City of Man-centered

All that was absent in my reading was the sound of the National Anthem in the background and the fluttering of the National Ensign.

I concur with the author’s Primer For Christian Persuaders:

1) Maintain self-awareness;
2) maintain spiritual grounding,
3) maintain perspective,
4) maintain community, and
5) maintain a spirit of grace and reconciliation

along with their Three Concluding Propositions:

1) Politics is a realm of necessity,
2) politics is a realm of hope and possibility, and
3) politics can be the realm of nobility.

The sub-title reads: Religion and Politics in a New Era.

Having read the book only once, I still do not recognize that which the authors referred to as “The New Era”?

I came away with the impression the administration the authors served under left little to criticize. (Probably too broad an observation, for sure.) That “their” administration seriously stripped the citizenry of civil liberties, mired us in foreign conflicts which will ultimately make Vietnam pale in comparison, and seriously undermined our economy is lost in their recollection of the “good” which was brought to pass.

Bottom line, for me, was the author’s simplistic suggestion America is becoming more pro-life without clarifying America’s government is ever more committed to a pro-death mind-set! Citing the decline in abortions from 1.6 million to 1.3 million without mentioning the advent and promotion of RU 486 and other abortifacients is somewhat disingenuous and suggesting the partial-birth abortion legislation was an advance when, in fact, the pre-born are still subject to this barbaric reality.

I chose that as illustrative since I personally consider the issue of SOHL (Sanctity of Human Life) to be the point of the cultural wedge. Once that point was yielded, all the cultural horror which has followed was inevitable

Years ago I read a book with the title Everything is Politics, but Politics isn’t Everything.

Believers living in this form of government need to participate and the guidelines offered by the authors are helpful.

Believers also need to remember, Politics will never change hearts and minds: only the gospel will do that.

Believers also need to be vary warty of the intoxicating influence of politics. Given man’s inherent messianic complex, politics affords an avenue to “save” everyone. Woe to the believing man or woman who succumbs to that “siren”!

Believers are called to a leavening influence, individually, and not corporately. A familiarity with Grudem's Politics According to the Bible would be helpful alongside this book.