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Despite the Bible's very clear teaching on government, modern Christians often fail to understand the link between God's moral rules and politics or policy positions. In part, this is because of the graphical language we use to talk about political parties. We usually speak of a "political spectrum" populated by those "on the left, on the right, and in the center." This language confuses people into thinking that the "political spectrum" can be represented by a line. It also implies that those at either extreme must be wrong and, as we often hear, "the truth lies somewhere in between." In fact, the graphical element that represents God's position is a point. On matters where God has spoken, there is a single point that represents being in conformity with His commands. Any departure from this point is a move towards sin. Because spiritual warfare - the battle between good and evil - is the reality that underlies all temporal affairs, it is true that you can make a binary division among political positions. There are those who conform to God and those who don't. Nowadays, those who conform to God are usually labelled as "far right". This language is incorrect, because it ignores the fact that it is always possible to depart from God's position in two ways. There are always two ways to sin. For example, consider God's command against murder. You can depart from this position by murdering somebody or by allowing yourself or somebody else to be murdered. Likewise, you can depart from God's command against adultery by being a prostitute or by hiring a prostitute. You can depart from God's command against theft by stealing somebody else's property or by wasting your own property - stealing from yourself. The diagram below depicts this situation as it applies to politics. Socialism, which is no different than communism, is usually considered to be "on the left of the political spectrum." If you remember your history, fascism is considered to be an "extreme right wing" political position. Historically, fascists like Hitler and Mussolini grabbed power by promising to forcefully resist the European communist movement of the 20th century. In reality, the end result of both positions - socialism and fascism - was identical. The socialists wanted to eliminate private property and exercise strict control over all aspects of life. To resist the socialists, the fascists ended up putting private property under government control and exercising strict control over all aspects of life.  Once we view politics - and life - from the standpoint of the diagram above a number of lessons fall out. First is that God's moral rules apply not only to our interactions with others, they also apply to what we do with our own bodies and property. What we call "virtues" are actually simply the application of God's moral rules to the self. Second, we can understand why the Left is so quick to defend Saddam Hussein. Martin Gross has a good op-ed in The Washington Times today on this subject entitled The left/fascist "peace" coalition. As so often happens, there is an analog in God's natural law for the diagram we have drawn above by studying His revealed law. If you study music, you may already have guessed, the analog is the "circle of fifths". In the circle of fifths, the key of C is at the top, corresponding to the point that represents conformity with God's law. To the right of C, moving around the circle, are the sharp keys, with the key of F# at the bottom of the circle. Moving around the circle to the left are the flat keys, with Gb at the bottom of the circle. But Gb and F# are actually the same key - they are "enharmonic equivalents - even though the name of the notes in both keys is different, the sounds they make are actually the same. The next time someone accuses you of being a "right winger" because you are a Christian, show them the diagram! |
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