two governments

Important but not The Ultimate Thing

Michael Schutz — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 04:48:45 +0000

Important but not The Ultimate Thing Michael Schutz Wed, 03/04/2020 - 20:48

I taught tonight at our church about living in the world, but not "of" it. As I consider the world around me, it's important to be in the world, to be involved in good and noble pursuits, even in things like politics. But that's not The Ultimate Thing.

I'm becoming a bit of a political...observer. Not a pundit, not a junkie, just an interested observer. I know that the two things one isn't supposed to talk about in polite conversation are religion and politics. Well, you're going to get lots of talk about religion here, and a bit of politics too. I guess I'm just not that polite.

Politics are an important thing. Even for Christians, politics are important; government is the way that God rules in the world through the law. Government (though not one specific form) is designed to punish evil and reward good. Public servants are called by God to be just that: servants of the public, working towards the common welfare of all people, especially those who need extra care. This is sometimes called the civil government, or God's left-hand kingdom. (The Church is the spiritual government, God's right-hand kingdom, where God reigns not by the law, but by the Gospel.)

Politics has become such a dirty word that you might be scoffing at me right now, because we behold (there's that word again) so much brokenness that it's hard to believe there's any redeeming quality to politics at all, never mind that God designed government for the good of people. Some may think, "if this is God's doing, I don't want any part of that". The brokenness isn't God's doing, but the design for the needs of all people to be met through good government is.

So when I see brokenness at all levels of government—our municipality is experiencing much turmoil over brokenness in our public school system right now, our province and nation is mired in turmoil over broken relationships between Canadian government and Indigenous peoples and so many other things, and internationally, well, let's just say I'm observing things like the Democratic party primary process in USAmerica with a sort of, something that I won't call schadenfreude (there's no joy in it), but maybe semi-detached fascination?—it's hard not to be cynical.

Then I remember that as a Christian I'm called to be in the world, to seek the welfare of the place I live (like the exiled Israelites; read about that in Jeremiah 29:4-7), and contribute to the good of society for the sake of the welfare of others. Scripture is crystal clear that part of being a good Christian is being a faithful citizen of our earthly homes under just government (Romans 13:1-7 is perhaps the most clear).

But I also remember that I am in the world, but not of it. I've been born from above (John 3:3) and I serve a King who's kingdom is not of this world (John 19:36-37). So I live in this world and seek to be a part of contributing to the welfare of the place I live. Many faithful Christians have vocations in politics and in civil government, and that is a commendable thing. But politics isn't The Ultimate Thing. We have hope for a future that doesn't include any brokenness at all, including in politics. If there are public servants in the life that is to come, they will be just that: public servants. They will fulfill their roles with honour and integrity, and will serve others willingly out of a perfect love.

Sounds too good to be true? It isn't.

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...as well as other rights...

Michael Schutz — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 06:25:40 +0000

...as well as other rights... Michael Schutz Tue, 01/23/2018 - 22:25

Canadian churches and other organizations are being compelled to sign on to values that are in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms if they want funding for summer jobs for youth. No problem, right? Right. Except there's just one more little phrase: "as well as other rights". Now we have a problem.

(This began life as a Facebook post. Here it’s expanded upon and linked where appropriate.)

There has been (rightly) much discussion on the 2018 Canada Summer Jobs grant “kerfuffle” (Mr. Prime Minister, if you’re listening, it’s a whole lot more than a kerfuffle, and deservedly so).

To me the most egregious statement is one that’s in the application itself: “CSJ applicants will be required to attest that both the job and the organization’s core mandate respect individual human rights in Canada, including the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as other rights.”

“...the values underlying the Canadian Charter...as well as other rights” are phrases that come dangerously close to Orwellian territory, if they’re not living in it already. Our government is not basing this “attestation” on what’s actually in the Charter, but what they claim is “underlying” the Charter, and then tacking on this dangerous phrase “as well as other rights”. With that line of thinking, what basis is there for any sort of legal and/or moral opposition to anything? The government has taken it upon themselves to determine what Canadians values are/should be in spite of what’s actually written in (or not written in, which is actually a critically important point in this case) the Charter.

This whole thing is a huge issue that has many implications for what we call in our church “the two governments”, that is, civil and spiritual government. The discussion isn’t just about a church’s “core mandate”; it goes well beyond that, and it doesn’t apply only to churches. It goes far beyond that.

Andrew Bennett, the former Ambassador for Religious Freedom Ambassador (a post created under the Harper government but which is all but unimaginable under the current Liberal one) gave an interview on CTV's Power Play the other day where he used the example of a construction company. Why should a construction company be compelled to declare their allegiance to the Liberal government’s views on reproductive rights in order to hire a young general labourer for the summer?

The short, and (one would think) easy answer is: they shouldn’t. It was an excellent example of how far this endeavour overreaches. Simply put, the government is inventing rights that don’t in fact exist and mandating that anyone who wants to access their own (read: taxpayer) funding must respect these invented rights.

As a Christian pastor this also opens up another can of worms on topics such as whether churches should be relying on government funding at all. There will be more to contemplate in those kinds of areas. But this whole idea that the government can compel any business or organization to sign on to values that aren’t in fact in the Charter is, to me, the central idea in this whole “kerfuffle”. It’s an idea that is mentioned no less than five times - five times! - in the application guide, and that is a dangerous notion in any democracy.

Every organization that considering applying for a Canada Summer Jobs Grant will need to make its own decision about what to do for 2018. But the deeper concern is that this isn’t an isolated incident. Even beyond the Employment Minister’s breezy declaration that churches “should have no problem” with this attestation, it’s consistent with other examples of overreach, such as proclaiming that all candidates for the Liberal party must be essentially pro-choice. That in itself is a topic for another day. For now, we’re left to grapple with how to deal with national leadership that, more and more, is moving away from any sort of pretence of respect for the opinions of all Canadians.

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Living under Two Governments

Michael Schutz — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 05:44:44 +0000

Living under Two Governments Michael Schutz Tue, 01/23/2018 - 21:44

There are two governments in this world for Christians: the civil government, which rules in things of this world, and the spiritual government, also known as "the Church". God ultimately rules both, though in very different ways. How do Christians live under both? Can they?

God is the ruler of the whole universe. This is a basic Christian teaching. Yet Christians often live in situations on Earth where the culture values things that God doesn't. In extreme cases, Christian living and teaching is illegal. For us who live in 21st-century Canada, Christian living isn't (necessarily) illegal. It's just mostly deeply frowned-upon.

The most recent case in point is our federal government's recent proclamation that, in order for any organization to apply for funding for a federal youth summer jobs grant, they are required to attest that there "core mandate" respects not only the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but "other rights" named by the government itself. That is a subject about which I have much to say, and I'll be posting soon on that. But this post is about the more general concept of Christians living in a culture where there is inconsistency between the last of the land (and its culture) and Christian teachings as drawn from the Word of God, the Bible.

Though God is the ruler of the whole universe, people often say there is, and should be, a so-called "separation of church and state". That phrase is a uniquely USAmerican one, referring to the First Amendment of the US Constitution that prohibits congress from establishing a state religion. But it's widely used to argue that "politics", or move generally, the public square, and "religion" are two mutually exclusive domains. There need not be, nor should there be (so the argument goes) any overlap whatsoever.

If we were to Venn-diagram (can I use that as a verb?) this argument, it would go like this:

The two governments

The confessional Lutheran church, in which I am a pastor, believes, teaches, and confesses that God rules the whole universe through two different governments: the civil and the spiritual. (Many times we'll use the language of "two kingdoms", but for now I'll stick to the "governments" language, and will explain why I prefer that in a future post.)

The civil government is what we typically think of as just plain "government". These are the governing bodies of geo-political nations. In Canada, we have a governing structure which includes national entities like Parliament, Senate, Prime Minister's Office, as well as provincial entities like Legislative Assemblies and Premiers, and municipal entities like City Councils and Mayors. These entities make laws, which are then enforced by police and the courts.

Our view is that this idea of civil government is the way in which God works to restrain evil and promote good. We often think about this as the so-called "first use" or "first function" of God's Law - to act as a curb or boundary that tells us where the lines between good and evil are drawn.

Christians are called by God to live as good civil citizens, obeying governments that act justly because the idea of civil government is designed by God Himself.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

- Romans 13:1-7

When, however, a civil government acts in explicit contradiction to God's moral law (to use a perhaps absurd example for the sake of argument, if Canada's Parliament passed a law requiring all citizens to murder one person per month), Christians may in good conscience (and perhaps might even be compelled by conscience) to resist that law, no matter the earthly legal consequences.

The spiritual government is the same thing as what I call the "big-C Church", that is, the one Christian Church on earth. Here God rules only by the Gospel, which is the Good News that Jesus Christ has shed His blood for the sins of the whole world and was raised to new life for our justification. In the Church, the Gospel reigns supreme. We're not ruled by the Law in the Church (though we rightly honour and seek to uphold the Law as a result of our salvation). The Law serves primarily to show us where we have fallen short of God's perfection and to thus point us to Christ who is our Saviour. This is the so-called "second use" or "second function" of the Law.

Simply put, then, the civil government is where God rules through the Law, and the spiritual government is where God rules through the Gospel.

So how do they relate?

So the big question is, how does the civil government relate to the spiritual government? Are they mutually exclusive, like our 21st-century Canadian culture believes? Are they intertwined, like in 16th-century Germany? Or is there some sort of overlap yet with some distinction?

Different Christians may answer this in different ways, but for my tribe, we acknowledge the tension. We don’t seek to have the civil government do the work that only the Church can do. In other words, while God uses the civil government to accomplish some function of the Law - namely, to restrain earthly evil and reward earthly good - the civil government cannot and should not be the place where the Church expects the Gospel to rule.

But to what extent should the civil government allow the Church to do its proper work of Gospel proclamation? To what extent should the civil government support that? These are questions on which Christians have different opinions. It’s fascinating to me that Christianity seems to actually flourish in places where it doesn’t enjoy all that much civil support, and may even be illegal.

It seems counter-intuitive to us in Western culture, because we’ve come out of a time when the culture around us was at least broadly consistent with Christian values and God’s Law, if not Gospel. (Much more to say on that in the future, too.) We tend to think that the civil government should generally support the work of the Christian Church. And maybe it has in the past (although, it tends to support the social side of the Church’s work, not its proper work of Gospel proclamation). But no longer. Now, our Prime Minister wears emoji Last Supper sweaters and his government requires organizations to declare fealty to their own Liberal party doctrines before receiving public funding for summer jobs for young people.

What, then does this mean for the thinking Christian? What does a Christian, who wants to be a productive citizen of the nation and yet clings to a thoroughly Christian understanding, do when the law of the land goes so far afield of God’s Law?

Each situation will require much prayer and much conversation with other Christians and with people around them. There is no “one-size-fits-all” answer to living in the tension of our world. If you came to this post looking for that, you might be disappointed. But, maybe this post will get you thinking about the subject so that as we wade into the murky waters of “living as a Christian in a non-Christian culture”, you’ll have some tools with which to approach the task at hand.