![]() Political leaders, while used by God, are not “chosen” by God. Placing kings and politicians on equal level with the Messiah would seem to violate the first and second commandments (Exodus 20). There has never been, nor will there ever be, a greater authority for Christians than the person of Jesus Christ. As a Christian, there can only be a single “Chosen One” of God.With these recent events before us, let’s examine the dangers in bestowing messianic titles on politicians and offering divine endorsements of their political careers. While Huckabee Sanders’ comments seem genuine and noble, there is a real problem when politicians fuse such lofty language with their candidacies, elections and political convictions. To his credit, Perry even claimed that President Obama was “chosen” by God, even though Perry’s criticisms of the former president make this assertion less than convincing.įormer White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered similar logic when speaking about a bid to be Arkansas governor: “There are two types of people who run for office, people that are called and people that just want to be a senator or governor. Perry and others like him are projecting an ancient biblical understanding upon present-day politicians. Perry offered this brief synopsis of the theory: “God’s used imperfect people all through history. The theory claims that God ordains kings and politicians to achieve God’s purpose in this world, even while knowing they are not perfect. To support his claim, Perry appealed to the King David theory, which was made infamous when Jeff Sharlett published his book, “The Family” (also a Netflix docudrama). Recently, Energy Secretary Rick Perry proposed that President Donald J. It could be retitled the Divine Right of Politicians. In our day, the divine right of kings is being repackaged by politicians attempting to advocate for God’s endorsement upon their policies and candidates. However, believing their actions were ordained by God, they acted with absolutism and with very little fear of criticism and contradiction. Of course, any student of history can offer examples of kings making decisions based on other motivations other than reason. Thus, the theory of divine rights of kings began to spread throughout Europe.Īccording to, “The bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704), one of the principal French theorists of divine right, asserted that the king’s person and authority were sacred that his power was modeled on that of a father’s and was absolute, deriving from God and that he was governed by reason (i.e., custom and precedent).” Of course, the only way possible for a human to rule both would have to be if God ordained it so. He even took upon himself the title, “Supreme Head of the Church of England.” ![]() Therefore, when Henry VIII broke away from the pope and formed his own church, in his own mind and the minds of most of his citizens, he ruled both church and state. While the modern concept of separation of church and state did not yet exist, a slight separation could be seen through the pope’s rule over Christendom with kings ruling over their nation-states. Placing himself as head of the Anglican church, Henry consolidated power merging quite literally church and state. King Henry VIII’s abandonment of papal authority to establish his own church, the Church of England, exemplifies the theory. While the concept is present in earlier writings, it emerged as a prominent theory of governance in 16th-century Europe when monarchs sought to control both church and state. There’s too much politics going on at the moment.The divine right of kings asserts that the ruler of a nation derives authority not from the will of the governed but from God. ![]() Not another one! Oh for God’s sake! Honestly, I can’t stand this. After having been through the European Parliament election of 2014, the UK General Election of 2015, and the Brexit Referendum of 2016, a woman responded to the news that Theresa May had called a snap election in 2017: “You’re joking.Voter fatigue - this means that elections are simply deemed to be occurring too often. ![]() Alienation - this refers to the sense that voters feel like the political system does not work for them and any attempt to influence it will be a fruitless exercise.Two possible causes of voter fatigue are: In countries or areas with compulsory elections, voter apathy may manifest itself in the form of a high proportion of spoilt ballots or donkey votes. One side-effect of voter apathy can be low voter turnout on election day if voting is non-compulsory. Voter apathy refers to a lack of interest in participating in elections by certain groups of voters.
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