Today’s excellent Christianity Today editorial about the church and politics includes these two great quotes:
Nearly a quarter of a century ago, just as the
Religious Right was blossoming, Richard John Neuhaus put it this way:
"Jesus Christ is Lord. That is the first and final assertion Christians
make about all of reality, including politics. Believers now assert by
faith what one day will be manifest to the sight of all: Every earthly
sovereignty is subordinate to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. The
church is the bearer of that claim."Theologian Stanley Hauerwas, no political ally of
Neuhaus, extended the point in a recent interview: "Christians’ first
political responsibility is to be the church, and by being the church
they should understand that their first political loyalty is to God,
and the God we worship as Christians, in a manner that understands that
we are not first and foremost about making democracy work, but about
the truthful worship of the true God."