Lutherna View of Church and State

LESSON NINE

2008

A LUTHERAN VIEW OF CHURCH AND STATE

I. Moral Authority without Political Partisanship (p. 62)

A. Considerations

1. Necessity to cultivate reputation for: (per A. James Reichley)

a. Objectivity

b. Openmindedness as to means.

2. Principled participation (per Os Guinness):

a. All views freely and fully exchanged.

b. Essential to a vital democracy.

3. Principled persuasion (per Os Guinness):

a. Rather than imposition.

b. Requires church’s powerful influence to be from “bottom up”.

B. Church (p. 63)

1. Must be able to tolerate disagreement

2. Must have respect for differences of conscience

3. Critical questions:

a. Not whether church should be involved with politics.

b. Not whether can even avoid being involved.

c. Is how church and politics ought to be related.

d. Is how each kind of political involvement affects:

(1) Nature of the church.

(2) Mission of the church.

4. Must characterize three aspects of church’s inevitably public voice.

a. The message

b. The messenger

c. The means

II. The Message (p. 63)

A. Must evaluate “what” the church has to say since God’s Word is both Law and Gospel.

B. Must first carefully discern the basic principles of church’s public message.

1. Is message concerned with spiritual righteousness or civil?

2. Is it focused on sin and grace or on neighbor and social justice?

3. Is it grounded in revelation of God in Christ or in human reason and natural law as well?

4. Lutheran perspective: normative principles of civil order are reason and

justice.

C. Second, must discern the purpose of the church’s public message.

1. Speech to government re: sinful behavior is less appropriate than speech re: social consequences of sinful behavior.

2. In modern public square, it is the consequence and not the sinfulness that is the focus.

D. Third, must consciously prioritize the church’s messages, given the profound limitations of human existence.

1. Our Lord willingly subjected Himself to limitations.

a. Php 2:6-8

b. Heb 2:17,18

c. Heb 4:15

2. Lk 10:41,42 - “one needful thing”

3. It is not good and bad, but better and best.

4. Can not lose witness to faith in Christ in the enormity of human temporal concerns.

E. Finally, the church’s message must be shaped by prudence.

1. Lk 14:28

2. Mt 10:16

3. Must avoid interpretations that in any way compromise integrity of church’s message.

4. Axiom by Richard John Neuhaus (quoted by CTCR on page 65)

“When it is not necessary for the church to speak, it is necessary for the church not to speak.”

III. The Messenger (p. 65)

A. The “church speaks” - who exactly is it that speaks?

B. For Lutherans, the church is fundamentally spiritual.

1. S.A. III, XII, 2 (read 1-3: Tappert p. 315; Kolb & Wengert p. 324f)

2. AC V, 1,2 (Tappert p. 31; Kolb & Wengert pp. 40,41)

3. AC VII, 1 (Tappert p. 32; Kolb & Wengert pp. 42,43)

C. The church is also a social organization - in LCMS: congregations, districts, Synod.

1. One new characteristic here: institutions of the temporal kingdom, e.g.

a. Incorporation

b. Robert’s Rules of Order

2. Is an institution of society subject to civil law.

3. As such, has as much right as any other institution to make its concerns known to legislators, e.g.

a. tax exemptions

b. zoning

D. Between these two (IIIB and IIIC), lie individual Christians

1. “Callings” to serve God in all things.

2. Social concerns

3. Live simultaneously in both kingdoms

4. Is who works from the “bottom up”.

5. Must learn to translate concerns of the Word into arguments appropriate for civil government.

6. Institutional church needs to provide opportunities to study and discuss application of their faith to the issues.

7. Use of mediating structures of voluntary association.

a. Public interest groups.

b. Keep values and realities of life attached to political order.

c. Help to develop compromise and consensus.

IV. The Means (models of Robert Benne) (p. 67)

A. The manner in which the church relates to the world.

B. Indirect and unintentional influence. (p. 68)

1. Through congregation’s members.

2. No specific social policy in mind.

3. Church relies upon power of God’s own Word.

4. “Teaching” has in mind “intentional” influence.

5. Hard to conceive the church ever operating only with this model.

C. Indirect and intentional influence. (p. 68)

1. We are self-consciously a “teaching church”.

2.. Aim “to form the conscience of its own people regarding public

issues” (Benne, quoted by CTCR on page 69)

3. Church

a. Does not seek a public role for itself.

b. Does not presume to speak for its members.

c. Speaks to its members on basis of its religious and moral traditions.

d. Seeks to sensitize its members.

e. Relies primarily on power of the Holy Spirit and the Gospel for motivation to deal with social issues.

f. Must “do its homework” on the problems to be addressed.

g. Must refrain from presuming to dictate specific means by which certain goals are to be achieved.

D. Direct and intentional influence. (p. 69)

1. “Direct” means church speaks publicly.

2. Great risks here.

a. May not be appreciated, let alone heeded, by those outside church.

b. Always carries risk of politicizing the church.

3. Should be done infrequently, only on basis of clear and unambiguous teachings of Scripture.

4. Use when the church’s most fundamental concerns are at stake.

E. Direct and intentional action. (p. 69)

1. Highly controversial and risky.

2. Here, church directly acts to change policy or reshape society.

3. Commits funds and applies political leverage.

4. Involves exercise of civil power.

5. Corruption of church always risk.

6. Lobbying may desensitize audience to church’s voice.

7. Christians never will be of one mind on exactly how to implement

their faith in good works, nor is it necessary that they be.

8. But agreement among believers is not to be ignored, since issue is precisely those God-commanded good works.

V. Conclusion

A. Above four “connections”, not precisely defined and narrowly circumscribed categories.

B. May be fraternal debate about where a particular concern may best “fit”.

C. Must proceed through the connections in proper order using “lowest” level of speaking possible.

D. Charts attached.

(Note to Class Leader: I made sure everyone had a chance to see and consider the charts found on pages 72 and 73 of the CTCR document).

VI. Next Week

A. We begin examination of “examples”.

B. Difference of opinion well possible within this class.