You can check out the first two posts here and here.

I read two posts by Tony Jones on the God Politics blog run by Jim Wallis. It is fair to say that both of these guys are fairly liberal, although some would say they are really liberal. I think they both have a strong sense about being emergent and the political changes occurring within orthodox Christianity. Here are parts one and two of “Emergent Politics” by Tony Jones. I want to highlight some of things he has to say because they are spot on.

Problem #1 with emergents and politics: “Emergents don’t have a problem with Lockean individual rights per se – their problem is with the fact that unalienable, individual rights is not a biblical-theological virtue. The Bible’s call is not to protect the self but to sacrifice the self.”

Problem #2 with emergents and politics: “Emergents have grown up in the dire shadow of the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition, who too closely allied with the Republicans in the 1980s and 1990s…many emergents have expressed to me great hesitation about the building momentum of leftward or progressive groups (such as Tikkun magazine, Sojourners/Call to Renewal, and FaithfulDemocrats.org). Their fear is that these groups will make the same mistakes that their conservative brethren did 30 years ago: lose their independence by aligning with a political party.”

Some thoughts of mine:

• As much as emergents want to deny that they are politically liberal, they can’t win this argument. It is however, possible to be emerging or postmodern without this political stance. I just don’t see how Tony can say that emergents are avoiding a political side, because it is obvious that right now they are behind Obama and he is liberal. I’m not even saying that this is wrong, but it is certainly mere lip service to say they are avoiding left wing groups. They are a left wing group right now.
• As I’ve felt myself moving to a more moderate stance within politics, I find myself more disheartened with the politics of the US. Our country is rooted deeply between two parties in which neither provide inherently Christian values. So what is the God blessing way to approach politics? Do we just not vote? Do we look past the things we disagree with? Do we try and figure out which things are “most important” and side with those? Doesn’t this just lead to a war of opinions?
• I think the emergent desire to be involved with our culture is great, but I wonder where we draw the line or if we even draw a line.