There are three basic approaches to religion that are possible. We may opt for escape, we may lust for power, or we may exercise dominion. HT: Gary North
The first doesn’t want Christ to rule over us, but wants to evade the personal consequences of this decision. When Christ is not acknowledged as Lord, somebody else must be, and so our chances of being ruled by men with a black, little hearts increase dramatically. Escapists are lovers, not fighters, and so they just want to keep their heads down. They let others stride through the world like lords and masters, and they just want to keep out of the way. “Keeping out of the way” can be done by means of various drugs, sex, living in unabomber cabins, or moving to Escondido. Some want to escape into hallucinations while others want to escape to Heaven. Some escapists are skunks and scoundrels, while others are more noble — because there really is a Heaven. But when it comes to prophetically confronting the desire that unbelief has to rule in its own name and on its own terms, all we can see around here are heels and elbows. In evangelical circles, this can result in some pretty funny admonitions — like the one I saw once (in print) from a bestselling evangelical author, chiding John the Baptist for getting involved with politics n’ Herod n’ stuff. If he hadn’t pulled that dumb stunt, who knows how many more years of fruitful ministry he might have had?
The second kind of religion is power religion. This one is a heady narcotic, and the weavers of these massive conceits propose enormous projects like — you will scarcely credit this, but I have heard it from reliable sources — running the health care of 300 million people from a central location. Whether we are talking about bombs or bureaucrats, the power religionist does not comprehend why he (and others like him) should not be allowed to make decisions about absolutely everything. They, and people just like them, want to get into the sock drawer of the American public, and tell us all where the white ones go and where the colored ones go.
There are two issues here, and most American conservatives just see one of them. The first is whether their proposed regulation is a dumb idea or not, or is based on junk science or not, whether the tax monies will be wasted, and so on. These are actually debates over the details. Now it happens that these proposals are almost always dumb, and so there is something for the shouting heads on television to talk about.
But the foundational issue is whether they have any right whatever to make a correct decision in any of these areas. They don’t. If the federal government winds up bailing out E-Harmony sometime soon, and a young man of your acquaintance gets a letter from the appropriate agency about his forthcoming nuptials (a cute little thing with brown eyes named D516808), there are two issues, right? One is whether the young lady would be in fact a good fit. That is one issue, as in, the irrelevant one. Surely the more important issue is whether or not the government has gotten caught up in some kind of an overweening conceit . . . which, in case you were wondering, it has. And this second question is related to the one about whether a Christian under such circumstances can, with a clean conscience, respond with a disobedient horse laugh, which, I am happy to inform you, he can and should.
This is because the government has no authority to repeal or alter the eighth commandment or the seventh. And yet we are living under people whose maw is wide open, hungry to gulp down the powerless. These are people who think they can pass a law, and then bingo! homosexuals can marry. Caligula wasn’t that far gone.
If the king commands the tide to stay put, will it do so? King Canute was trying to make a point with his flattering courtiers, but we have gotten to the point where our Canute has grown accustomed to the sound of his own voice, and he is getting angry about his wet feet. That’s too bad, someone might say. Deal with it.
The last option is dominion. This is wielded through the service of worship — love for God and love for neighbor. Those who preach this sort of dominion are often accused of trying to “take over” politically because power religionists don’t understand anything but power. They don’t have minds that bend in any other direction. They accuse others of trying to do what they are always trying to do. Just as Sauron could not comprehend anyone coming in possession of the Ring, and then trying to destroy it, so these people don’t understand actual sacrifice and service. They understand people trying to escape them, and they understand people who want to be just like them, but they don’t understand, at all, people who want to exercise cultural influence without coercion. And in order to have cultural influence without coercion, the Spirit has to be involved — and He is grieved and driven away by officious bureaucrats with pinched faces.