what?  He did what he said he was going to do.  Done deal.  Some of his policies were made into law while others weren't because of opposition and comprimise that I spoke of.  Comprimise as I noted though is not deceit though many who believe that abortion should be totally ended at all costs will see it as that.  Reasons such as deceit is basically the idea of why we need Christians in public office and to influence politics.  All you and I have to go on is the politician's word right?  But this is a different sort of question I think.

By the way, you mean to tell me I would have been an American??  I've been think'n for some time now that you guys should own Canada or that the two countries become one nation.  Ahh...it ain't gonna happen.