Faith and Politics?

I hope this post finds everyone well and I hope everyone is having a great holiday. Look for a link at the end of this post to the slides presented in last weeks lesson on the books of the Bible.

This Sunday I want to take a one week diversion in our Bible 101 series to discuss the role of faith in our politics. I'm doing it partially because it is election year and the recent news regarding Obama and Dr. Dobson, and partially because I need some more study time to get a very solid historical understanding of the development of the Biblical canon before I teach on it.

I do not choose to enter the subject of politics in our Bible Study time lightly. In fact we have to be very careful in how we do it. I would like to have a very open discussion, but I know political issues can cause people to get emotional and argumentative...so we will simply stop if it gets to that.

A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Dobson, on his Focus on the Family radio show, commented on a speech Barack Obama made in 2006 to a Christian group that apparently leans toward the left of the political spectrum (see http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/24/evangelical.vote/index.html). Dr. Dobson and his co-host were very critical of Obama and some of his comments from the 2006 speech. I've read the entirety of Obama's speech and you can see it here: http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/. You can listen to the Focus on the Family commentary on the speech here: http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000007770.cfm. And finally you can read some of it if you prefer here, but there is interspersed commentary by another pastor: http://ponderingpastor.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/dobson-vs-obama-dobson-needs-a-chill-pill/

My brief interpretation of Obama's speech is that he is discussing how Christians should engage the political process in our pluralistic society. Dr. Dobson has some obvious disagreements. I do not want to discuss what people think of Obama or Dobson Sunday morning, but rather use their discussion as a springboard to step back from the specifics of this year's presidential race and party politics and discuss how we as Christians should or can engage in our political process.

What does the Bible say about the role of believers and politics?
Do we have certain obligations?
Are there limits if we do?
Is there room for interpretation or disagreement?
How does the separation of church and state figure in?

I DO NOT want to get into discussion that bashes any particular candidates or parties...this is a more philosophic and theological based approach. So be warned I will cut short any talk of the sort.

So, think about it and come prepared to talk!

Here is a link to last week's Bible 101 slides: http://www.sendspace.com/file/o5bdro