It only took me about six months to get around to it but I just finished reading Toward an Evangelical Public Policy: Political Strategies for the Health of the Nation. It is a collection of sixteen essays edited by Ronald J. Sider and Diane Knippers. The book is broken into three parts called "Learning from our Past," Toward an Evangelical Methodology," and "Central Themes of an Evangelical Framework," and closes with an essay on implementation by Steve Monsma and Mark Rodgers.
I found the first section on the history of Evangelicalism to be particularly helpful in getting perspective on how Evangelicalism has come to be as it is today. I especially liked Richard Cizik's "A History of the Public Policy Resolutions of the National Association of Evangelicals" and the article "The Mainline Protestant Tradition in the Twentieth Century" by Max L. Stackhouse and Raymond B. Roberts. Kristin Heyer's article gives some good insights into how catholic social ethics has managed to engage both social justice and personal morality without being co-opted by political interests.
The second section had an excellent piece by Nicholas Wolterstorff called "Theological Foundations for an Evangelical Political Philosophy." Wolerstorff gives a brief but lucid overview of the role of government in the world. His essay, followed by Ron Sider's "Justice, Human Rights, and Government," really gives sound underpinnings to think biblically about government in our life. A common theme by these authors, and throughout the book, is that government exists not only to restrain evil but to promote public good.
The book's third section has six essays on central themes of public policy: Sanctity of Life in the Twenty-First Century, Caring for the Vulnerable, Family Integrity, Stewardship, The Ethics of War and Peacemaking, and Human Rights. All are helpful articles. I found the one about war and peacemaking particularly timely in light of current world events.
The Monsma and Rodgers article at the end of the book, "In the Arena," reminds us that politics happens downstream from the culture. Political decisions tend to be the fruition of other things developing in the culture, not the initiators of changes. The authors remind us that we must be Christ's witnesses throughout ALL of culture if we genuinely want to impact public policy. They also give healthy cautions against single-issue politics, unhealthy alliances, and lack of humility as we participate in the public square. All in all, there wasn't a bad essay in the book.
I have to admit that this book has some bittersweet sentiments for me. Ron Sider was a professor of mine in graduate school at Eastern University, and I have been reading his works for almost thirty years. I served with him on a non-profit board for a few years in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I differ from Dr. Sider on some economic considerations about public policy but rarely have I met a person who seeks to integrate his professed values into his personal living the way he does. I have long viewed him as a role model in this regard.
From the last half of the 1990s until a couple of years ago, I volunteered and served on the Presbyterian Action steering committee of the Institute on Religion and Democracy. Diane Knippers was the Executive Director of IRD. I had the opportunity to get to know her well. She was a rare combination of intelligent, visionary leadership with exceptional grace and humility. I write "was" because Diane died early this year at fifty-three from cancer. She has also been a model to me for godly leadership. So, while I am enthused by the publication of this book, which is a shining testament to the kind of thinking and character she brought to the Church, it is still hard for me to realize that she is no longer with us.
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