Via Faith in Public Life, this looks like a book I need to add to the reading list. From the freebie chapter:

The notion that religion should be disconnected from politics always seemed odd to me simply because I couldn't understand how you could separate the two. If religion mattered, and if the content of your faith was true, it had to affect all you did. And if politics also mattered, the obligation of the believer was to sort out how politics and faith related to each other. The task was especially complicated for believers who saw religious and political liberty as gifts to be treasured and preserved. That meant working out the relationship between one's own faith and politics in a way that respected the beliefs of others--including those who rejected faith as an irrational illusion.

That, more or less, sums up the question I guess I'm trying to force myself to resolve as well. Reading through the full chapter available on Dionne's book, there seem to be as many parts that I'll disagree with as those that I'll agree with. He approaches the topic from what appears to be a distinctly Catholic background and it certainly adds a wrinkle in the reviewing of Boyd & Hunter which initially sent me down this trail.

Speaking of Hunter ... it looks as if the other Joel has endorsed Mike Huckabee for President. There's a part of that which ought not surprise me and then there's a part of it that does. That's about par for the course with my view of Hunter.

Meanwhile, Boyd's at least been reading up a storm on the topic of faith & politics ... also blogging on Huckabee's latest comment (more in his interview w/ Beliefnet). Leave it to Boyd to sell me on reading anything translated from French:

In Ellul's estimation, it's not appropriate for Kingdom people to either support or revolt against governments. This gives them too much credit. Rather, following the example of Jesus, we should ignore them as much as possible, put up with them as much as we need to, and stay focused on living out the radical Kingdom. If we do this, then we, like Jesus, will find ourselves revolting against the government (and culture). We are, most fundamentally, called to be non-conformists. Our service to the world is the way our counter-cultural lives expose the invalidity of all forms of government by manifesting the reign of God.

I hafta admit ... that sounds pretty alluring. Slightly tangent to this, I watched the video of last week's sermon at Woodland Hills - "Puppets and Dresses" ... serious. Boyd wasn't there, so it was Seth McCoy (youth pastor?). When I realized the guy was giving a sermon while wearing a hoodie jacket, I think I started to appreciate Boyd's call to non-conformity just a bit more. Anyways, I'm sure I'll dive into reading some Jacques Ellul sooner rather than later.

More to come ... primary day gets nearer and nearer.