What is the role of a Christian as citizen?

First year, Master of Divinity student, Annie MacNeal, continues to post about her first few weeks at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary on her blog Journey of Faith: Seminary. This week, she began a class taught by seminary president Dr. Phil Amerson called "Christian as Citizen." The following is an excerpt from her original post: 

Yesterday afternoon I made my way down to the First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple for a class offered by Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary called “Christian as Citizen.” This class is taught by the president of our seminary, Dr. Phil Amerson and asks the question, “What is the role of a Christian as citizen?”

Over the three hours of the course we discussed many interesting and important questions that come up for us as citizens of the U.S.A., specifically as Christian citizens. We started off talking about how we, as people, have become a commodity. In the 1970s, the service industry made up about 25% of our workforce while the manufacturing industry (physical goods, farming, etc.) made up about 75%. Today, the service industry makes up more than 90% of our work force, while the manufacturing industry has been reduced to less than 10%. What does this mean for us as citizens? If most of our workforce is devoted to service, what is the actual product that is coming out of that? The answer is we are the product. We are reduced from living, breathing, human beings to a client; to a commodity. The important question to think about now is, “When did it all go wrong?” A member of our class pointed out that we can usually find the answer to that question by tracing the money.

We then moved this discussion to think about citizenship in the context of the Bible. Where in scripture do we find the topic of citizenship and what does this mean for us? Many people recalled the many times Paul discusses what citizenship should/should not look like in his letters to various peoples. An interesting thing to note is that when Paul writes about citizenship, he is looking at citizenship through the lens of being a Roman citizen. Another instance of citizenship in the Bible is addressed when Samuel is wondering if he should anoint Saul as a king. Samuel warns the people about becoming a state. After discussing many other instances, we realized that our Christian heritage is full of questions about citizenship. This led to the question, “Is democracy the ideal state for Christians?”            

At the conclusion of this first class meeting, I was left with many questions. Why, as people, did we let ourselves become a commodity? How did the foundations and understanding of Christianity come to be skewed by politics and the government? What is the ideal form of government for us as Christians? Although I hope to find some answers to these questions throughout the semester, I have a feeling that my question list will only get longer. However, I feel blessed to have finally found a place to openly discuss these important issues and be in dialogue with people who have different views from me. It is in places like these that we can truly have “holy conversation” around controversial issues.