{"id":911,"date":"2014-02-06T11:50:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T11:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/christians-and-public-theology.html"},"modified":"2014-02-06T11:50:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-06T11:50:00","slug":"christians-and-public-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/02\/christians-and-public-theology.html","title":{"rendered":"Christians and Public Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Religious Right notables from 30 years ago have passed from the scene, and the Religious Left largely has failed to command a wide audience. So, many American Christians find themselves without guidance to address social issues and public policy matters, the director of a Washington, D.C.-based Christian think-tank told a Baylor University audience.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are left with a situation where many Christians have no clear direction in terms of a helpful social and political witness for their faith,\u201d Mark Tooley said. \u201cSome, especially at this time in America, are very much tempted toward withdrawal, despair or cynicism about politics, about the culture and about the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

As hot-button issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion rights divide the nation\u2014and many churches\u2014some Christians find it difficult to develop a public theology, said Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion & Democracy<\/a>, in a lecture sponsored by Baylor University\u2019s Institute for Studies of Religion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The church should focus its energy on themes more central to the Bible than politics, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that historically, the institutional church teaches a broad principle politically. But its primary vocation is, of course, to proclaim the gospel, to evangelize and to disciple,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Churches support, encourage and guide believers, but Christians have a responsibility to form their own political ideologies, he asserted. \u201cThe more specific vocations for the details of politics are primarily left up to the Christian lay people,\u201d Tooley said. \u201cSometimes, we confuse those vocations, but I think it is an important distinction.\u201d<\/p>\n


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Religious Right notables from 30 years ago have passed from the scene, and the Religious Left largely has failed to command a wide audience. So, many American Christians find themselves without guidance to address social issues and public policy matters, the director of a Washington, D.C.-based Christian think-tank told a Baylor University audience. \u201cWe are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChristians and Public Theology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Religious Right notables from 30 years ago have passed from the scene, and the Religious Left largely has failed to command a wide audience. 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