A Christian's Relationship To The State

I read an interesting article in, of all places, the local paper in Cookeville, Tennessee. Cookeville is the nearest town to where I grew up that has a daily paper and is home to the college I attended, Tennessee Technological University. It is interesting because of a speaker who appeared at Tech recently.

Gerhard Hennes was a German prisoner of war in World War II who ended up spending a great deal of time in a POW camp near Cookeville. He spoke about what he learned from his experiences. I would point to two issues that I think are relevant to the issue of our responsibility to the state as followers of Christ.

Hennes spoke of his discovery of what was happening to Jews at the concentration camps during the war. He and his fellow prisoners were shown footage of the camps at a movie theater. Hennes states,

"We saw the the flickering shaft of light. We saw the emaciated bodies and the empty eyes of the survivors. We saw the mass graves, we saw the ovens where people had been put to death by the thousands. All of a sudden, the movie house was very hot. None of us had been aware of the concentration camps, though many of you may find that hard to believe. On that glorious day in spring in Crossville, Tennessee, in the prisoner of war camp, it was also that day that in one profound transformation, I turned from being a hero to being a villain."

He points out that he although he was unaware of all that was going on within Germany during this time, it did not absolve him of any guilt. To illustrate, he pointed to an incident at a camp where he was guarding Russian prisoners and did not report problems that he saw in their treatment because it might harm his military career. "So I remained a coward I had always been. I did not make a report. I did not protest. And, of course, the responsibility sits on me to this very evening."

Hennes is accurate in pointing out that we are responsible for the actions or inaction we undertake within the context of our service to our country. We must never be blinded by our devotion to our country that it supersedes our devotion to our God.

The article concludes with this great quote:

"I am one of the few in my generation that believes in collective guilt. Because I believe in corporate responsibility, I was responsible for what happened and I did not protest when the Russian prisoners of war were put to death. I am still struggling with the responsibility. We are responsible for the attitudes and actions of our freely elected government."

In case you doubt this idea of shared responsibility, I would point you to Isaiah 6:5, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips." This shared responsibility means we must promote what is good and resist what is evil. To do any thing less means we must bear the sins of our culture and country.

I would argue that the way to do this involves several things. One, vote for those who best reflect the values championed within Scripture. This doesn't mean the candidate must be Christian, just that they hold values (protecting the innocent, truthfulness, justice, mercy, etc) that align with values found in Scripture.

A second point is pointed out by Dr. Tackett, in that we should not confuse the responsibilities and commands of one sphere (family, the church, God & man) with the responsibilities and commands of another sphere (government.) God commands the church to care for the poor. God commands the family to teach truth and values. As Christians, we cannot abdicate those responsibilities to the government. The primary role of the government is found in passages like Romans 13, in which government is to keep people safe.

Finally, we must be active in our community. A Christian can't spend time railing against issues, yet never lift a finger to help solve community issues. Feed the poor, comfort the hurting, and help the weak. Vote. Serve where you can. Be active.