Given his birth on July 10, 1509, we thought it only right that we jumpstart the 500th celebration of his birthday on Reformation Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008. No better time than the present to initiate our mirror gazing!
How might Calvin reflect, for example, upon the United States today?
He probably would agree with both presidential candidates: it’s time for a change. He would suggest some specific ways we need to change.
For one thing, he surely would tell us to jettison our executives’ lack of accountability. From corporate executives, in whose unchecked love of money are rooted all kinds of evils, to the executive branch of government, which has exempted itself from obeying hundreds of laws it has imposed upon the rest of us, the lack of accountability has subjected the nation to a reckless barrage of depravity. Calvin’s realistic anthropology requires power and authority to be shared among an interconnected, mutually accountable body of recognized leaders “ … so that they may help one another, teach and admonish one another; and, if one asserts himself unfairly, there may be a number of censors and masters to restrain his willfulness.” (Inst., IV.XX.8)
Neither business leaders in a laissez-faire economic system nor government officials in a governmentally-controlled system are immunized from the corrupting effects of unchecked power. Calvin would tell us to elect leaders who will submit to the checks-and-balances that restrain their worse inclinations.
Speaking of economics, Calvin would not allow the general population to scapegoat leaders for the economic woes they also have caused. He would shake his head in disbelief over how we have misappropriated the prosperity with which we have been blessed. He would call us all to account for our failure to honor the obligations of Christian stewardship, which includes shunning ostentation, caring for the creation, and giving out of gratitude to God.
Dr. Calvin surely would urge the American people to jettison international unilateralism. While he did not experience 21st century globalism, as a European, he understood the need for nations to honor national borders: “For it makes no difference whether it be a king or the lowest of the common folk who invades a foreign country in which he has no right, and harries it as an enemy. All such must, equally, be considered as robbers and punished accordingly” (IV, XX, 11).
Surely he would advocate for the less privileged. “Jeremiah admonishes kings to ‘do justice and righteousness,’ to ‘deliver him who has been oppressed by force from the hand of the oppressor,’ not to ‘grieve or wrong the alien, the widow, and the fatherless’ or ‘shed innocent blood’” (IV.XX 9 citing Jer. 22:3, Vg.]).
Once he figured out what a television is, he would shudder in dismay over the depraved things he would see and hear, and at minimum, would tell us to change the channel.
While not being shy to call leaders to account, he also would urge believers to treat such leaders with honor: “ … no one ought to doubt that civil authority is a calling, not only holy and lawful before God, but also the most sacred and by far the most honorable of all callings in the whole life of mortal men.” (IV.XX.4)
Then again, he surely would remind us that, given the heap of trouble into which America has fallen, we need a savior. And his name is not George. Neither is it Barack nor John, neither Sarah nor Joe. He would point us to the risen Savior. Jesus, he would remind us, is his name.
— JHH
