RECOMMENDED: Frequent Bible Reading Can Turn You Liberal

July 15, 2015November 23, 2017Kirk E. Miller 3 Comments

Frequent Bible reading has some predictable effects on the reader. It increases opposition to abortion as well as homosexual marriage and unions. It boosts a belief that science helps reveal God’s glory. It diminishes hopes that science will eventually solve humanity’s problems. But unlike some other religious practices, reading the Bible more often has some liberalizing effects—or at least makes the reader more prone to agree with liberals on certain issues.

Read the full article here.

I’m not sure what you will make of this article. But I find it incredibly interesting and a little self-reassuring that I’m not crazy due to some of my own deviations from stereotypical conservative Christianity’s political views. If nothing else, it’s further evidence, alongside church history and the global church, that moving from Bible to political convictions is not as simple and straightforward as some would like to make it seem, that good, honest, well-intentioned, Bible-believing Christians throughout history have held differing views and various political matters.

“Carl Henry Was Right” by Richard Mouw

April 15, 2014September 23, 2025Kirk E. Miller

Carl F H. Henry proposed 5 principles to guide the church on social issues:

The Bible is critically relevant to the whole of modern life and culture—the social-political arena included.
The institutional church has no mandate, jurisdiction, or competence to endorse political legislation or military tactics or economic specifics in the name of Christ.
The institutional church is divinely obliged to proclaim God’s entire revelation, including the standards or commandments by which men and nations are to be finally judged, and by which they ought now to live and maintain social stability.
The political achievement of a better society is the task of all citizens, and individual Christians ought to be politically engaged to the limit of their competence and opportunity.
The Bible limits the proper activity of both government and church for divinely stipulated objectives—the former, for the preservation of justice and order, and the latter, for the moral-spiritual task of evangelizing the earth.

From Richard Mouw, “Carl Henry Was Right.”

Thoughts on Some Thoughts on Trinity International University

March 6, 2014Kirk E. Miller

See this article entitled, The 15 Best Colleges for Studying the Bible.

Two statements about my school, Trinity International University, that I found interesting:

(1) “The student body and professoriate are intentionally diverse, allowing for an international flavor, and a heightened sense of ‘global missions.'”

— Absolutely true. And I love this!

(2) “Some students will find the political leanings of the school to be too liberal, with notable tones of ‘social justice’ and ‘globalism.'”

— That some would find TIU too political liberal is probably somewhat true as well. And I tend to think this reality relates to the first statement (directly above). However, this perception isn’t the same thing as TIU actual being politically liberal. That’d be a tough case to make given our incredible diversity. Nonetheless, I believe our diversity and international composition resists a narrow-minded approach to politics, whatever that approach might be. And I appreciate this about Trinity as well.

Just a shameless plug for my school.

America’s Foundation, Political Science, and the Christian Worldview

December 12, 2013December 17, 2013Kirk E. Miller 1 Comment

There are several areas of theology about which I find myself thinking on a consistent basis. One of those topics is the integration and relationship between the Christian worldview and political-economic science. (This probably isn’t terribly surprising given the fact that I entered college as a social studies major.) Lately, I have found myself thinking about these issues again… and on a frequent basis as well. This has much to do with some recent studying I’ve been doing on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His views on government and the Christian’s relationship to government has sparked this internal conversation ablaze within me once again. …Well, some of these thoughts will now be spilling out in this post.

Continue reading →

Metzger Critiques Evangelical-Fundamentalist View on Capitalism

March 26, 2013January 5, 2015Kirk E. Miller

I would like to recommend to you a lecture I was privileged to hear at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School via the Carl F.H. Henry Center. The lecture was presented by Dr. Paul Metzger and was entitled Downward Mobility and Trickle-Up Economics: A Trinitarian Reflection on Money and Power. In this lecture Metzger presented a critique and examination of the typical American evangelical-fundamentalist view of economics, namely capitalism, and calls for a “capitalism of a higher order.” For example, he states, “While evangelicals are engaging increasingly [in] enterprises towards the poor, they’re not advocating for political policies that would fight against the structures that make and keep people poor.” And he points out what he sees as an inconsistency between the Fundamentalist-Evangelical rejection of evolution and its survival of the fittest but acceptance of capitalism and its survival of the economic fittest.”But would it not be difficult to challenge genetic determinism and natural selection if the [evangelical-fundamentalist] movement is conflicted, promoting an equally deterministic and naturalistic [economic] system.” “Evangelicals as a movement could not be an outspoken opponent because it often assumes the free and unregulated market economic narratives as gospel truth and embraces it with blind faith. . . . Evangelicals don’t simply assume the the market’s gospel-truthfulness, they champion it.”

Continue reading →