A few notes to scribble down from the Speaking of Faith podcast. What's amazing to me is that even though the entire recording is a mere hour, there's a lot more food for thought in it since it covers such different perspectives.

As much as I'd hope not to dwell once more on the topic too much, I'm hoping to at least get through the bulk of it over the weekend. First up, I want to touch on Boyd's opening. Here, he gives a nutshell version of his thesis.

Boyd:

... it was just a time to lay out why, in our congregation -- it was really not that new of a philosophy, but I'd never been so clear on it. How political issues are, more often than not, very ambiguous and good and honest and decent and Bible-believing people can have the same values, but they translate into the complexity of politics in different ways, even on things like gay rights and abortion and the Iraq War and all of that. And our job as Kingdom people is to let the politics take care of itself. Vote your conscience.

...

And, see, what I would argue there is that we are to transform the world absolutely. That's the call. But the way you do it from a Kingdom perspective is very different from the way you do it from a world perspective. And our trust is to be that we're to bleed, we're to sacrifice, we're to replicate Calvary for women who've got unwanted pregnancies, to express the value of the unborn and the value of the woman and then to go full-term with them, not just tell them what not to do, namely, have an abortion, but rather to live life with them.

Around the time Boyd offers that we should "let the politics take care of itself," my ears perk up and I'm reminded of the one bug I tend to have with Boyd's thesis. And that's this - just because politics is a means of engagement that often runs counter to the means of living a Kingdom life, I don't think we are to absolve ourselves of involvement. Furthermore, I'm not even entirely sure that's the argument that Boyd wants to make, but his statement certainly leaves open that interpretation.

To my own view, I'd offer a parallel way of looking at this. Just because we are called to live a kingdom life does not mean we do everything outside of the means offered in this world. I don't think too many people would argue that we read a different language, cook different foods, and so forth (to be sure, there are exceptions to this within the Christian faith that certainly would argue such). So I take that understanding to mean that there are ways to engage in politics that are true to the call of living a kingdom life. I'll cut myself off from offering any wisdom on how to do that since I'm certain that my own attempt would have to be called a work in progress.

And without a doubt, those called to actually serve in government (be it as an elected official, bureaucrat, or otherwise) have a totally unique set of challenges to it that I'd be even more reluctant to dive into at this point.

Chuck Colson sums up a point that underscores the challenge:

I have seen in the last 30 years a greater phenomenon than the religious right and that is the political illusion, which Jacques Ellul wrote about in the '60s, in which he said eventually, with technology, we'll be able to have instant communications between power and the masses. People will be deluded into thinking politics is going to solve all their problems. That's a serious problem. And Greg is a good antidote to that, because he's reminding us as Christians, don't fall into that trap. You can't sell it all to politics, which is inherently corrupting.

To which I offer a hearty "Amen!"

I'll try touching on a few more tangents from this discussion over the weekend. By all means, give it a listen. The moderator, Krista Tippett, offers her closing thoughts on her blog. Boyd's review of Colson's "God and Government" is also well worth a shout-out here.