The Editor has been critical of Christian opposition to universal health care in the US. Unsurprisingly, even those who have read the Gazelle have remained unmoved. The Gazelle has also commented before on the questionable dualism of Christian Fundamentalism—the division of the world between the Religious Right and everyone else along lines of good vs evil. The commonly repeated assertion that President Obama is evil, and therefore anything he proposes is evil, is the case in point raised by the health care debate.

On one hand this can be argued at a political level, if there was any hope of rational discussion. But, the shouting at town meetings across the country is ample evidence that this will never happen.

What is a Christian approach to such questions? How does a Christian interpret current issues in the light of Scripture? Or, to put this another way, how do Christians relate to their own societies and cultures? Do the categories of ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ apply?

One of the greatest problems the Gazelle finds with current American Religious Right reaction to the election of President Obama is its parochialism. That is, Bible Belt America thinks that the details of Armageddon are based on American politics, as though God’s plans are wholly based on the affairs of this late-comer to global history.

Christians need to think beyond their own national(ist) concerns. There is a lot of world outside the US.

The Editor will be on hiatus for the next three weeks. When the Gazelle returns, the focus will be on a biblical theology for Christians in these times of fear.