On my way in today, I listened to Adrian Rogers on the radio, and he preached a great sermon on Christian Citizenship. I wanted to reiterate five points from his sermon. Christians are commanded in scripture to:
- PAY for their government
- PRAY for their government
- PRAISE their leaders when they do what is right
- PREACH to their government when they do wrong ("the church is neither to be slave to the government, nor master – but rather, it is the conscience of the government and the nation")
- PARTICIPATE in their government
For the first centuries the Early church took the message that we are also to be as resident aliens in our land because we belong to Christ. First by sharing and highlighting martyrdom narrative then after Christianity was legalized though the movement to monasticism.
I don't disagree with your points. But I think they need to be reconciled with the call to be a resident alien and "in but not of" the world. We are Christian before we are American, or Dutch, or Russian, or whatever.
Two on Citizenship
Consumer or citizen? An interesting contrast. Christian and government, from two or three.net. My thoughts are in the comment….
I don't think that you understand the biblical positions on government. We are to avoid the twin extremes of isolationism (failing to be salt and light in culture, and thereby giving the organs of society over to pagans) and reconstructionism, that supposes that we can build the kingdom of God here and craete a new utopia.
I recommend you check out
Uneasy Neighbors – Church and State
Separation of Church and State, but not God and State
The Four Historic Models for Church/State Interaction
Christian Pacifism, Christian War (justice and just war are part of Christian principles of government)
The Five Spheres of Government
The Five Functions of Civil Government