rant for the day - 'christian' political parties

What is it about neo-con middle-aged christian men? Why this seeming compulsion to band together, wave their fists in the air and form political parties? (although, I was pleased to hear on National Radio this morning that this latest 'family values party' appears to be dead already - two days after it was born)

Actually, my real objection is to their usage of the word 'Christian' in their party name, and their assumption that they speak for all of Christ's followers. The Christian community is a very broad one indeed - including socialists, libertarians, people who see vegetarianism as an expression of their faith, capitalists, 'closed' communities, conscientious objectors, street-corner bible-bashers, blah blah blah. One political party can never hope to represent all Christians, and to claim that they are is either dishonesty or arrogance.

The Church as State was an experiment tried by Constantine in 303AD. It failed. The situation is created whereby anyone who aspires to political greatness is forced to rise to greatness within the Church first. This means that the leadership of the Church is suddenly populated by politicians, not people whose primary concern is the spiritual well-being and pastoral needs of their congregations. Of course, there also needs to be a State-endorsed church too (either official or unofficial) otherwise, how do we know if the politician is really 'christian enough'? or 'the right kind' of christian. And of course, then there are suddenly the 'wrong kind' of christian.

All of which is a mighty distraction from the real business of Christ - did you clothe the naked, feed the hungry, love God and other people?