So, Do I Need to Register Republican to Get Into Heaven?

Via Telford Work I came across a link to something called “Worldview Weekend,” a site that promises to teach you to “live and think like a Christian.” The site even offers a “Worldview Quiz” that enables you to determine how “biblical” your worldview is. Well, much to my dismay, not only did I not score in the “Strong Biblical Worldview Thinker” category, I actually scored in the second to lowest category! Turns out I’m a “Socialist Worldview Thinker” (the only thing lower is a “Communist/Marxist/Socialist/Secular Humanist Worldview Thinker” – patooie! Damn commies!). Who knew that I, someone who considers himself a fairly orthodox Christian, was nothing more than a godless pinko??

Some of these questions are just utterly bizzare. For instance, “The federal government should require students to pass a national test before graduating from high school.” Now, you may be asking yourself, what does federalism in education policy have to do with Christianity? Darned if I know! A lot of the questions make this look more like a “Republican Worldview Test” than anything. Indeed, I came out socialist despite giving very “conservative” answers on questions having to do with the resurrection of Jesus, the inspiration of the Bible, etc.

One probably shouldn’t make too much of what is after all a silly internet diversion, but the unfortunate thing is that outfits like this simply lend credence to the perception that evangelical Christians are simply shills or dupes for the GOP. The fact that the quiz treats Christian and Communist as the opposite ends of the spectrum is revealing in itself.This despite the fact that much of the Christian tradition could be read as endorsing “liberal” positions (after all, both Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther allowed for wealth redistribution).

Fact is, Christians can and do take a variety of views on contested political issues of the day. The Bible doesn’t give us a blueprint for politics in the 21st century. And the Gospel can’t be identified with any political platform, left or right. Humility requires that we avoid elevating our contingent political judgments to the status of revealed truth.