quote for today

this comes from the ridiculously misunderstood work of Vernard Eller--in the vein of Jacques Ellul--called Christian Anarchy. Don't be like everyone else and reject it out of hand... uncle screwtape would be very pleased at that. instead, read it here. quote: "I propose, therefore, that the basic distinction between worldly politics and Christian politics lies in two assumptions that are fundamental to the worldly practice but absolutely rejected by the gospel. "In the first place, the exercise of worldly politics rests upon a quite unfounded confidence in the moral competency of human beings--and more particularly, upon a quite arrogant error in attributing categorical moral superiority to partisans of the one 'true' ideology over against those of anybody else. This proud claim extends not only to moral wisdom ('We know what is right as no one else does') but also to moral authority ('Because we are right, that justifies our use of propaganda, demonstration, boycott, and all such power tactics in imposing our 'right' upon those people we know to be wrong'). Worldly politics is built upon pretentious claims of moral superiority--of which the Christian gospel recognizes nary a one. "Second, it follows that a prime characteristic of worldly politics is its invariable forming of itself as 'adversarial contest.' There has to be a battle. One party, ideology, cause group, lobby, or power bloc which has designated itself as 'The Good, the True, and the Beautiful' sets out to overbear, overwhelm, overcome, overpower, or otherwise impose itself on whatever opposing parties think they deserve the title. And if this power contest among the morally pretentious is what is meant by being 'political,' then Eller and company are indeed happy to be called 'apolitical.' "We claim, however, that there is another form of politics--another form of action affecting the polis--that the gospel can fully approve. In this form, rather than one worldly party setting itself in moral judgment over all others, our political action would be submission to God's moral judgment upon everything and everyone human (which judgement, it is clear, falls firstly and foremostly upon God's very own partisans). Rather than taking sides, this politics would be nonpartisanly critical of all adversary contest and power play. It would be a politics intent on mediation and the reconciling of adversaries instead of supporting the triumph of one over another. It would be a political theology of liberation intent to liberate humanity from nothing so much as its enslavement to worldly politics." --Vernard Eller. From: "Before We Start" In: Christian Anarchy (1987). published by Eerdmans.