Former Vice President Al Gore, who will be one of the speakers at the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant, offered some excellent remarks about religion and politics on "Larry King Live" last night. He stated:
Thanks to Don Byrd at the Blog from the Capital for pointing out this quotation.
When America was founded, they -- our founders said, OK look, we are not going to pretend that whoever is elected to office has been ordained by the almighty to be the decision maker. The person who is elected is elected by us, the people of this country. And the divine right of kings was rejected by the founders of the United States.Amen! His last two paragraphs in particular are right on. Regardless what disagreements one may have about Gore's politics, he makes an excellent point here that many Christians need to hear.
And what replaced that, the divine right of individuals in this sense, we believe that we are all created equal. And that we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. So the relationship that our founders believed was appropriate for -- between America and God was their belief that every individual has certain rights and has dignity because that person is a child of God.
Now, for those who don't believe in God, I'm not proselytizing. I'm just telling you what I believe and what our founders believed. But what -- but this has been twisted around in recent times by some people who want to convey the impression that God belongs, if not to a particular political party, that God has a particular political ideology and that those who disagree with a right-wing approach to this or that are against God.
That is an anti-American view. That is completely contrary to the spirit of America. It is an American heresy and people in both parties ought to reject that and fight against it.
Thanks to Don Byrd at the Blog from the Capital for pointing out this quotation.
This was awesome.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Tim Dahl
I suppose it doesn't matter that he has contradicted scripture Romans 13:1-7. He says that it wasn't God who ordained the leader and the text says that God does decide.
ReplyDeleteTo me it sounds like he is still a little bitter over having lost the election.
Thanks for the comments!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: I would not say he contradicted Scripture, but maybe he contradicted your interpretation. I think we must be careful not to overstate the case of Romans 13. Did God ordain all leaders? Even Hitler? If so, was Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others wrong to try and kill Hitler? Or why did we remove Hussein if God ordained him to that position? Do you see the problem with your argument?
As for Gore being bitter, that might be but I cannot say for sure either way. But even if he is, his point is exactly correct: to say that God is on the side of one political party is heresy.
I would say that yes God did appoint Hitler, whether it was through his direct or permissive will, he did allow it to occur even though he had the power to stop it from happening.
ReplyDeleteSorry didn't notice that I didn't sign my name last time.
Ryan
Ryan: There is a big difference between saying God appointed Hitler or any other leader and saying that God allowed Hitler or some other leader. Gore’s statement works with the latter of the two perspectives.
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