Is it possible to have a responsible Christian leader in governmental power?
I guess it depends what you consider a 'responsible Christian leader' - and in all honesty, the jury is wildly split on this matter.
Is a 'responsible Christian leader' someone who enforces "Christian" laws, who restricts, controls, and denies other religions the freedom to observe, worship, and participate in community life because "Christ's way is the only way", and if they didn't observe that tenet in both their personal and their professional life, then they wouldn't be a 'responsible Christian'?
I think most of my Christian friends (Australian Evangelicals) would probably say "yes."
I suspect most of my non-Christian friends would probably say that was a "Christian dictatorship".
Christianity is a theocracy - not the priest/minister-led theocracy that we tend to imagine when the word "theocracy" is used, but an actual "God makes the rules; the people follow them."
There's the whole question of exactly what "God's rules" are and whether they apply universally or only to His people; that's another post in and of itself.
But what about a Christian in the government of a representative democracy?
Is it the responsibility of the governing Christian to make life equitable, fair, just, and liveable for the maximum number of people, or is it the responsibility of the governing Christian to convert unbelievers to Christianity (or perhaps at least have them observe the forms of Christianity) by any and all means, including by the law?
I'm not in government leadership and unlikely to be, but someone on an FB thread I was watching posted about how they were looking for a practical example of responsible Christian leadership. And so much of that depends on what your view of Christianity, its role in representative democracy, and the responsibility of the individual vs. the responsibility of an individual in ruling government.
