A forum on religion and politics

This weekend I listened to the first half of a forum, The Myth of a Christian Nation, given by Jim Wallis and Greg Boyd at Bethel University. The forum focused on the relationship between faith and politics in this day and age and how the political world can be a dangerous place for Christians to participate. They seek to emulate leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi who were admired for their religious positions in a political world. Jim starts off by discussing what it means to be an evangelical and he shared some stories of conversion and how he hadn't been saved until the age of six. When he was 14, he saw racism in Detroit and questioned it. After he visited the black churches, he came to the understanding that racism is political and faith is personal. He claimed, “God is personal. God is personal but never private. This God wants relationship and knows everything about every one of us and wants a relationship any way, but the reason is to sign us up for God's purposes in the world.” He sees prophets as the the people who speak God's politics and he relates faith to politics by making a statement that Christians should stand up for those who cannot represent themselves. According to both Wallis and Boyd, God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat and faith should be separate from politics. Calling for prophetic politics, he wants religion to influence politics, but not the other way around. Global warming, taking care of those in poverty and affected by tragedies of natural disaster, and international genocide in Darfur are all religious problems as well as political. He understands politics as failing in solving all of the social problems that exist in this world and wants faith to take a stand. Greg began his part of the forum with the many areas in which Wallis and him agree, but he disagrees on many counts. He doesn't call for citizens to participate in God's politics, he calls for people to transform society on all levels. Politics is not the arena in which Boyd wants people to focus their efforts. Jesus is Boyd's example as someone who refused to work in the corrupt political world because he didn't trust politics. Boyd believes citizens can transform society through his actions of love and self-sacrifice. Both speakers had extremely interesting things to say. While I agree with Boyd that politics can be corrupt, they play such an integral role in shaping society and influencing citizens, I think positive social change that is spearheaded by the government and political leaders would touch and improve the lives of the greatest number of people. A prophet alone cannot stop a genocide, but a powerful government that believes in the sanctity of all human life can.