I’ve just started reading the third book in the “Church after Christendom” series:
Faith and Politics After Christendom – The Church as a Movement for Anarchy
by Jonathan Bartley
Without doubt it will inspire me to a few posts over the next week or so, as I read it.

Anyway, to kick off, how about the suggestion that Christians don’t make good governors in this world…

We read in the Bible that God appoints all governments (Rom 13:1). Now to my mind there isn’t a government that doesn’t indulge in a little violence and control (after all, a govt that didn’t wouldn’t be a govt for long!). Bear in mind, this is at the request of the people – after all, if ‘we’ pay taxes, then we’re sure going to make sure that everyone else does too!

At this stage in my reading of the book we see the view (common in the early church) that we are not here to exercise control over people and see to it that criminals are punished.

I tend to agree with that broad perspective – which implies that non-Christians, with less concerns in this area, are very likely to make better governments in secular society.

You may have noticed this tendency in my thinking before…