This is from "Sojourner's Magazine." Ted Cruz is starting the old Republican rhetoric; "God is on our side." So, here we go again.
Abraham Lincoln was probably one of the most moral Presidents the USA has ever known.
...Cruz )click here) is the first serious candidate to officially throw his hat in
the presidential ring. Because he quickly invoked God, it’s a safe bet
that future Republican and Democratic candidates will also invoke the
blessings of God the Almighty.
So, let’s talk God and politics.
There is a good reason that we aren’t supposed to talk about those two topics at the dinner table. It’s because of the human tendency to claim that God is on our side of the religious and political divide. And, if God is on our side, that means that God is against our enemies. In this sense, the term “God” is merely a social projection of group identity that pits us over and against a wicked “other.”
A God who stands with us over and against our religious and political enemies is no God at all. It’s an idol; a mere function of human social projection. I would rather be an atheist than believe in that God.
Fortunately, that’s not the God of the Bible. The human understanding of God in the Bible moves from being a tribal god to becoming God of the universe. This God is infinitely bigger than our rivalries of group identity; in fact, the God of the Bible is on a completely different plane than our rivalries over and against one another. As such, God subverts our tendency to form group identity over and against a wicked other. As James Alison points out in his book Undergoing God, the great Hebrew insight is that of monotheism....
Abraham Lincoln was probably one of the most moral Presidents the USA has ever known.
So, let’s talk God and politics.
There is a good reason that we aren’t supposed to talk about those two topics at the dinner table. It’s because of the human tendency to claim that God is on our side of the religious and political divide. And, if God is on our side, that means that God is against our enemies. In this sense, the term “God” is merely a social projection of group identity that pits us over and against a wicked “other.”
A God who stands with us over and against our religious and political enemies is no God at all. It’s an idol; a mere function of human social projection. I would rather be an atheist than believe in that God.
Fortunately, that’s not the God of the Bible. The human understanding of God in the Bible moves from being a tribal god to becoming God of the universe. This God is infinitely bigger than our rivalries of group identity; in fact, the God of the Bible is on a completely different plane than our rivalries over and against one another. As such, God subverts our tendency to form group identity over and against a wicked other. As James Alison points out in his book Undergoing God, the great Hebrew insight is that of monotheism....
