Is God A Republican?

Have you seen any of those bumper stickers that proclaim, in huge letters "God Is Not A Republican" and then in much small print say, "God Is Not A Democrat Either." Obviously this is laid out to be an attack on the Republican party, otherwise, whichever came first, the print would be equal sized for both parties, and not so tilted. Beyond that though, this implies that God is not interested in human Politics.

This is probably a pretty common opinion in this day and age, but is it true? Well, the short answer is, no. It's not true. The fact is that God is has an acute interest in all human activity, including Politics. He is the Creator, and the Sovereign God of the Universe, and the Bible makes clear that he is very interested in what people do. We see throughout Scripture blessings and judgements from God based on the actions, some of which we might consider to be Political actions.

So, I don't think the correct question is whether or not God is interested in our Politics, because I think that clearly He is, but rather, does he take sides in human politics. Actually, I don't think that this is nearly so complex a question as it might seem. Instead of starting with worrying about specific issues, let's start with the classical Christian view of right and wrong, and let's face it, as a Christian, it's the God of the Bible that I'm talking about here, because He's the One I believe in, and I wouldn't even be addressing this question without a specific view of God in mind.

Clearly, from the Christian standpoint, there is a very clearly delineated right and wrong, and this can be determined with a pretty good amount of certainty on most issues. I don't think it's a stretch, in the least, to say that God is on the side of the right, and firmly set against the wrong. I guess at this point it's a good time to bring up the age old philosophical question, which goes something along the lines of, are things good because God decrees them, or does God decree them because they are good. Of course, the correct answer is neither, but rather, God decree's them because He is good, and so he decree's the good out of His own goodness. In effect, we really aren't looking nearly so much to see which side God might be on, but rather to see that we are on God's side.

As I said before, in any given issue, God would have a position, and we shouldn't take a side and then try to argue for why God is on that side, but rather we should look to the Bible, and try to ascertain what is right, and therefore, what is the position of God on that issue.

Now let's see if we can apply that reasoning to Political Parties. When you look at the platform of any party, you find an amalgam of positions on a multiplicity of issues. It's probably safe to say that some of those positions would be in the true right, and some would not. Also, with each specific issue, it's pretty safe to say the two major parties will have different positions. It is possible that one party will hold the right position, while the other will be wrong. It is also possible that both will be wrong, but with opposing positions, it is impossible for both to be right. This is known as the law of non-contradiction, two opposing positions cannot both be true at the same time.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the issues and whether or not my positions are right, and whether or not I'm on God's side. So, to answer my initial question, is God a Republican, of course not, all of God's positions are perfect, while the Republican party clearly has flaws, but I do think that the Republican party is, by and large, closer to God's positions than the Democrats are, and I'm more than willing to discuss this point on an issue by issue basis, any time.

What's more, if God were voting in our upcoming Presidential Election, would he vote for John McCain? Honestly, I don't know if He would or not, but it's obvious to me that He would not vote for Barack Obama, because many of his positions are very contrary to what is right, by God's standards.

So, as far as those bumper stickers go, technically, they are correct, but you have to really wonder, do the people who put those bumper stickers on their cars think things through this much? Or do they really believe, as I assumed at the begining, that God doesn't care about our Politics? This is one of those cases where a technically true statement is mis-applied and therefore becomes a false statement.

Someone could disagree with me regarding my conclusion that the GOP is in a more righteous position than the Dems, but I'm happy to discuss that, and I really don't think you can hold a Christian Worldview and disagree with my premise that God is indeed on a side with any given issue. What say you?