2009: Politics in the year ahead

New kid on the block

Politics is a weird business. It is always difficult to predict what is going to happen next, especially when elections are at hand. In South African politics, due to the format of our party system, it becomes fairly easy to push new, and sometimes evil, legislation through. We have seen this many times with the ANC at the helm.

However, in late 2008, a new player has joined the fray in the form of COPE (Congress Of the PEople). This certainly will bring in new dynamics onto the playing field. Will it deliver a significant difference to politics in South Africa? That is yet to be seen. One thing I can almost guarantee is that the ANC will no longer have their 69% majority in parliament. That means that they will no longer have the clear-cut ability to amend the constitution. Since the acceptance of the constitution there have been 14 amendments! Do we want one party so powerful that they could change the constitution in such a way that it could be completely detrimental to the health of the nation?

Will the other parties in South Africa simply remain "also rans" after the elections of 2009? COPE already claims to have over 400 000 signed up members. Will COPE become the new opposition party? Already, many from the ANC, even in high positions, have walked over to COPE. It also seems that some from the DA also joined COPE. Will the next elections bring about a battle between the ANC and COPE, while the crumbs are left for the other parties to fight over.

White politics

The DA simply doesn't seem to be able to make headway in South African politics. The fact that it is a white legacy party counts against them. They have tried hard to break that mould, but I do not think it will change, since most of the members of the DA seem to be white legacy voters. It is a traditionally white party and it is still seen that way. They have been the opposition party since 1994, but COPE is seriously challenging that position in the coming elections. I am not sure if the DA can ever change its image of a white legacy party. The solution for this certainly is not an easy one. Racism is still very much a part of South African life, and from my experience of DA voters, is that the DA is still seen as the embodiment of that racism, whether in reality the party is such or not! Of course, the ANC has proven themselves to follow racist policies by their actions in parliament and elsewhere.

Christian politics

Will the ACDP grow its voters base in 2009 at the poll? There have been lots of movement within the ACDP and it seems that its membership base is growing, but can they translate that into more votes? That remains to be seen. Unless they tap into the votes from the church at large, I am afraid they will not make a difference. The church is its voters base. That is where they must spend their time. If its goal is to simply get votes, then going from door to door is good. However, and this I should stress, as Christians we are not to simply get votes, we are to bring about changed hearts through the gospel. Getting votes is not part of our mandate.

I know I will be stepping onto the toes of many, but a vote does not accomplish the mandate of the church found in Mt 28.19-20. The church is not called to rule the world, but to serve it through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The kingdom we are called to is not the kingdom of man, but the kingdom of God. The government of that kingdom is on the shoulders of Jesus Christ. We cannot think that if the government of God's kingdom is upon the shoulders of Christ, that the government of this world is upon our shoulders. That is simply pure presumption!

Should we as Christians then not be involved in politics? That is not what I am saying. Christians should be involved in politics, but not for the sake of politics. Christians should be involved in any sphere of life for only one purpose, to bring glory to God, and that will be accomplished by the proclamation of the gospel as we were mandated in Mt 28.19-20. If we as Christians think we must win the vote to rule the country with God's laws then we are missing the point. Sure, we do need laws that are influenced by God's laws, but we do not need a Christian government to do that! Anybody can take God's laws and use them as the basis of their own governmental laws.

What we as Christians need is an environment that is conducive to the preaching of the gospel. If a Christian party has as its ideals to create such an environment, then we are heading somewhere. Christians should be involved in every facet of politics, but must not forget that hearts are not changed by politics, but by the gospel. As Christians we must preach the gospel and fight against injustice. In politics, Christians must not aim to rule the ungodly because we have some kind of misinformed idea that we have such a mandate of government on our shoulders. We are to be in politics to right wrongs and to fight for justice for all, not just for Christians.

Perhaps a major problem that many churches might have with Christian parties in South Africa such as the ACDP and the CDP, is of a doctrinal nature. What are you as a church to do when a party asks for your support, yet that Christian party consists mainly of a certain type of Christian that adheres to doctrines that you consider false? What if the leaders of that party adhere to such false doctrine? Should you support that party for political expediency's sake, or decide against it? How will that party's false doctrine mislead them in the running of the country? Whereas false doctrine or heresy is of an eternal nature, politics is concerned with this temporal realm. In my opinion one should stand for the truth of the gospel whenever heresy is involved. So, the individual church has to stand for truth while shunning heresy. We cannot give credit to false doctrine, even when politics is involved!

Democracy: FAIL

Democracy, which is seen by many as the almighty liberator of the oppressed masses, is simply the tyranny of the many over the few! Pure democracy cannot and will not bring relief to all people. Democracy says that the majority, by whatever slim margin, may rule the minority, even against their wishes.

Democracy also allows for people, no matter how ignorant, to decide over and above other people, no matter how informed! Democracy is very much a simple power game with the winner usually the one with the most money. With too little money, parties cannot get their work done. This puts them at an immediate disadvantage to those parties with the millions in money.

On poll day, people must vote. However, how many of those people can really make an informed choice? Many people make their crosses next to the only names they know. They have never been given an opportunity to be informed. How is this a plus point for democracy? How can such a vote have the same meaning as the vote by someone that has studied all issues and compared all parties and their policies?

What is the solution to the failure of democracy? I don't know, but I will let you know when I know. All I know is that while individuals cannot govern themselves, we will continue to need a nanny state to make decisions for us, and while that is the case, democracy cannot work. There would be too many people in need of someone to help make their decisions. Who would decide for them who should be in government? The current government?

Conclusion

At the start of 2009, I pray that you will be able to make properly informed choices, and that your choices will be based, not on the shifting sands of man's finite ideas that change almost everyday, but that you will be a Biblically informed person!

Have a great 2009!

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Clergy will be blamed if Obama wins

Randall Terry, Founder of Operation Rescue feels that if Obama wins Tuesday's elections, then the fault can be laid squarely at the feet of clergy of the American church:

"Think of the German Church During the Holocaust

"Adolph Hitler declared just after he was voted into power:

"The parsons will be made to dig their own graves. They will betray their God to us. They will betray anything for the sake of their miserable little jobs and incomes." (The Nazi Persecution of the Churches, J.S. Conway.)

"...overall, Hitler's assessment of German clergy proved true. After the war, Martin Niemoller wrote Guilt and Hope, and basically blamed the German clergy for Hitler's rise to power. If only the clergy had spoken out early on, Hitler could have been stopped. The clergy chose silence and safety; they lost the life and soul of their nation in the exchange, and the condemnation of countless generations to come.

"Heaven viewed them with tears; history views them in contempt....

"...What hardships do American Clergy face today

"To derail and defeat Obama?"

Read more here.

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Gospel or Politics?

It is not always very clear for Christians in politics where to draw the line. Many end up compromising their previously, deeply, held Biblical beliefs for some small political gain.

Is it worth compromising the essentials of the gospel, in order to join up with others who do not hold one's beliefs, in many cases even those that the church should be treating as heretics, in order to have some sort of political gain? Phil Johnson, in his very insightful article, How Evangelicals Traded Their Spiritual Authority for a Mess of Political Pottage, shows how after a quarter of a century of political activism among evangelicals, they still have not accomplished what they have set out to do..., have Roe vs Wade (abortion on demand) overturned. This is after they have voted in several Republican presidents, such as Reagan and Bush I and Bush II.

As Phil wrote,

"But let's be clear, here: The church as a body has no calling to organize and protest in the political realm. Moreover, government service and political campaigning are different vocations from the calling of a pastor. It's well-nigh impossible to be a good pastor full time if you also fancy yourself a political lobbyist.

"Practically the worst kind of spiritual treason any pastor or church body could ever commit would be to supplant the gospel message with a different message, or to allow a merely moral agenda to crowd out our spiritual duties. That is exactly the risk we take when we pour money and resources into political and legislative remedies for our society's spiritual problems."

It is simply impossible to slap a political "band-aid" on a nation's spiritual problems! Christians in politics forget that many times, even when the parties they work for claim to be Christian parties, that the solution to a country's problems is not predominantly political, but spiritual.

Phil continues,

"Worst of all, during that same period of time, the evangelical movement has completely lost its spiritual influence, because the evangelical segment of the church has grown increasingly worldly. Evangelicals have become accustomed to compromise. They have abandoned (or else are in the process of abandoning) virtually all the doctrinal distinctives that set their movement part from Roman Catholicism, liberal mainline Protestants, and the hordes of nominal Christians in America whose faith amounts to a kind of civil religion. Evangelicals have pretty much forfeited whatever real moral and spiritual authority their movement ever had."

While the evangelical church continues to fail itself by jettisoning important doctrinal distinctives, it further continues to fail society since the church no longer has a message of hope for the lost. Important doctrines such as hell and the wrath of God have been lost since the church wanted to play "nice" with those outside the church, while becoming more and more irrelevant to a society wallowing in its own evil, with no hope of any deliverance from that evil.

Here in South Africa we have a situation where the church has no interest in being involved in politics. Whereas in America, the evangelical church is a political force (not always with a clear direction) to be reckoned with, here in South Africa churches hide behind the claim of "neutrality." Churches in South Africa tend not to handle any political issues that have a moral dimension to it. I cannot remember when last I heard a sermon that spoke against our laws of abortion on demand, gay marriage or pornography.

The church has gone from, "We cannot endorse one particular political party," to not speaking on any of the issues at all, even though on these moral issues the Bible has a whole lot to say!

When the church loses its gospel message and its cultural mandate to be the salt of the earth, then no doubt will it have nothing to offer anyone! On the one hand, if the church denies its cultural mandate, then it certainly denies its role to fight for justice in the midst of injustice. The church is not a holy huddle with nothing to say or nothing to do in our culture. On the other hand, if the church takes up its cultural mandate but loses the gospel in the process, then the mandate itself is baseless. The gospel is the foundation of the mandate. Without the gospel, there is no Biblical ground to stand on in the cultural mandate.

So, on the one hand we have Jesus telling us to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, and on the other hand He is telling us to love our neighbour as we love ourselves.

The church's primary purpose is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, and working from that solid foundation, it can exercise its cultural mandate in caring for the poor and those who have experienced injustice at the hands of unjust authorities.

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