{"id":11496,"date":"2016-04-11T07:48:42","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T13:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=11496"},"modified":"2016-04-17T21:10:18","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T03:10:18","slug":"montana-ethic-project-can-religion-and-politics-co-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/04\/montana-ethic-project-can-religion-and-politics-co-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Ethic Project: Can religion and politics co-exist?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Crist\"<\/a>

Joey and Libbie Early<\/p>

The Rev. Jessica Crist, bishop of the Montana Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, speaks on “Religion and Politics: Can They Co-exist?”<\/p><\/div>\n

This is the sixth\u00a0chapter of the 32-part video series \u201cThe Montana Ethic Project.\u201d This chapter features the Rev. Jessica Crist speaking on \u201cReligion and Politics: Can They Co-exist?\u201d Crist, who lives in Great Falls,\u00a0is bishop of the Montana Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can watch the whole video below. Here is how this chapter opens:<\/p>\n

“Can religion and politics co-exist?<\/p>\n

“You bet.<\/p>\n

“My involvement in politics is informed by my faith. I can no more imagine separating the two than I can\u00a0imagine separating my head from my heart.”<\/p>\n

Here is another, edited excerpt from Crist’s\u00a0<\/em>presentation<\/em>:<\/p>\n

“All people have values. All people have ethics. All people have morals. The artificial separation of people\u00a0into values voters, which means they vote in a particular way on a particular, narrow set of issues, and\u00a0other voters is absurd. Whether you consider yourself to be religious at all, you are a values voter. You\u00a0have a value system that informs the choices that you make, both personal and public. For some of us\u00a0that value system is religion. So I\u2019m going to argue that religion and politics can indeed co-exist, that in\u00a0fact they are integrally related.<\/p>\n

“Religion gets at the very root of who we are, of why we exist, what is the meaning of our existence, and\u00a0why it matters at all. Politics is how it all works.<\/p>\n

“If something matters to us on a deep level then it only makes sense to find ways to implement it on a\u00a0practical level. That\u2019s politics. There has to be a reason to do things. There has to be a plan, there has to\u00a0be a larger whole in order to undergird the political action. That\u2019s religion.<\/p>\n

“Oversimplified? Of course. But it\u2019s a start.”<\/p>\n