As the political season heats up, there's no shortage of books coming out advocating particular political agendas by "baptizing" them in a whitewash of religious rhetoric. Steve Monsma's book will be useless to anybody who wants to leverage a church to promote a candidate or legislative agenda; anyone who's been around a church for long has seen this attempted, and too often carried out. The effects have been disastrous for the Kingdom and for Christ's reputation.
But for the church, the small group, the book club, the campus ministry, the thoughtful believer...those who take seriously the call to follow Christ and to do so in the context he's put us in, those who understand that as believers who are citizens in a democracy we have responsibilities as citizens of the Kingdom, those who see that Scripture has much to say about questions of political ethics and political policies, though often not the particular ones we're asking...this book will be invaluable.
In the midst of the hype -- hype which will no doubt leave many faithful believers burned out and discouraged when the ardor for the latest cause has cooled -- there must be those who test everything and hold on to the good, who recognize that not everybody claiming he's a prophet has been sent by God, who search the Scriptures carefully to see if what a particular author, activist or candidate is true. A book like this will be an invaluable guide to the kind of journey through the Bible and our history that will yield a sustainable understanding of what faithful citizenship looks like -- on issues like the environment and abortion and war, as well as on the more basic questions of what God demands of his disciples who are citizens with the ability to influence elections and policy.
Steve Monsma has brought decades of hard-won wisdom and experience as a legislator, political scientist, and faithful churchman to bear on these important questions. This book provides ample fodder for group discussion as well as personal reflection, moving briskly without glossing over complexities. The companion video and the discussion questions at the end of each chapter will catalyze group interaction even with rotating facilitators, and the text is meaty enough to serve classroom purposes as well.
As the election season heats up, God's people will increasingly feel the need for sober, thoughtful, sensitive and wise guidance on the issues of the day, and will increasingly feel that the loudest voices on each side are ill prepared to offer anything beyond red meat for their followers and red-faced denunciations of those who disagree with them. Steve Monsma's book has arrived just in time.
