Confusing the Roles: bad for everyone

    One very great confusion is the confusion between the roles of government on the one hand, and the role of followers of Christ on the other.
    It is the role of government to preserve civilization against destruction. To do this, it must restrict the behavior of those who would destroy it. It does so through fear of consequences, which works well enough with most people. But some people, groups or nations are so bent on destruction, that a legalized, government form of violence is used to defend civilization against a violence that is perceived to be more evil. Thus, if someone is going to commit the rape of a child, the father of that child will not be accused of a crime if he beats the crap out of that person to stop the rape.
    Both acts are violent, but the one is just a violent crime, while the other is a necessary violence to defend an innocent potential victim. Multiply this by many, many people and many, many situations and you have the traditional - and biblical (see Romans 13) - argument for government and its "justified violence."
    In the most extreme examples - such as war, terrorism, serial killers and gang violence - the justified violence that is necessary to preserve civilization can be quite extreme. It is a complex, imperfect and troubling system, but it is made necessary because of just how awful people can get. God's plans can't go forward if mankind destroys itself completely - which is what would happened without some form of sanctioned violence.
     That is the role of government.

     Contrast the role of the Church: to forgive, to seek healing (from the inside out), to pursue love, compassion, justice (in the biblical, not the political, sense), to empower (in the Christlike, not the worldly, sense), and all those other things you hear so much about in church.
     Problems arise when church people try to get government to do the role that is only for the Church. What if we were to get government to throw away its proper role, and do what certain Christians want it to do: forgive, set criminals free, recompense everybody for whatever losses or victimhoods they think they've experienced, not fight back (no military), etc.? The government is not doing its job, and wickedness takes over - eventually destroying the culture because it is not protected.
    And significantly and ironically, the Church, when it is spending its energies trying to get government to do the role that is only for the Church, then the Church is not fulfilling its God-given role. That's bad for everyone, especially the anemic Christians it produces.