How Can We Simultaneously “Submit to Every Ordinance of Man” and “Obey God Rather Than Men”?
“…it seems necessary to amend the statement, ‘We must obey the government unless the government explicitly tells us to disobey God,’ to something like this: ‘We must obey the government (1) unless the government explicitly tells us to disobey God, or (2) unless the government exceeds its jurisdiction so as to speak authoritatively into a sphere regulated by another, God-instituted authority.’” - Snoeberger
- 2 views
dbcii wrote:
That must be because you are young(er). I both voted for and supported President Reagan to a much greater extent than our current president, and I think Reagan got more “blind sycophantism” than Trump (though only God is worthy to be followed that strongly, of course, and he wants our faith to be genuine, not blind).
You may be right. Of course, it isn’t important if I am right; we can likely all agree the “GOP President is amazing!!” dogma lives loudly within many conservative Christians in this age. However, at minimum I suspect social media and media culture in general have made this sycophantism easier to show and observe.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
[TylerR]You may be right. Of course, it isn’t important if I am right; we can likely all agree the “GOP President is amazing!!” dogma lives loudly within many conservative Christians in this age. However, at minimum I suspect social media and media culture in general have made this sycophantism easier to show and observe.
I wasn’t really objecting to your point — just the “in living memory” part. We’d agree that Christians put too much hope in the GOP, and you are probably right that social media has made this “hero worship” easier to observe, and that it’s even encouraged by our “Muhummand Ali”-style (i.e. “I’m the greatest”) president.
My point was that if the “God and Country” thinking had not been tolerated and encouraged as much as it was, maybe we’d see less of “The GOP is our savior!” type thinking today, and maybe it would have been noticeably less than during the Reagan years, though that may just be wishful thinking on my part.
Dave Barnhart
I have also at times gotten really uneasy at the veneration given Reagan—it is hard business to have a government of laws and not men, and while it’s gotten more difficult with Trump, it’s nothing that new. For that matter, the veneration granted our government as a whole as demonstrated by playing the national anthem before sportsball games and saying the pledge of allegiance at many events. Why? If we have such a great system, this is the way to prove it? Really?
Don’t get me wrong; I liked Reagan and Trump’s governance is growing on me, but some of the hagiographies afforded out there just creep me out.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Discussion