Kelly Monroe Kullberg is founder of the Veritas Forum, a bestselling author, and Christian thought leader.
There are no "Left" and "Right" Christians. There are only Christians who are centered obediently in Christ, finding life and reality in Him. I want to question the legitimacy of the traditional polarizing categories (Left and Right), and suggest instead the language of rootedness and fruitfulness. Believers in Christ are rooted in Life and are therefore life-givers. Those who are rooted in Life could not imagine killing a child, encouraging a drug addiction, or multiplying debt -- which is a form of slavery. Why? Because those who are rooted in Christ will always be for life, for freedom, for joy, and for abundance. Of course there is need for discussion and wisdom on the proper choices and trade-offs, but the framing question should be this: Are we devoted to Christ in obedience and holiness, or to the cheap grace in which the ends justify the means?
Whenever Christian brothers and sisters are earnestly devoted above all things to the pursuit of Christ, obedience to the whole counsel of scripture, confession, and conversation, and growth in the loving fellowship and unity we are given in Christ, then we will grow closer to one another. When we share the same "first thing" -- love for Christ and his teachings -- then the "second things" can be addressed in civil, substantial conversations within the family of Christ.
We must learn to discern between authentic believers and those who exploit cheapened Bible phrases (on any "side" of the spectrum) for political, ideological, and often economic gain. Since there are some who use their God-talk and cultural influence to advance actions and candidates whose policies are contrary to the heart and wisdom of God for the abundant life of human beings -- policies and people who yield debt, disease, and death, such as trillions in escalating debt within this country, neglect of the life-giving biblical definition of marriage, calling theft "justice" for the sake of "wealth redistribution," disinterest in the indigenous rights of citizens asking for help in unstable states, aloof incompetence managing a massive environmental disaster, the legalization of drugs and the legitimation of abortion/infanticide -- then, yes, in fact there is a growing rift and distrust between those who claim the name of Christ. The rift separates them as far as life is from death. There are those who use the Word and authority of Christ to bring life and freedom, and those who use it to clothe unjust policies in the appearance of righteousness.
Christians are conservationists of what God created, both in the natural order and in the moral and spiritual orders. Conservation protects and nurtures life and brings it forth. By serving and conserving God's creation and wisdom, His teachings and guidance, we are able to be "liberal" in our fruitfulness and generosity. This is how the orphan and the widow can be sustained in cheerful hospitality and abundance. Though some personalities by nature lean more into grace, and others into truth, Jesus was full of both grace and truth, and offers us the same fullness. The same wholeness.
Life has no fellowship with death. Perhaps there is no "evangelical Right," and no "evangelical Left." Perhaps there are only those who obey the teachings of Jesus as closely as they can, according to the clearest common-sense readings of scripture, reading both the red and black letters since they derive from the same Author. So consider this an invitation, once again, to confession and fellowship. Consider this a prayer that the Church will reunite in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as our Life and our source and our center.
David J. Theroux,Founder and President of the Independent Institute and the C.S. Lewis Society of California.
The unfortunate support for years by some Christians of what is commonly called "Progressivism" reflects the modernist folly since the 19th century of deferring intellectual and moral authority to the utilitarianism and moral relativism of the secular world ("the end justifies the means"). It comports neither with the teachings of Jesus nor with the Christian tradition of natural law, either in moral ethics or economics. During George W. Bush's presidency, for example, many "Conservatives" embraced the "Progressive" myth and sought on utilitarian grounds to justify invasive wars and occupations, the USA PATRIOT Act, torture and renditioning, and massive expansions of federal power, foreign and domestic.
With Barack Obama as president, such "Liberal" (i.e., "Progressive") evangelicals as Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, and Ronald Sider, who may have been critical of Bush's abuses of power, now support authoritarianism by claiming that individuals choosing peaceful means that do not break the Ten Commandments' and Jesus' prohibitions against invasive force (i.e., murder, rape, theft, and fraud) are still "unjust" and require the intervention of government power to coerce innocent people to obey the "Progressive" vision of "social justice." As a result, Wallis believes that government officials themselves should, as Bush similarly claimed, not just be immune from the Judeo-Christian standards for the rule of law but that their legal, institutionalized breaking of the Decalogue is somehow a higher "Christian" calling.
Comparing the views of Wallis to those of C.S. Lewis is instructive, since Lewis understood, unlike collectivists such as Wallis, that moral relativism is incoherent and unacceptable because the end never justifies the means (see, e.g., Lewis' The Abolition of Man. Especially timely and insightful is Lewis's essay on the dangers, dehumanization, and immorality of welfare statism and therapeutic statism, "Is Progress Possible? Willing Slaves of the Welfare State," from his book, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics.
Wallis's recent attacks on those who are challenging the Obama administration's drive for gigantic government on every front is consistent with his confused support for authoritarianism as the vehicle for Christian love. In his enthusiasm for political power, Wallis has become an embarrassing apologist for the moral relativism of welfare statism, socialism, and corporatism, worshipping Obama and government power in a political idolatry. Can anyone imagine Jesus advising and defending the policies of the Caesar and the Roman Empire?
[Read the rest of Theroux's essay at the Cross and Culture blog.]
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