| Title | : | Republocrat, Confessions of a Liberal Conservative |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1596381833 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781596381834 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 142 |
| Publication | : | First published September 1, 2010 |
Republocrat, Confessions of a Liberal Conservative Reviews
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This is, perhaps, the most refreshing Christian political book I have ever read. As someone who is conservative theologically (I am a member of a United Reformed Church (URCNA) - a confessional body that actually believes the Reformed confessions) I have always tended to be politically conservative. I grew up believing that it was a 1:1 ratio. Conservative theology should lead to conservative politics. And I also believed that liberal politics demanded liberal theology.
In recent years I too have found myself more and more out In the rain with no political home.
I have concerns for the weak (traditionally left) but I believe that big government is not the way to take care of that problem (right). Because of the democratic party’s obsession with abortion on demand for any and all reasons and gay marriage (really now it is a destruction of all sexual ethics) I cannot stand with them. But at the same time I cannot stand with the GOP either (especially now that the leader is a man with no sexual ethics himself & and the party’s indifference to weak).
I find myself becoming more and more a centrist and thus dodging bullets from both sides.
Trueman’s book is a breath of fresh air in a stuffy political room. An a British, Orthodox Presbyterian (OPC) minister and teacher, He too finds himself politically homeless being a center left voter (by British standards) and is disillusioned with the extremes presented in America and how those extremes are sneaking into Reformed Confessional Christianity.
I devoured this book in the space of eight hours. I think you will like it too. With a few exceptions (IMO), there are no political issues that have a decisive Christian position. We should be able to be on opposite sides of an issue but still meet at the Lord’s table United by one faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I highly recommend this book! -
I wish I could get anyone who pays attention to politics in America to read this book! Written by a conservative evangelical professor of church history and a man raised in the British Reformed Church tradition, Dr Trueman presents a cogent, thought provoking critique of the American political process and how our parties have shifted focus over the years bringing us to this point in history when reasoned discourse seems nearly impossible. He skewers sacred cows on both the left and right sides of the debate and presents the reader with a good solid starting point to begin to rethink long cherished notions of the Christian's role in the political arena. At 110 pages, it is a short read, but packed with plenty to chew on. Seriously. Read this book!
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A lot of good observations that were largely beside the point, coupled with an occasional exasperating stretch of argument. But he is good with words; he can sure write an entertaining sentence.
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You’ll find this affirming if you’re a politically homeless Christian in America. It breaks down a lot of political categories that people throw around as hot-button terms and don’t seem to adequately understand the full context of their meaning. Either way, not all political issues can adequately be dismissed as unbiblical or biblical, such as health care and economic policy. It’s worth your time if you’re in the mood to challenge some of your political dogmas.
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“Conservative Christianity does not require conservative politics or conservative cultural agendas.”
That is the thesis of this book, and if that bothers you, you really need to read this book.
In a fascinating display of historical and cultural insight, Trueman demonstrates that politics are far more complicated than most realize. Our current party system, combined with the sensationalized sound-bite arguments that are so common, create an oversimplified view of the real issues. This realization ought to challenge Christians in several ways, but here are two examples:
1. Christians should never divide over politics. Our unity is centered around the gospel, not who we voted for.
2. Christians should not fall prey to the sensationalized rhetoric in the political world. We should stand out as informed critical thinkers who thoughtfully engage with the real issues at stake.
I’ll close with one of my favorite quotes from the book, “The gospel cannot and must not be identified with partisan political posturing.”
Now go read this book. -
Politics are not as black and white as Fox News or MSNBC will say. Christians should be able to think critically, listen to and read a broad spectrum of sources, and have thoughtful, educated conversation about the complex issues in politics. I really enjoyed Trueman’s challenges to Christians on this. It was particularly nice to read as someone who considers herself to be a political moderate. It is no secret that 2020 was rough year for the church and politics. The amount of Christians questioning the salvation of brothers and sisters in Christ for their political leanings or stance on secondary issues is mind-boggling to me. We have been so childish and ignorant. Let’s try to see political issues for what they are— complicated and usually not clearly defined in scripture. Even if we agree on biblical mandates such as “Love thy neighbor”, we may not agree on how to best do that from a political standpoint. And that should be okay! Whether you are a Christian who is more right-wing, left-leaning, or politically homeless like me, you should be able to gather each Sunday with God’s people and love them as you love yourself.
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Sacred cows die hard. And tipping them is not just anyone’s game. When it comes to conservative American evangelicalism, there may be no cherished belief that needs to die more than its explicit allegiance to one political party.
An evangelical attachment to the history of America and to patriotism has colored its views on how the church should interact with the political sphere. And in the past few decades, with the meteoric rise of “the religious right”, the result has been an American version of Christianity which mixes zeal for conservative politics and Christian virtues. Along the way, a popular misconception has arisen on the part of secular and non-evangelical alike: the evangelical gospel is confused with a moralistic concern for “family values”.
Carl Trueman, a witty and winsome Brit, tackles this problem in a new book recently released by P & R Publishing. In Republocrat: Confessions of a Liberal Conservative, Trueman speaks from an outsider’s perspective on the political landscape facing American Christians today. He understands that some of his views will be frowned on from both sides of the American aisle, but he pushes forth in an effort to challenge the tendency toward a one-sided approach and overly simplistic view of politics which he sees as so prevalent in the conservative circles in which he ministers today (as dean of Westminster Theological Seminary).
Written in a witty and personal fashion, with a Brit’s sense and control of the English language, the book draws one into the discussion even as it disarms the would-be critic. I found it a quick and engrossing read, even if the argument seemed to overreach on some points. He offers pertinent and sometimes disturbing examples from recent political history to drive home his points, and in the end is quite convincing.
He starts out with a criticism of today’s “left”. He shows how originally the liberal concern for the marginalized and the poor spurred British Christians to political involvement and an embrace of classic liberalism. Since then, liberalism has grown to treat any perceived marginalization and threat to be equivalent with the real economic and physical problems, for example, that were caused by industrialization in the late 1800s. So the mother of an unwanted child is facing undue pressure to keep her child, and she along with a gay person who wants full acceptance by society both deserve the protection of modern liberals. Meanwhile, the true problems of poverty and economic marginalization which continue to plague our world get left behind in the posturing and the fuss over the more visible, concerns of today’s liberals.
He then moves on into the conservative kitchen, and tackles American exceptionalism, and the patriotic flavor of American Christianity responsible for such absurdities as The Patriot’s Bible. Where he really scored points with me was in his treatment of the Fox News channel. He drives home his point that no news media outlet can be completely unbiased. He also shows how the founders of Fox were moved by the almighty dollar, like anyone else in the secular world. His cautions on this point deserve notice:When it comes to listening to the news, Christians should be eclectic in their approach and not depend merely on those pundits who simply confirm their view of the world while self-evidently using terminology, logic, and standard rules of evidence and argumentation in sloppy, tendentious, and sometimes frankly dishonest ways…. (pg. 56)
That the free market, capitalist system was a Christian concept derived from studying Scripture was one of the high points of my own Christian education. And Trueman takes aim at that whole idea. The system runs on good old fashioned, greed (which is actually sinful, mind you). And not just greed — discontent and dissatisfaction are built into the structure of our American economic system. The solution to economic hard times is for us consumers to show more confidence and fork out more money. And exactly how is this is a Christian concept, again? Let me allow Trueman himself to speak to this point more directly:…we have no basis for absolutizing the social organization and the attendant institutions, practices, and values of our passing present than anybody in ages past. Feudalism seemed like the wave of the future when it was at its zenith, yet it has passed away, at least in the West. European imperialism seemed set to dominate the world forever and a day at the end of the nineteenth century, but along came two world wars that put an end to that notion…. (pg. 67)
Viewing our system as the best there ever was, is also a bit evolutionary in nature, Trueman contends. Somehow man has figured everything out now and our system is the best hope for the world. We need to liberate the world from their a-capitalism, and bring salvation by means of the free market.
He rounds out the book by discussing how democratic politics in our modern age are positioned such that every difference between the parties has to be emphasized and enlarged so that they can gain power. Careful, nuanced political debate is not served by today’s sound bites and smiling photo ops, either. Trueman’s postscript argues that the abortion issue doesn’t have to be the be-all, end-all political issue for Christians in a fallen society like ours. He says, “It seems clear that the democratic legislative path to reducing or even outlawing abortions is proving remarkably unfruitful…. following from this… is there any point in allowing the matter to be the make-or-break issue on which individuals make their voting decisions at election time?” (pg. 106). He argues that incremental change can be pursued within either party, and before abortion will be outlawed a majority of Americans need to view it with distaste.
You won’t appreciate, or agree with, all Trueman’s concerns, but you will be challenged to think about what role the church should have in the political sphere. Should a church side with the conservative agenda so explicitly that non-conservatives are unwelcome, even if they also believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ? I think not. And if you pick up Trueman’s short book (only 110 pages), I suspect you’ll at least admit this much by the time you’ve read it. The Church of Jesus Christ should be wide enough to accept Christians of various political persuasions. The gospel, not politics or national pride, should unite us.
I want to close with an extended excerpt from Trueman’s conclusion. I don’t want to steal his thunder, but I feel this is the best way to give Trueman the hearing he may need for you to actually pick up his work and give it a listen.Christians are to be good citizens, to take their civic responsibilities seriously, and to respect the civil magistrates appointed over us. We also need to acknowledge that the world is a lot more complicated than the pundits of Fox News (or MSNBC) tell us…. Christian politics, so often associated now with loudmouthed aggression, needs rather to be an example of thoughtful, informed engagement with the issues and appropriate involvement with the democratic process. And that requires a culture change. We need to read and watch more widely, be as critical of our own favored pundits and narratives as we are of those cherished by our opponents, and seek to be good stewards of the world and of the opportunities therein that God has given us.
It is my belief that the identification of Christianity, in its practical essence, with very conservative politics will, if left unchallenged and unchecked, drive away a generation of people who are concerned for the poor, for the environment, for foreign-policy issues…. We need to… [realize] the limits of politics and the legitimacy of Christians, disagreeing on a host of actual policies, and [earn] a reputation for thoughtful, informed, and measured political involvement. A good reputation with outsiders is, after all, a basic New Testament requirement of church leadership, and that general principle should surely shape the attitude of all Christians in whatever sphere they find themselves. Indeed, I look forward to the day when intelligence and civility, not tiresome cliches, character assassinations, and Manichean noise, are the hallmarks of Christians as they engage the political process. (pg. 108-110)
Disclaimer: This book was provided by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing for review. The reviewer was under no obligation to offer a favorable review. -
I really enjoy Carl Trueman, and picked up this book after reading his more recent “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self.” Overall, I liked this book a lot and agreed with much of what Trueman had to say. I thought he brought up very interesting points and poked holes in “arguments” from both the Right and Left. I also love his writing: extremely articulate and clear, while also being very witty. However, I didn’t enjoy “Republocrat” quite as much as Trueman’s later work. I felt like this book was more ranting of his personal opinions, and didn’t seem to be backed by many actual references. Trueman is clearly intelligent, but he tended to make a claim without any elaboration or detail, then move on to his next rant. Even though I agreed with much of what he said, I wish he would have teased his thoughts out a little bit more. But, definitely worth the read!
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Lots of insight. The issue of how a thoughtful Christian engages in politics is a very important and pertinent issue. Engaging in partisan politics can be, and often is, sinful. The political landscape is not what it was when he wrote the book, which to some degree impacts his claims. But overall, he gives much reason for pause and consideration. The people who need to read this book likely never will.
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Very thought provoking. An especially good read for those who can’t find their home in American politics.
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This book explains, probably more clearly as anything I could ever say, why I can vote, faithfully, for someone of the Libertarian party. It explains, well what I believe our stance as gospel believing Christians should be towards politics.
I really can't recommend this book enough. You may not agree with it all but as The Gospel Coalition review of the book says, "Christians do need to think more. We need to refrain from drawing ecclesiastical lines with political pencils. We need a little less us-versus-them rhetoric. We need to allow that good people work on the other side of the aisle. We need to recognize that not every issue has a quick and easy “Christian” solution. And even political conservatives need to take Fox News with a generous grain of salt."
Thinking about how we think and understanding that the president is far more (and far less) than someone who is going to make that "one thing" either happen or stop happening is crucial and Trueman lays out the argument and pulls back the veil very clearly.
My biggest, if not only, criticism of the book is that he mixes the use of the word "rhetoric" sometimes meaning actual rhetoric but more often than not meaning sophistry.
I'll close my review with a quote from Trueman that I share strongly with in sentiment. "I look forward to the day when intelligence and civility, not tiresome clichés, character assassinations, and Manichaean noise, are the hallmarks of Christians as they engage the political process." -
While the subject of this book, that Christians should be more thoughtful in their political life and not merely a pawn of one party or another, was a good idea, I was disappointed in its execution. The author was trying too hard to be "fair" to both sides, which caused some of his valid criticisms to be weakened. By thus deluting his argument, I think the writer missed a opportunity to teach American Christians a much-needed lesson.
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While I didn't agree with everything Trueman said in this book, I found his perspective helpful and challenging, and it did make me think through some things a little more deeply. Toward the end, I found myself very curious as to what he might change if he were revising this book today.
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If the best that the Republicans can come up with is Donald Trump and the best that the Democrats can come up with is Hilary Clinton or Nancy Peloski then I have no hope for either party. I’ve always voted in every election until the last one but I’m not sure I’ll vote anymore if they keep nominating such candidates. I wish there was a Centrist Party that would take the best elements of our two present parties and leave behind the extremes that both parties keep moving toward. Oh well I got this out of my system.
Carl Trueman is a centrist. He describes himself as a ‘liberal conservative.’ Truman earned a Master’s Degree at Cambridge and a Ph.D at Aberdeen before teaching at Aberdeen. He then became a Church History Professor and Dean of Westminster Seminary. He is also the Pastor of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church, has a blog, a podcast and regularly writes for First Things. This last year he taught at Princeton as a Visiting Professor. Here are a few representative quotes from the book:
The opium of the people is not religion but entertainment. (10)
“Here lies the heart of the problem of the New Left: once the concerns of the Left shifted from material, empirical issues - hunger, thirst, nakedness, poverty, disease - to psychological categories, the door was opened for everyone to become a victim and for anyone with a lobby group to make his or her issue the Big One for this generation. … forms of oppression are thus whatever the oppressed person claims them to be. … the Left has lost all sense of proportion with regard to what is and is not of most pressing importance. It has become, by and large, the movement of righteous, rhetorical pronouncements on total trivia.” (17-18)
“The connection often made between economic prosperity and Christianity by conservative Christians is but a more sophisticated and rhetorically toned-down version of the Osteen gospel.”* (27-28) (*i.e., a prosperity gospel)
“Both megachurches and emergent churches represent not so much countercultures but different accommodations to the prevailing culture.” (28)
“Many churches are as secular in their ambitions and methods as any straightforwardly secular organization.” (29)
“In the writing of history no one can be neutral, but historians can be objective. … we are all biased to some extent.” (42)
“While the Christian Right is intolerant of any personal peccadillo on the part of liberals, it is often very forgiving of the private failings of its heroes, as in the case of Rush Limbaugh, with his various marriages and his well-publicized drug addiction.” (51-52)
“While conservative theological types (among whom I number myself) are often very concerned about theological precision, we can tend to think in rather simplistic, black-and-white, cliched terms when it comes to politics.” (80)
“Politics in the present age is not ultimately about policies, because that would require arguments. It is really about images - visual and narrative.” (92)
“The truth about health care is that, however much money is available, it will never be enough; all health systems everywhere have to prioritize resources - financial and otherwise - and tough decisions are going to have to be made somewhere down the line. But is investing this power in a democratically elected government really worse than investing it in private insurance companies that decide which claims to honor and which to refuse? Or which preexisting conditions to accept and which to reject?” …
National health systems are not perfect, but they are far from the nightmares that have been depicted in some recent discussions about the USA. … only one country in the entire industrialized world does not have some form of universal health care.” (95)
“I am myself pro-life. Contrary to current cultural logic, my politically liberal instincts (concern for the weak) combine with my evangelical commitments (concern for the sanctity of life) to put me in precisely that camp. Nevertheless, I am suspicious of the way in which the abortion debate plays out in the American political arena, where it seems to be something the Right often uses as little more than a means to drum up cheap votes for its candidates. … Given, the pro-life rhetoric, what is the actual Republican record on abortion like? Not very impressive.” (105-106)
(Note: I'm stingy with stars. For me 2 stars means a good book or a B. 3 = Very good or a B+; 4 = Outstanding or an A {only about 5% of the books I read merit this}; 5 = All time favorites or an A+ {one of these may come along every 400-500 books}) -
Originally posted at
Honey and Locusts.
If you're looking for a book that will re-affirm what you already believe about politics, this book will be a disappointment. Carl Trueman knows that, and he doesn't care. "I am simply delighted that I will disappoint so many different groups of people in such a comprehensive manner," he writes in the introduction.
And he's right. Nearly every group of people will find some complaint with Trueman's arguments. The Liberal Left hates his stance on hot button issues like abortion and gay marriage. The Religious Right frowns on his refusal to walk the Republican party line. Libertarians reject his insistence that nationalized health care and welfare programs are not incompatible with liberty and the free market.
Perhaps those most off-put by this book will be the politically apathetic, who cry "can't we all just get along?" while steering clear of argument and conviction. If there is one thing Trueman makes crystal clear, it is that if we care about the world and the people around us — and as Christians, this is non-negotiable — we must care about politics.
Few, if any, will find wholesale agreement with Trueman's political views. He is prone to overstate his case (which he himself admits in the book), and is intentionally provocative. He sets up strawmen and rips them apart. Surprisingly, all of these factors work together to hammer home the central theses of the book, "that conservative Christianity does not require conservative politics or conservative cultural agendas" and that Christians need a much more nuanced understanding of politics and political issues than is typical in today's America, when aesthetics (the character and rhetoric of politicians and pundits) have replaced discourse and debate is framed as a
Manichean struggle of good versus evil in which candidates and parties must be either totally right or totally wrong.
The intensely logical Carl Trueman knows exactly what he's doing when he resorts to the use of logical fallacies. He wants readers to disagree with him. He wants to roil American Christians out of our comfort with the system of "politics-as-usual" that we've grown up with (Trueman immigrated to the United States from England about ten years ago). This is a good thing. We need to be roiled, and his status as an outsider (not to mention his lack of hesitancy to engage in confrontation) gives Trueman a unique position to do it.
Besides a general encouragement to pick up this book and read it (which will only take an hour or two, as the entire thing is only 110 pages), I have just a few comments on the actual content of the book. While Trueman's trenchant critique of American politics begins with the Left — and he is brutal in his condemnation of the modern Liberal agenda — much of the book is aimed directly at the political heart of conservative Christians who identify themselves with the Republican party. This is not necessarily because he aligns himself more with today's Democrats, but because his intended audience is conservative Christians, and the reality is that most of these also consider themselves politically conservative. Thus, he spends the bulk of his time addressing the particular weaknesses of this audience.
What most interested me was his description of the plight of the "Old Liberal", which is how he describes himself. Old liberals used to be those who concerned themselves most with improving the condition of the poor, something that was close to his own heart as a Christian. Over time, however, with the utter failure of Marxism as an all-encompassing political system based on the welfare of the economically oppressed, Liberals began to mesh their ideas about poverty and oppression with Freud's psychoanalysis, leading to a redefinition of oppression. Now, instead of being primarily concerned with aiding the poor, the "New Left" exists to promote the agenda of those who define their own victimhood (women who believe abortion is a right, homosexuals who want to marry, etc). Democrats still promote themselves as the party of the working class, but these social issues are of little concern to those who struggle to provide for their families, and often clash with the values of the average poor person.
While I personally believe that conservative fiscal policies and free markets can be most beneficial to the poor, Dr. Trueman's question is a valid one for discussion. Who is now the advocate for the economically oppressed? Where do those whose primary political concern is the condition of the poor turn?
On the negative side, Trueman is at his overstated best (or worst) in devoting an entire chapter to Fox News. While you'd be hard pressed to find a conservative who thinks less of Fox News and pundits like
Glenn Beck than I do, even I think this assault on Fox is a bit over-the-top. Yes, conservative Christians tend to have a very unhealthy attachment to Hannity, O'Reilly, and company. Yes, the belief that Fox is in any way "the unbiased news channel" is absolutely ridiculous (and deserves to be ridiculed). Yes, Rupert Murdoch is a sleazy and unscrupulous businessman who knows pandering to the Religious Right makes him a lot of easy dollars. But Trueman could easily have made these points in much less than the twenty pages he devotes to them. He accuses the Left of having "lost all sense of proportion with regard to what is and is not of most pressing importance," but surely the same can be said of an author who devotes 2o% of his book to the faults of a single news organization.
It can be maddening to read at times, but this book will make you think. It is not likely to cause anyone to totally change his mind about any important issues, or to radically change her political philosophy. But hopefully it will help to start a discussion we've needed for a long time. As he writes, "politics is an art, not a science". Like any art, politics deserves careful consideration, interaction, and debate. And, just as people will have different preferences and appreciations for art, there is no reason to believe that all Christians must hold exactly the same position on every political issue. It is okay for Christians to disagree about the best way to further God's Kingdom (just ask
Paul and Barnabas) and to live as citizens in a fallen world. In the end, God will be glorified. In the meantime, healthy debate and civil discourse make us all better.
Read this book. You'll be glad you did. Buy it
here. -
Carl Trueman is a thinker. That's what I like about him, and that's what I love about this book: As a Christian historian, he encourages his readers to think seriously about their political positions, rather than simply accepting the standard rhetoric of the political party to which they ascribe.
I've seen Christian brothers and sisters get hurt, or at least frustrated, when other believers speak as if their own position is the only possible choice for any Christian with a pulse. (Of course, in a few cases, this is true -- pro-life, for instance, is the only biblically acceptable position on the abortion issue for a genuine born-again Christian, and Trueman acknowledges that). But Trueman argues that a number of the political positions that are commonly accepted as the standard position for Christians are not biblically mandated. He points out the logical inconsistencies and curiosities, and he explains how we got there.
Most importantly, he encourages Christians to be the best possible citizens they can be, and he does that specifically by encouraging us to think -- to use the minds God has given us to investigate the party-line issues we have accepted for so long without serious thought. And he encourages unity between believers who disagree, perhaps even vehemently:
"We should, if you like, be able to stand on separate sides of the protest lines on such issues Monday to Saturday, and yet come together to take the Lord's Supper on Sunday as Christian brothers and sisters united by a common faith, even as we are divided by our strongly held politics."
You won't agree with Trueman's every conclusion on specific political matters. I didn't. But for the Christian who has felt like a political oddball in his or her congregation, this book may just be the encouragement they need. As a pastor, I recognize the need for a book like this, because Christians should think seriously about every stand they take. The glory of Christ is at stake. -
A lot has changed since Trueman wrote these essays and I'm not so sure that some of his thoughts in the postscript still stand, especially those concerning the plausibility of incrementalism at a party-level. That makes considerably less sense now, given how entrenched the divide between positions on social policy issues has become across political spectrums in many places, more obviously so in the West.
Apart from that, Trueman’s broader thesis that religious conservatism does not demand unconditional political conservatism is certainly a timely one. Lockdowns in the past year or so have left many of us isolated within our own communities, starved of alternative perspectives and cut off from having a sense of regular interaction with the world around us. Amidst this, Christians should rise above the trend of the media to cast the political arena as a “Manichaean” struggle between good and evil. Dismissing others as a “Marxist” or a “fascist” should be undertaken with much more thought and care. The temptation of having our “gut convictions continually confirmed” must be resisted.
Trueman’s critique of the unchallenged adulation some conservative evangelical quarters have for free market economics, and his point on the potency of narratives in politics were both particularly thought-provoking. Anyway, this collection of essays reads very well. Reading Trueman is never a dull experience; Elton John and bell-bottom jeans both make an appearance at the midway mark. -
Perhaps the most interesting part of reading this book in 2018 is that it was written in 2010! It’s sobering to see how many of the issues Trueman warns of have not changed and in most cases it is even more frightening to see how they have (for the worse). Trueman writes to exhort Christians to not think as a republican or Democrat but as a Christian which means not only thinking about issues from multiple perspectives but seeking out and building community with people of all different political and socioeconomic viewpoints. I affiliate with neither of the major parties in American politics and whole this book emphasized many of the reasons that is true in my life it also made me think about issues in new ways too! As a Brit, Trueman is able to view American politics a bit more objectively and as a very intelligent professor he can easily and helpfully enlighten us in how things came to be as they are. In short, this book is a needed to read for every Christian in America - I just wish he would write an update to help us realize just how much worse our straight-party thinking (or duping - for as he points out there is little thought or logic in American politics).
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I wish I could give a copy of this book to every Christian before any election. Trueman encourages Christians to read/research/watch news deeply and broadly when forming their political opinions. I have found myself not completely identifying completely with any party in several years, and this book reminded me that I am not alone.
"The creeds and confessions address the central truths of God and the gospel; and in restricting themselves to this content, they make a point about the church, that it is made up of those who hold to the truth of God's salvation in Christ not to this or that social policy or political philosophy. Sure there are basic elements to Christian ethics: respect for life, honesty, care for the poor, etc.; and then preaching the gospel week by week, the church shapes the minds and the ethics of her people; but how these things manifest themselves at the level of political party is something with which Christians, as members of civic society, have to wrestle and over which they can legitimately disagree." -
Published 10 years ago, but still holds up very well. Though Trueman is economically center-left and I am center-right, he articulates many of the frustrations I have with heavy Christian association and identification with the American political right. He does not, however, leave the left unscathed, and offers valuable criticisms of it as well. Overall, an excellent reminder that commitment to follow the tenets and traditions of orthodox Christianity do not necessitate following every tenet of a single political party, ideology, or set of policies. In fact, orthodox Christian tenets and traditions often run counter to uniform support of one party or another.
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"Conservative Christians often decry the fact that stay-at-home mothers seem less valued than they once were, and the working mom is now the norm. Well, what do you expect from a society where the ability to contribute directly to the wealth-creation process is ultimately the measure of somebody’s social standing and value?"
I wrote
three blog posts on this book. It's thoughtful and short, both positives traits. The main theme is to expand our thinking beyond simplistic categories that politics often encourages. You may disagree with a few of his points, but his main arguments are quite good. -
Slightly obnoxious but I just so appreciate a Christian who is not a die hard conservative Republican. I don’t feel like I belong in either political party, and I appreciated hearing from someone who felt similarly. Even though I thought he was too obnoxious at times or I didn’t agree, I did like how he called everyone on their crap. His call for Christians to be good citizens by thinking deeply and with precision/subtlety about politics as opposed to the current simplistic thinking out there (i.e. abortion is the only issue that matters), spoke to my soul.
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Carl Trueman gives both liberals and conservatives some excellent points to consider. While he openly acknowledges many issues with the post 1950s era “Left”, he also points out some issues with the “Right” in which conservative evangelicals hold tightly to. There are areas of conservative politics that Christians should cling to, but, “Right-wing” political views should not be considered the end-all-be-all for true believers. We must maintain balance and objectivity, and be willing to have intelligent conversations with both sides.
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A very quick read but the essays were a refreshing call to nuance and reason in this time of ideological purism and division. Trueman's call for Christians to take their responsibilities as citizens seriously was very convicting to me, and his call to closely examine all sides of an issue and to remember that neither the Right nor the Left are "the Christian side" was a needed reminder for many Evangelical Christians. I identify a lot with Trueman's perspectives as a Liberal Conservative and I found his reasoned call for consideration and sense to be simple but refreshing for today.
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This book is insightful and full of wisdom. I myself being a center-left political associate, I find Carl Truman’s words and thought processes to be real, loving and authentic. Truman rightly raises concerns about Christians buying into Fox News, equating capitalism with the Gospel and being a single issue, hardline party voter. If you enjoy a good political book from a wise intellectual, this book will be right up your alley.
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I agree with much of Trueman's conclusions, but the fact that it is from 2010 makes me wonder if he would retract any of his former statements. Not that BLM is openly Marxist and the government continues to overstep its bounds, what would be Trueman's advice? My guess is, he would still come to the same conclusion in terms of freedom, rights, and responsibilities, but how loud should be our voices?
A decent read, but a bit outdated. 3.5 ish stars.
