Political Conventions and Worldviews

This week the Republican Party is having their convention in Tampa, Florida. This event will be followed by the Democrat Party convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Besides nominating each party’s candidate for President of the United States, conventions are a means for displaying and shoring up each party’s worldview. The election decides which worldview prevails.

A worldview is a comprehensive framework of what someone believes and thinks that determines how he or she behaves. A worldview has to do with our convictions. And everyone has a worldview. It is a part of being human. All of us need some creed to live by, some compass by which we find our directions in life.

Our views and attitudes about life affect all of the decisions we make about how we live. For example, when your marriage gets tough is divorce an option? What constitutes a real marriage in the first place? When taxes are unjust does this give you license to cheat? Will you fire an employee as soon as it is economically beneficial to you? The answers to these and all of the questions we face in life spring up from our worldview.

This is important because what we believe has a direct bearing how we deal with life’s issues—personally and politically. Most of the issues before us in the election stem from basic worldviews. Democrats in general believe government must encourage or even mandate remedies to social ills. Republicans generally believe the less government the better, encouraging personal responsibility. Most issues, even tax issues, boil down to moral issues. Michelle Obama was absolutely correct when she spoke to the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s General Conference in June. She said, “there is no better place than church” to get a bearing on political issues, because they are “essentially moral ones.”

But what determines our morals or worldview? As Christians our worldview must be forged and tested by Scripture. Sola Scriptura—Scripture alone must be the primary rule for what we believe and how we live. This means first of all that we must read the Bible and understand its doctrines. Then we must check our attitudes and actions to make sure they line up with the Word of God. When we fail to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5) there will be reasons (usually not good ones) to act upon beliefs held by a culture that has long drifted away from a godly perspective on life.

For example, it is compassionate to give to those who have need. The early Christians who “were possessors of lands [plural] and houses [plural] sold them.” They then gave the profits to the apostles who “distributed to each as anyone had need (Acts 2:34, 35).” This was a voluntary giving to others. No one compelled the giving. The houses and lands belonged to those who owned them (Acts 5:4). But they gave out of a sense of grace and love. Would it have been right for the apostles to “tax” the rich to give to the poor? Is it right for the government to do so? When government takes more than it should, does it rob us of the chance to be gracious and compassionate? Is it right for a government to put its people and their children in debt? Our worldview determines our concept of the role of government in life, the responsibilities of the church and our own personal responsibilities.

The Bible is vital to our developing a biblical perspective on life. When the apostle Paul wrote to his young associate Timothy, he said, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).”

Scripture, the Word of God, is profitable (cha-ching, cha-ching!) for doctrine; teaching us what to believe. It is profitable for reproof; showing us where we are wrong. And it is profitable for correction; helping us to get back to a biblical worldview so we can bring glory to God and good to others.

So if you have the time and inclination to watch the political conventions coming up in the next two weeks, look for the presentation of their worldview. But let me encourage you to develop a biblical worldview: “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God Romans 12:2).”