Things Jesus never said:
- Follow your heart, it can’t go wrong.
- Vote Republican.
- Condemn people who are not in the Church to do what I’ve commanded the Church to do.
- Make the government do the job of the church and use force.
I commit myself to Bonhoeffer’s theology that it is the job of the Church to keep the government in check, and depending on your interpretation of scripture the government is not supposed to have a ton of power.
“The job of the Church [is] to keep the government in check” is entirely different than the Church sitting back and forcing the government to do what we ought to do. If God commands we care the orphans and widows, it does not mean we enforce laws that will have them (barely) surviving on welfare. It means we are to give of ourselves—and not just our money—to support them. That being said, sure, the Church ought not allow the government to go so far as to oppress it’s people, and yet, I find that the Church is actually pushing the government to do just that.
I’m not entirely certain of what you’re getting at with saying “the government is not supposed to have a ton of power” in relation to this post. I agree, but don’t quite see the relevance. Haha.
