I've begun reading Samuel Rutherford's Lex, Rex (or, Law and the Prince) and, while the wading is tough, the nuggets therein are well worth finding out. At the very least, ol' Reverend Sam is going to have me thinking very seriously regarding politics.
Lex, Rex is Rutherford's answer to a treatise by someone he refers to as the "Papist Prelate", in which several odd opinions regarding kings and rulers are offered. Rutherford rebuts him clearly and cogently (yet not concisely, but we all know how rare is a Puritan who is particularly concise). In part of the discussion, Rutherford makes the point that God has given us a guide for choosing rulers (see, e.g. the discussion about what kind of King Israel ought to choose), and therefore while God does decree all things that come to pass, people do (in part because God gives guidelines) in fact choose their rulers. We are not just in the business of giving approval to divine dictation, as apparently the Papist Prelate wrote.
This got me thinking about how it is we go about the process of choosing our leaders. On what basis do *I* cast my vote? Am I following godly dictates, or the dictates of my own selfish desires? Am I looking at character, or just which candidate will best serve my own needs, as I see them with the temporal and situational blindness that we all suffer from?
Rutherford's going to have me pondering things in a new light, that's for sure.... and that's not a bad thing - not at all.
as a PS - anyone ever see "A Man for All Seasons"? Papistry aside, and the massive theological errors of Sir Thomas More aside, that's a DARN good movie!