Christianity Today on "The Bible in American Public Life, 1860-2005"

Professor Mark Knoll of Wheaton College offers us this history of The Bible in American Public Life, 1860-2005 here.

He takes us on a whirlwind tour of the use of the bible by various American and Non-American partisans throughout history. In the end, he concludes:

In traditional Judaism and Christianity, the Bible has been more than a historical document to be preserved or a classic of literature to be cherished and admired; it is recognized as the unique record of God's dealing with people over the ages. The Old Testament sets forth the call of a special people to enter into covenant relation with the God of justice and steadfast love and to bring God's law to the nations. The New Testament records the life and work of Jesus Christ, the one in whom "the Word became flesh" as well as describes the rise and spread of the early Christian Church. The Bible carries its full message, not to those who regard it simply as a noble literary heritage of the past or who wish to use it to enhance political purposes and advance otherwise desirable goals, but to all persons and communities who read it so that they may discern and understand what God is saying to them.24

From the angle provided by this statement, let me propose three premises arising from my own convictions and then three political implications:

Premise 1: In the terms of the NRSV statement, the Bible is true for all people in all times and in all places.

Premise 2: Therefore, the Bible can never be the possession of only one modern nation or of only one faction within a particular nation.

Premise 3: While everything in the Bible can be construed as political, politics can never exhaust, equal, or contain the message of the Bible.25

Implication 1: American society would be immeasurably poorer if it was no longer possible to bring the universal message of Scripture to bear on the particulars of American public life as did Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr., with such memorable effect.

Implication 2: Narrow use of the Bible for partisan political advantage violates what the Bible itself says about the dignity of all human beings under God and also what it says about political power as a stewardship bestowed by God for the maintenance of order, the guarantee of justice, and the care of the powerless.

Implication 3: Given the current American situation, the only hope for using the Bible in public life that conforms to the Bible's own message is to employ it humbly, wisely, and on behalf of all people.

That sounds about right. God is for all of us. He can't be claimed for any one faction over another. On the contrary, he offers his redemption to all of us sinners equally and without prejudice. The least we can do is accept his generosity in humility and gratitude. Instead, many make two regretable mistakes:

1. God is on our side and against them over there!

2. There is no God; there's nothing accept us, so we better play the part.

Both make God's Truth out to be a lie. Thus, there's no truth in their witness. They've set themselves apart from God in their misguided belief that he stands with them or doesn't stand at all.

The holy Scriptures reveal God's love to all humanity. They can never serve this purpose if their hijacked by political partisans of any ideology as a political tool. Let the dead bury their dead. Leave Scripture in the hands of those that honor God's purpose in providing it. There's more than enough political import there for all humanity. Not just ours over here.