Christian Priorities In Public

Genesis 4:9: And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?

Jesus gave us goals and a vision, but man is fallen and lives in a fallen world. We Christians must try to divine God's will in each new eventuality we face. It is up to us to live up to our duty and try to make the best choices we can while within the limits of the worldly realm.

Part of this duty is our participation in public life. We should always look to the salvation of souls, this is true, but we must also consider ourselves our brother's keeper on all things. That is our covenant, that thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Leviticus 19:18). Loving thy neighbor means caring for him beyond just his eternal soul.

Or as Augustine put it:

The earthly city, which does not live by faith, seeks an earthy peace, and the end it proposes, in the well-ordered concord of civic obedience and rule, is the combination of men’s wills to attain the things which are helpful to this life. The heavenly city, or rather the part of it which sojourns on earth and lives by faith, makes use of this peace only because it must, until this mortal condition which necessitates it shall pass away.

The question is then how best to perform our sacred duty while we live here on earth, unfortunately, there is no clear answer. God has left it to us to labor and agonize over such questions. He's like that sometimes, but we love him anyway.

So what should Christian priorities be for public life? I have a few suggestions, feel free to critique.

• Caring for Jesus' beloved poor.
• Healing the sick.
• Teaching all to read, so they can read the word of God.
• Promoting love, tolerance, and the value of human life.

Those being the priorities the next question is how to implement policies that would see those priorities met. But that's another blog post.

Go with God.