Democracy and "Christian Politics"

By Stephen Palmquist
In the past few decades many, if not most, Christians have come to assume that the only truly Christian political system is democracy.[1] Kingship has to be rejected, so the argument might go, because the Bible tells us "There is no one who does good, not even one."[2] Indeed, Jesus is even reluctant to allow people to call him good, because, as he says in Mark 10:18, "No one is good except God alone." So it would seem to be an impossible ideal to have a "good" king. Defenders of democracy might proceed to argue that aristocracy and polity must likewise be rejected, because all class distinctions are dissolved by Jesus, who came to make all people equal before God. As Paul says in Galatians 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." And what political system is able to dissolve such class distinctions, except democracy? [Read more] ...