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I tend to agree with Marc Gravell's answer on this, but I would like to add that I don't think that any religious influence or moral framework could make a true democracy work. True democracy, history has shown, always degenerates into what Lord Acton described as "the tyranny of the majority" in which the rights of the minority get trampled by the opinion ...

Christianity does not hold a "church and state must be separate" view at all; that might be part of the US constitution, but : not universal - and to all intents and purposes it is not even correct in the US, since it is quietly acknowledged that you don't stand much chance of election if you are openly non-Christian (regardless of your actual views). ...

The Church of Scotland is not a state church. It is recognised as "national church", but it is independent of the state in matters spiritual. The Church of Scotland and the Church of England have very different histories - it is not a question of one trying to imitate the other. The Scottish Reformation of 1560 took place when Scotland was still a separate ...

No, there is no Biblical imperative for us to participate in government in the way you describe. The New Testament doesn't say much about our relationship with government, because the emphasis is on our membership in Christ. We are to be less concerned with things of the world, and more concerned with the things of God. Here's what the Bible does say ...

There are a few problems with this approach; firstly, democracy cannot make sense if there is something with a super-vote; if we ignore the Christian hot-points, and say that (silly example) there's a religious law that says "chairs must be blue". At this point, it doesn't matter if 95%+ of the population wants to use different colour chairs - they are ...

Jethro very plainly is advocating subsidiarity for Moses. I don't see any reference to distributism in that chapter though. Jethro is addressing organization/governance, not economics/ownership. (However, both terms are relatively new to me so I could be misunderstanding.) There are several New Testament passages that assume subsidiarity without ...

Since Peter answered your first question, I'll attempt to answer your second question. And, once we've established who conflated the two, what was the biblical rationale for doing so? Jesus spoke of doing good to others. Matthew 25:35-40 - ...for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger ...

I like Eric's answer, but I'm going to give a contrarian answer. In Philippians 4: 8,9, we read: Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the ...

For Evangelicals*, the seminal work on this very question is Kingdoms In Conflict by Chuck Colson. (Note, the book has been since released for those unable to handle anything less than a summary in its title, as God and Government: An Insider's View on the Boundaries between Faith and Politics.) Chuck Colson - special assistant to President Nixon during ...

"Submit" in this passage doesn't mean "behave as a doormat" or "never speak critically of". It means don't rebel. If your "human authority" allows you to take an active part in public discourse, to campaign, to try to influence your fellow voters (which democracies of course do, for people of all faiths or none) this passage doesn't prevent people doing it. ...

The separation of church and state is a "Baptist Distinctive" but is not commonly held across the remainder of the Christian spectrum. To wit: The state church of England is the Church of England (Anglican). The state church of Scotland is the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) Most Orthodox denominations (Russian, Armenian, Ethopian) have specific ...

There are in fact different concepts that emerged in christianity during the ages. Early christians that lived under pagan emperors were taught by Saint Paul to respect civil authorities and pray for them so they come to truth. When the persecutions ended and emperors accepted christianity, there was a temptation to accept millenarist view that Rome ...

As a fellow Screwtape letters reader, you'd know what C.S. Lewis says about using Jesus to support this or that economic theory; and that it's not a good thing. But, that doesn't mean that the Church herself should be absent from the discussion of economic theories, as one of the important, but not critical, functions of Christian Churches is to provide ...

The term "democracy" comes from ancient Greece, where what is generally considered the first democracy was established in Athens in 507 BCE. Democracy thus predates Christianity by a significant margin. As for "Christian values" having an influence on the success of democracies, note that many of these democracies, especially in Europe, were created by ...

I don't know of anything in the Bible that explicitly commands participation in government. While the idea of voting was known at the time -- Rome and parts of Greece were republics during periods that overlapped the Old Testament -- I don't know of any mention of it in the Bible. On the other hand, the Bible does repeatedly command us to help orphans and ...

Creator and Lord I suppose the Biblical basis for Theonomy begins with the fact that God created everything and everyone, and is therefore Lord of all creation. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1, NASB) "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and ...

Christianity, or at least Catholicism, teaches us to honor and respect our traditions. It is a corporal work of mercy to bury the dead and a spiritual work to pray for them and tradition, as G.K. Chesterton wrote in Orthodoxy is the "Democracy of the Dead". Tobit was ruined because he persevered in burying the dead. Tradition means giving votes to the ...

When Pilate asked Jesus about the accusations made against him, that he was calling himself the King of the Jews (and thus implicitly threatening Roman rule), Jesus told him that "My kingdom is not of this world." (John 18:36) Also, consider one of the rhetorical traps the Pharisees laid for him: Matthew 22: 15-21 15 Then went the Pharisees, and ...

Absolutely; for if we don't we become complicit in the results and we can claim no authority to object to the actions of that government's rulers. Sure we can say there's a higher calling and it's heaven but to not participate, even so little as not voting is a poor witness at best; we in essence are throwing our support to the victor whether they're good or ...

Simply stated, theonomy is God's law or the rule of God (Deut.27:26). Israel is the only nation ever to live under the theonomy of the living God. It is to be compared with autonomy - self rule, and heteronomy - rule by another. Concerning the Church of Jesus Christ, theonomy is an ethical mandate. It is not a political rule as such but rather the basis of ...