Impoverishment of the Imagination

I recently listened to Greg Boyd debate Jim Wallis on the level and nature of Christian involvement in politics. One phrase that stood out to me was Boyd’s comment about Christian witness and manifestation of the Kingdom of God here on earth and within society. He said that for Kingdom people to delegate to the State that which squarely rests as the responsibility of the people of God is that it impoverishes the imagination. Voting our values sounds great, but are we living our values? If it is truly the vocation, calling, and responsibility of the people of God to not only live out but carry out God’s justice, why would we want to hand over those tasks to an entity whose primary mechanism of operation is threat of force? But that isn’t how Jesus came to transform the world.

If bringing the Kingdom to fruition here on earth is part of the task of the Church, then I must ask : How lame is the gospel of Jesus if we had to use a kingdom of the sword rather than rely on the power of the gospel to transform society peacefully? If the gospel is truly powerful and able to transform, then why do we need a “God and Guns” solution to injustice?

For affluent Christians in a society where we often have more than we need, it is easy to give away our money in taxes or charity and believe that we’ve done our part or given our share of wealth. It’s quite another thing to do the work of justice ourselves.

View Comments to “Impoverishment of the Imagination”

Greg 17 November 2009 at 2:31 am #

I'd be very interested in hearing that discussion, but the URL doesn't work. Do you have another?
xfree9 17 November 2009 at 8:20 am #

Fixed. Thanks!
robhulson 18 November 2009 at 10:42 am #

> If it is truly the vocation, calling, and responsibility of the people of God to not only live out but carry out God’s justice, why would we want to hand over those tasks to an entity whose primary mechanism of operation is threat of force

Dang it, you stole one of my blog ideas. One of my fundamental objections to gov't charity is that it kills ingenuity and the imagination of

a) the RECIPIENT of the charity, as they get rewarded for not doing anything (creating a bad pattern if not intervened), and
b) the OTHER PEOPLE who should be devising beneficial ways to do charity for their own neighbors.

Instead, we leave all the ingenuity to government (whose capabilities, wisdom, and expertise at handling resources thriftily and wisely are… suspect at best), which alleviates my sense of responsibility to help my neighbor because “I pay for your welfare” in a general sense with taxes.
MacArthur4 18 November 2009 at 3:25 pm #

Also the recipient of the gift does not receive the real gift , that Jesus Christ is responsible for the gift and is open to that recipient to receive much more beyond imagination. Politics regardless of the religious right or left reflect , they do not penetrate into hearts.
xfree9 18 November 2009 at 9:23 pm #

Rob, I'm curious how you square grace with recipients “not doing anything” for somebody else's charity? If we are to show grace and mercy to our fellow human beings, should the principle of giving something away “for free” not apply to them as well?

You and I agree about the principle itself, but the question is, how does that relate to the notion of grace? Or, maybe, why does grace not apply in this situation?
xfree9 19 November 2009 at 2:23 am #

Rob, I'm curious how you square grace with recipients “not doing anything” for somebody else's charity? If we are to show grace and mercy to our fellow human beings, should the principle of giving something away “for free” not apply to them as well?

You and I agree about the principle itself, but the question is, how does that relate to the notion of grace? Or, maybe, why does grace not apply in this situation?