It was Sen. Eugene McCarthy who said that being a senator was a lot like being a football coach -- you had to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it was important.

I have written about the dangers of ideology in politics (which addresses the how more than the what), and thought I needed to say one additional thing about that. By ideologue, I do not mean someone who is zealous, or who is focused on what he is doing. I do not mean someone who sacrifices for a political cause -- I rather mean someone who sacrifices the wrong things.

In his great essay "Learning in War-Time," C.S. Lewis points out that certain duties are worth dying for, but not worth living for. The ideologue reasons from the end to the beginning, and says that anything that can claim our allegiance to the point of death must have the authority to fill every waking moment as well.

"It seems to me that all political duties (among which I include military duties) are of this kind [not worth living for: DW]. A man may have to die for our country, but no man must, in any exclusive sense, live for his country. He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God himself."

Our task in political engagement, like our tasks in every other area, is to be approved by God. But He does not use a simplistic measurement of electoral success. His calipers can measure things shorter than a yard. Achieving good you can point to in this life has something to do with it, but there are many other things going on as well.

What better way to conclude this particular point than by quoting Johnny Cash? Near the end of his life he reminded me, and more than a little bit, of Qohelet, the preacher of Ecclesiastes. His cover of Hurt says, "you can have it all, my empire of dirt." But that is -- in the mouth of Cash -- a perspective in the light of eternity, not relativistic nihilism. In When the Man Comes Around, he "Will you partake of that last offered cup? Or disappear into the potter's ground when the Man comes around?" Or, as in yet another great song, "you can run on for a long time."

Right now matters. Voting matters. Politics matter. Fighting for righteousness in the public square matters. But not in the way we sometimes assume. So don't sacrifice the wrong things.

"If we begin with all authority, we end with all nations. If we begin with an invisible and very spiritual authority, then we end with small collections, in every nation, of believers in this invisible and very spiritual authority. But Jesus did not want a small collection of struggling churches in Pakistan; He wants Pakistan itself. He is happy to begin with the small beachhead in an unbelieving nation, but that beachhead must not confuse itself  with the coming occupation" (Heaven Misplaced, p. 82).

"Some scholars are so fearful of leap-frogging the original meaning [of the OT] that they never get past it" (Murray, How Sermons Work, p. 43).

It is good to see Protestants joining the fray against the contraceptive mandate issued by the Thrones, Dominions, Principalities and Powers at HHS. While Protestants do not share the Roman Catholic view of every form of birth control, they are in full agreement on the unlawfulness of abortifacients, and the mandate issued by Sebelius requires an employer to pay for such abortifacients. The mandate, if obeyed, would violate the Protestant conscience every bit as much as it does the Catholic conscience.

And besides, whether or not anybody's views of contraception are correct, in a free country they ought to be allowed to have them. Right? That's kind of the point.

The incipient despotism on display throughout Obama's insolent manner of governance is highlighted here. Sarah Palin's prescient comment about "death panels" has been fully vindicated now. Under Obamacare, anybody who thinks that decisions about the end of life would not be made in exactly the same highhanded manner that this issue about the beginning of life is being handled is more than a tad naive, and ought to have his Sojourners subscription revoked.  

Consequently, it is good to see Protestants in the fight. The Alliance Defense Fund has filed suit against the Federal Government on behalf of Geneva College and Louisiana College, challenging the constitutionality of the mandate. You can read more about it here and here, and as the Lord leads you can certainly support the ADF in this crucial case.

Sing if you can the affair of the sausages,

Brave Zwingli taking on Lenten observances.

Honor then Wittenberg’s 95 theses,

But Zurich was first with the meat reformation.

What could be better than fat, roasting sausages,

Striking a blow against vain gnostic scrupling?

What could be better to set the soul soaring

Than meat on the grill and then meat in the stomach?

Blame if you will the book printer Froschauer,

Who, printing editions of Pauline epistles,

Decided that he should feed all hungry workers

Just like it says in Colossians and elsewhere.

That kind of set down the cat midst the pigeons,

Nothing like sausages riling archbishops.

Battle was joined with liberty flourishing,

And the gospel aroma of meat lovers’ pizza.

As Lent now approaches and you think to ignore it,

Know that you really have good antecedents.

You have all your freedom, no need for indulgences,

So kick off the season with breakfast at Denny’s.

Don’t give up Facebooking, don’t give up chocolate,

And don’t give up charbroiled innocent pleasures.

If you must give up something else, why not the fussing,

Along with all gnostic, ascetic inventions?

Alternative titles:

The Affair of the Sausages

Giving Fat Tuesday a Promotion

Protestantism: Where Every Day Is Mardi Gras

Dogmatic Doggerel

"There is now no authority in heaven or on earth that is not subordinate to His authority. This includes, but is not limited to, the United States Supreme Court, the Muslim rulers of Saudi Arabia, every parliament on the continent of Europe, the United Nations General Assembly, the U.S. Congress, the legislature of South Dakota, the communist thugs running North Korea, every secret meeting ever convened by the Illuminati or whoever those guys are, and the commissioner of baseball" (Heaven Misplaced, pp. 81-82)

"Dropping buckets into empty wells,
And growing old in drawing nothing up"

     (William Cowper, as quoted in Fish, Power in the Pulpit, p. 5)

Now, before I say what I am going to say, let me qualify some things. I have qualified them before, and it doesn't seem to do any good, but hope springs eternal. I am a conservative, barely within the legal limits for Idaho. If someone bumped me too hard, I would probably tip over into a defense of feudalism not too far to the left of King Alfred. Not only so, but I would do so in a manner calculated to allow me to embrace virtually every future variant of conservatism downstream from Alfred -- free market conservatism, hard money conservatism, constitutional conservatism, social conservatism, paleo-conservatism, and so on. I am every kind of conservataive except for the collectivist kind. Among the spear-Danes my loyalty is unquestioned. Among the Picts, my face is as blue as anybody's. We stand out better that way against the red state background, and it gives liberals the creeps. Anything to give liberals the creeps.

Now one of the central characteristics of every form of true conservatism is a deep suspicion of ideology. Conservatism at its best is good at playing it as it lays. You might find yourself in a system that you would never have built yourself -- like Daniel in Babylon, say -- but are quite capable of working for reformational good within that system. This is pertinent because I believe that a right reading of the Constitution would not have built the kind of American empire we currently see all around us, but I also believe that there are good men within the current system pushing in the right direction -- which is not necessarily the same thing as pushing your way toward a mythical restart or do-over button.

The purist is incapable of seeing the possibility of good men within corrupt systems and corrupt empires. The purist thinks that Obadiah, who had charge of the wicked Ahab's house, had no business being there (1 Kings 18:3). This is because the purist would prefer purity and dead prophets to Obadiah's fear of the Lord, service to Ahab, and protection of the prophets. This weird preference is what it means to be a sectarian ideologue.

The Paulbots (as distinguished from those who give thoughtful support to Paul such that they will certainly vote for him, or who are willing to support him where they agree with him . . . such as myself, fer instance) are the political equivalent of primitive baptists. They want to get back to the pristine days of the early church so they can figure out some kind of way to split that one too.

One of the things that needs to be removed from the discussion of Ron Paul's views of foreign policy is a false equivalence that has become something of a meme in these discussions. It is a false equivalence, not because there could never be an equivalence, but rather because it is being assumed to be an automatic equivalence.

Equivalent what? I am speaking of the civilian casualties of war, what is sometimes infelicitously called "collateral damage," and the fatalities that result from abortion-on-demand. When these two are placed on the same moral plane in the heat of debate, it is an understandable mistake. Just as there is a fog of war, so also there is a fog of debate. But a studied, steadfast refusal to distinguish them is in reality a moral failing and we really need to be done with it.

Let me set this alongside a comparable moral failing -- the refusal to acknowledge a distinction between a deliberate targeting of civilians (as when Hamas blows up a pizza joint full of teenagers) and when one of our units targets combatants who place themselves in close proximity to civilians, so that the civilians might get caught in the crossfire. If the rules of engagement instruct our troops to do whatever is possible to protect the lives of such civilians, then this is completely different from the first scenario. These are two military actions which result in the deaths of civilians, but they nevertheless occupy two different moral universes.

Bring it back to the abortion debate. It is simply confused to say that, "well, Santorum opposes killing children in the womb, but he is okay with blowing children up in Afghanistan." That is just outrageous, and way too facile.

INTRODUCTION:
In this chapter, human language almost collapses—even though it is inspired human language—under the weight of glory that God has prepared for His children. We see this at the beginning of the chapter, where Paul starts with “I, Paul” in the nominative, and he never gets to a verb that goes with that beginning. This is no mistake in Scripture, but rather what it looks like when you put infinite glory in a finite container. This is what perfection looks like.

THE TEXT:
“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words . . .” (Eph. 3:1-21).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT:
The glories described in the first two chapters now come down to the ministry of Paul, a prisoner for the sake of the Gentiles (v. 1). He was given the administration of God’s grace to the Gentiles (v. 2). An unveiled mystery had been given to Paul by revelation, which he had written about previously (v. 3). This might refer to a previous letter, or it might refer to the first two chapters. He calls what he had written “the mystery of Christ” and if the Ephesians read it, they will understand Paul’s knowledge of it. Previous ages did not know this, but the Spirit has now revealed it to the apostles and prophets (v. 5). That mystery was that the Gentiles were to be fully included in all the promises (v. 6). Paul was given this mystery, and was made a minister of this mystery (v. 7). He was not worthy of the honor, but was given the tremendous privilege of preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ to the Gentiles (v. 8). This would make all men see the nature of this fellowship, which was the whole point from the very first (v. 9). When this happened, then even the principalities and powers in the heavenly places would see the manifold wisdom of God (v. 10). This was His eternal point in Christ (v. 11).