| Penn State Elections | Iris Rain: the writings of dana m. ray | Response by Kevin Craig, Christian/Libertarian candidate for U.S. Congress, Missouri's 7th District. |
| This is a rant. Prepare the soap box PLEASE! | I love rants! Jesus loves rants. He hates the lukewarm (Rev. 3:16). Better to be Adolph Hitler than one of millions of German drones (so-called Christians). |
| The past month has seen a flurry of unprecedented publicity for the folks applying for the UPUA. That is the University Park Undergraduate Association. What do they do? Decide how our money gets used for entertainment and student clubs and what not. Kind of like a ubber wealthy tax person way up in the government getting to decide where tax payer money goes. | |
| Penn State pays a lot of "taxes". | |
| Now there are a lot of problems with this group of people. I can't complain too much because I've received some of that funding to do amazing things like Jubilee and IJM programs, etc. But. This election has really sickened me in a way that I did not expect. | |
| (Now brace yourselves if you care about the candidates for this year.) | |
| I am sick and tired of the candidates being either 1) malicious in trying to sabatoge the other campaign and 2) using their faith as a platform to get votes. | |
| I am more angry about the second. Let me give some background. | |
| This year, David Adewumi came out of nowhere in the last month of the campaigns to offer a serious bid for the student presidency. He has been endorsed (also a new thing) by several organizations and a significant portion of the football team. Why? He is an outspoken Christian and has used that as an "in" to a significant portion of the votes. He goes to Campus Crusade. He is a leader. He pulled together a trip to Haiti in three weeks. So why am I against a Christian in the government? I'm not. I don't care a dime about the (usual, not original intention) of the separation of church and state. Let the man talk about his faith IF IT COMES UP. Let it inform his decisions. Let it make him a good leader. BUT DON'T USE IT TO MANIPULATE US TO VOTE FOR YOU! He was brought up in front of Navs and lauded by our president as "man of God" for us to vote for. Would I love a man of God to lead our student government? Sure, if he's good at it. But is he good at it? I'm not convinced. I'm pretty sure that the other candidates aren't but just because David is a Christian, has crazy schemes to give us free wifi and lower tuition, and is the most charismatic man to walk on the Penn State grounds in several decades does not mean that he is good at what he does or that every Christian in Penn State is obliged to not only vote for him but run around in crazy marketing schemes. |
IOW, a Christian should only talk about Christianity if non-Christians ask for his opinion. (Which might be never if atheists have anything to do with it.) I agree that just because a candidate says he is a Christian is not proof that he is, or that he actually follows the commands of Christ. But if he actually is, why is it "manipulation" to say "Vote for me, I really do follow Jesus Christ"? |
| Can you tell I'm a bit frustrated? | Yes. You've probably been listening to White Horse Inn. |
| Now why is this a problem? To give you some background, I've been listening to the White Horse Inn and they've been discussing the Two Kingdoms/Cities that Augustine and Luther discuss quite a bit. This idea is still very new to me, baby Reformed person that I am, but one part has stood out: we are not out to establish God's kingdom for Him on this earth. | Am I a prophet or what?
|
| To those of you (myself included most of the time) who strongly oppose the false separation of sacred and secular, hold your horses. I'm not saying that that is a bad thing to dislike. No, there is not a "better than" attitude towards the activities of this world and those of the church. | "sacred" = "Christian" "secular = "atheistic" "this world" = "rebellion"
|
| However, there is a sense in which the activities of both are not meant to dictate or control each other. The thoughts and actions of one (the church) are to change the hearts and lives of those who live in the second (the "world" for back of a better term. | The activities of those who pray "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done" should not dominate those who are building Satan's kingdom? Or does "dictate or control" mean the opposite of "change the hearts?" Does "dictate or control" mean what Mao Tse Tung said: "all power comes from the barrel of a gun? If we "change the hearts" of atheists, won't they then become Christ's Kingdom-builders? |
| This means that the church should preach the word, administer the sacraments, etc. This means that the church is not to be the government, nor should it be a ploy to get us to vote for a particular candidate! | "The church" = ordained clergymen? After receiving his doctorate in Theology, Abraham Kuyper accepted a call to become minister for the Dutch Reformed Church for the town of Beesd in 1863. Did he sin or violate the "two kingdoms" rule by subsequently becoming Prime Minister of the Netherlands? Does the term "Prime Minister" violate the "two kingdoms" rule? Where the heck is this "two kingdoms" rule in the Bible, anyway? |
| If the person is a Muslim (gasp! shock and disbelief!) and they do a great job of leading this campus with integrity, meekness, humility, servanthood, networking savy, solid and wise ideas, then GO AHEAD AND I WANT THAT PERSON THERE. | If a Muslim is loyal to a command to slaughter infidels (that's you and me), how could infidels vote for a Muslim? This is why Roman Catholics -- loyal to a foreign monarch (the Pope) -- were not allowed to hold public office in early America. Within a couple of generations, Catholics were Protestantized; Romans were Americanized. |
| But do not, please, do not feed into the idea that a person has to be Christian to be excellent in what they do. | Can a person who believes the universe is ultimately chaotic and meaningless be "excellent" in anything that they do -- if they are consistent with their belief that there is ultimately no difference between "excellent" and "shoddy?" |
| Do not tell me to vote for someone because they are a Christian and voting for Christians is "what all good [read "real"] Christians do." False. We are not out for a theocracy. | Since "theocracy" simply means "rule of god," everyone is "out for a theocracy." Everyone who believes he is his own god (Genesis 3:5) is "out for a theocracy." Who creates the better -- the more "excellent" -- theocracy: followers of Christ, or followers of a false god? |
| We are not out to control the world by the vast take over of culture. | Jesus Christ is out to control the world by the vast take-over of culture. He is out to convert a culture of prostitution into a culture of marriage. He is out to convert a culture of war into a culture of peace. He is out to convert a culture of theft and fraud into a culture of productive service. We are His foot-soldiers in this take-over. It's called "The Great Commission." Teaching everyone to make their culture conform to the commandments of Christ. |
| We are in the world and not of it, and the world thing to do is to use whatever it can to manipulate to its ends. We, on the other hand, are not out to manipulate, coerce, condemn the world in our actions, our arts, our politics, our swords, our words, anything. God is restoring His kingdom. Not us. We cannot vote that into being at Penn State and trying our hardest to do so is hurting ourselves, hurting our witness, hurting the ones we are here to love. God will work His will and we do not win any points by voting in a man who follows God but is not prepared to lead well, or one that gets in solely by the fact that he "loves God" and then communicates to the campus that we are only out for our own kind. | I still haven't seen the evidence that this Christian candidate is a "manipulator." Isn't that a rather un-Christian accusation to make? Is this candidate really coercing people into voting for him?
Why is it that atheists do not "hurt their witness" by coercively removing God's Commandments from public school, but we "hurt our witness" by trying to allow them back, on a strictly voluntary basis? Why wouldn't a Christian "lead well" -- or even better than an atheist? Why would someone who hates God be better prepared to lead those who are created in His Image? |
| Think about it. Disagree. Someone, please help me with this Two Kingdoms thing. | The best way I can help you with the "two kingdoms" thing is to persuade you to dump it. There is only one legitimate kingdom. All others are usurpers. |
| How the Kingdom Comes - a rant against Michael Horton's ranting. |