THE CHURCH AND CONTEMPORARY POLITICS: AN APPRAISAL OF THE BIBLICAL TEACHINGS ON POLITICAL SYSTEMS AND THE INVALIDATION OF THE PARTICIPATION OF CHRISTIANS IN PARTISAN POLITICS

Contrary to the widely held belief that Christianity, like other world religions, canvasses a moralist ideology and should be approximated to political ideologies or that Christians be made to participate actively in partisan politics, this paper argues that the Bible does not provide such categorical directives. The paper refutes the popular injunction of Jesus* saying that ‘‘then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's" (Luke 20:25), as a clarion call for the Church to participate in partisan politics. Similarly, it investigates the various political activities of the chosen nation, Israel, in the Bible and finds no consistent model of political culture to validate the claim by some Christians for the Church to indulge in partisan politics.