Wayne A. Grudem - Voting as a Christian: The Economic and Foreign Policy Issues

How then should we live? is a question that Christians have had to struggle with in every age, and the greatest theologians from St. Augustine to Francis Schaeffer have done their best to offer immediate guidance on timeless issues to believers living in the moment. For as long as time continues and the church endures, these offerings of practical guidance will serve Christians, provided the guidance is deeply grounded in true theology and also in the actual complexities of the world in which the Christians live.

It is worse than no good to ground practical advice on politics and flawed understanding of Christ and his teachings, no better than navigating with a broken compass and a centuries-old map.

It is also fruitlessand frustratingto be offered platitudes by even the best of good-hearted pastors whose grasp of the difficulties of modern politics is limited to an occasional glimpse of a headline or a five-minute report on the latest controversy on Capitol Hill.

American politics is riven with highly contentious, incredibly convoluted issues of enormous moral significance. If, just to consider one, the earth is indeed warming at an alarming rate and that increase in temperature will endanger hundreds of millions with starvation due to crop failures, then the Christian must approach the issue of climate change very differently than if in fact the variation in global temperatures fits a pattern of centuries and is indifferent to human contribution, much less to eco-engineering. The facts matter, and good theology applied to the present political situation will proceed first from good facts about the disputes at hand.

I am thus slow to take political advice from theologians, even the best of them. My calling is in the intersection where politics, law, and media meet, and I know that amateurs are no more effective in crafting effective resolutions to the most intractable of these disputes than those same amateurs are in the emergency room of a major urban hospital.

But the best theologians have much to offer to the practical resolution of these debates, just as they do to the surgeon, the physicist, and the general. Every aspect of human life that requires moral decision-making ought to use the best in God-driven thinking, the best in applicable Scripture, and the best in prayer-infused thought and analysis.

Where to begin? is a very fair question from the legislator, the executive branch appointee, or even just the average voter. I know these are complicated issues, and I know God has set out rules for living that are timeless, so where do I start, and to whom do I turn?

I am very happy to suggest that you have a book in your hands that is in fact that starting point, a serious but very readable work by a serious yet very understandableand understandingscholar of the first rank, perhaps Americas most influential systematic theologian, Dr. Wayne Grudem.

Go ahead, Google him. Dont believe me or the blurbs on the back of the book. Just let fly with Google. It is no small thing to have led the organizations that Dr. Grudem has led, to write the books he has authored, to teach the students he has taught. You should be impressed, indeed very impressed, with Dr. Grudems record of scholarship.

What you will not knowbut which I do from my visits to Phoenix over the years as I have broadcast from there and met Dr. Grudem, interviewed him repeatedly on the air, and met with his students and especially his Sunday school studentsis that Wayne Grudem is Gods man first and foremost, kind-hearted, wise, and of course smart beyond what any one scholar ought to be allowed to be.

Dr. Grudem undertook this vast and readable project for youfor the mere Christian confronted with a dizzying array of questions, answers, and would-be prophets all eager to tell you how to think and to assure you that God thinks a particular way.

Here at last is a book, comprehensive yet readable, that will help you understand Gods plan in this, the early part of the 21st century; remind you of the eternal truths; and prompt you to the reflections that ought to inform your life as a citizen.

Give yourself the gift of understanding, and then pass it or a new copy along to your friends and family struggling to be a good citizen and a good Christian in these tumultuous times. If you are in a small group, adopt this as a text for a season. If you know a pastor or a lay minister, gift them with this comprehensive but accessible source book.

But most of all, dive in and be open to Gods call on your life as a citizenbecause you can trust Dr. Grudem to have begun each question with Gods Word and work, not any agenda or slogan.

Dr. Grudem has been blessed with an incredible intellect and he has used it again to be a blessing to othersin this case every American, young and old, left, right, or center, who must live as a citizen in a free republicand for that we should all be grateful.

Hugh Hewitt
Professor of law, Chapman University,
and nationally syndicated radio talk show host