This post arose as a reply to one of Bob's great blog entries. The he started about the connection between faith and politics. Reading his post made me think of a couple of diagrams for how these two things interact. While I was typing the comment go too long so I decided to start it as a post to this blog.

Bob's post made me wonder if we're reacting to the political realm privatizing religion by returning the favor: as the religious realm we're trying to privatize politics. I see no reason to privatize our political involvement. On the contrary I think the candidates and issues we vote for (and why we vote for them) matter deeply we should talk more about rather than less about these things.

One of the problems is that as Christ-followers in this country we sorely lack models for what engagement in the culture around us can look like. All we seem to have are polarizing options. As I was thinking about it today I took it upon myself to create a couple of visual representations of what it might look like to engage in culture. (As a side note, I just started a sabbatical from my job and I think my mind is looking for creative outlets for all its energy!)

Here's a diagram that seeks to illustrate the model I think most of us walk around with in our heads. Each of us sees ourselves as Christ-followers in the midst of our culture and country trying to figure out how we are to interact with things like politics, work, culture, money, etc... something like this:

I think there are various problems with this model.

1. It is individualistic. I see myself as a single unit – not as part of a community (ie the communtiy of Christ-followers from my church or neighborhood for example).
2. I take interaction with each element in my culture one at a time – I can choose to interact with them or not. I can choose to see them as relevant or irrlevant to my faith.
3. It promotes the idea that in life there are sacred things and there are secular things. I just don't think this is true for a Christ-follower. I think all of life is to be understood as sacred - work, education, politics, etc... (more on this in the next post).
4. I think that it lacks any connection to the larger sense of the Kingdom of God: God’s mission in the world. Rather than God being the actor - the one who takes initiative - I think of myself as having to influence all these spheres around me.

So, overall, I don't think this is a helpful model. But I do think it is the one most of us have in our heads. So what should we replace it with? How should we think about it?

I'll post what I think is a better diagram in a few days. In the mean time, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Jim