Politics – Gregory Scott Blog

Between Rhetoric and Reality

I drafted this post years ago and never published it. It was drafted during the one of the presidential primary seasons, but I never pulled the trigger on it. After reviewing it though, I’ve decided its applicability is not dependent on the election cycle.

Candidates say many things when they want to get elected, some of them true some of them not so true. I heard a presidential candidate say something that was so far from the truth but sounded so good that I thought it worthy of comment here.

Let me first say, the point of this blog is not a political one, and I’ve intentionally avoided writing in favor of or against any candidate. What I do attempt to do is offer a Kingdom perspective on current events and worldview. It is for that reason I comment on this candidate’s statement.

The candidate, a Libertarian, said that people were getting his message and realizing that “freedom is the answer” to our country’s problems. I was struck with how good it sounded but how wrong it was. The answer to our country’s problems is not more freedom; it’s more self-government.

I love freedom and would welcome more of it, but it won’t solve any problems because the problem is not that people aren’t free to do what they want; it’s that in exercising their freedom to do what they want they do what is wrong.

Trading the Gospel for Politics

I have a relative who is a Christian and constantly posts on Facebook derogatory comments about Joe Biden and and all things Democrat. They are the kind of posts you would find offensive if you were a Democrat. So, I asked him one day if he had any friends who were Democrats. He said, “I don’t think so.”

I mention this example because it is indicative of too much of evangelical Christianity today, which seems more interested in confronting the world over politics and culture than the gospel.

First century Christians had a lot more politically and culturally to take issue with than 21st Century Christians, yet I don’t see any indication in the New Testament that they were picking fights with the pagans over such things. Rather, I see Paul, for example, using the Athenian culture to reach the Athenians on Mars Hill. See Acts 17:22-34.

Jesus said Christians should use money to make friends to reach them with the gospel. Luke 16:1-9. Christians today are too often doing the opposite with their politics.

Maybe it’s time to reassess priorities. GS

On Diverting Astroids and Jesus’ Return

So, today for the first time in history, man intentionally hit an astroid with a projectile and altered its course. Humanity will now breathe a sigh of relief knowing man has a fighting chance against the greatest threat to global annihilation.

When I heard the news today, my mind went to a completely different place. I thought, what if 1,000 years ago, we had told Christians that before Jesus returned we would be able to launch a rocket 7 miles into space and intentionally hit an astroid less than 200 yards wide with enough force to alter its course.

I believe most Christians would have said that was impossible, either because the necessary technology was inconceivable or that by the time it took mankind to achieve such technology, Jesus would have already returned. Yet, here we are.

The Death of Roe v. Wade

I have to admit, I didn’t think I would see it in my lifetime. I had hoped, and hopefully done my part. I sued an abortionist who perforated my client’s uterus while in the act of killing her unborn baby. I represented a pro-life protestor wrongfully arrested for protesting outside an abortion mill. I have functioned as legal monitor for pro-life protestors who were working the sidewalks outside abortion clinics, and I have voted pro-life for forty years.

From the first time I read Roe v. Wade in law school in 1986, I thought it was a tortured, result-oriented opinion. If a first year law student could see that, why did it take 50 years for six Supreme Court justices to see it?

The truth is that many more have seen it than have admitted it, but as C.S. Lewis described it, we have been creating men without chests, i.e. men without the virtue to guide their intellect or emotions. That is not to say those on the Supreme Court now are any more virtuous than those in the past. More likely, Evangelicals have simply been successful in making the fight against abortion a key component of the Republican platform, and the party has finally thrown Evangelicals a bone, and it is a very big bone.

The Latest On The Duck Dynasty Controversy

Some of you may recall that Duck Dynasty patriarch, Phil Robertson, in an interview with GQ Magazine, once paraphrased I Corinthians 6:9-10:

“Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

A&E, who aired Duck Dynasty, suspended Robertson, and GLAAD and other groups accused Robertson of being a homophobe. What was less publicized at the time and was not picked up by the media was that Gordon Gekko apparently also complained.

“Mr. Gekko finds Mr. Robertson’s remarks offensive and typical of narrow-minded Christians,” a spokesperson for Gecko said.

“As Mr. Gekko has stated before, ‘Greed is good. Good is right. Greed works. Greed will save that malfunctioning corporation called the USA.'”

“Mr. Gekko would also like to remind us all that for too long the greedy have been a minority in this country and that they are entitled to be free from the sort of hate-speech Robertson and his kind promotes.”

Robertson was asked for a response to Gecko’s remarks but said, “I was only quoting Scripture.” GS