Ralph Drollinger’s Capitol Ministries is out with its first-of-the-year Bible study for public officials. Capitol Ministries runs weekly Bible studies for members of the Trump administration Cabinet and dozens of members of Congress, and has aggressive plans to expand its already significant reach at local, state and international levels.
Drollinger pretends that his group does not push a particular policy agenda, but the Bible study guides he publishes make it clear that his particular worldview and interpretation of the Bible is directly tied to right-wing economic and social policies, such as his portrayal of social welfare programs as unbiblical and his insistence that only righteous Christians can make righteous lawmakers and judges.
Drollinger’s first Bible study of 2018 focuses on the importance of public officials understanding sin the way he does—not only as individuals’ failure to conform to the moral law of God, but also the fallenness and sinfulness of the world itself. He tells public officials that “a proper biblical understanding” of sin should influence their “thinking and formation regarding public policy.”
“This study is integral to your ability to form a Christian worldview,” writes Drollinger:
It is critically important for the public servant to view the world through the eyes of Scripture: That man is fallen and that Government is meant by God to quell evil in the world. Government then is a manifestation of God’s restraining grace in a fallen world.
Drollinger returns to the theme that government’s God-given role is to “quell evil” and says government officials “must send a constant message that sin will be punished”:
To view the world as basically good, and in need of my reasoning abilities — as if others will come to the conclusion to do what’s right when convinced intellectually — is naïve, unwise, and at the very least, viewing the world through rose-colored glasses. The unrest most recently in France and Syria, in Israel, Ukraine, Libya, our borders, and so many other places around the globe, only serves to illustrate the premise of this Bible study: without strong Governments intent on quelling evil, the fallen, sin nature of man will be increasingly on the rise. Governments and their leaders must send a constant message that sin will be punished. When I hear of the present administration trying to reason with terrorists who believe their deity commands them to kill us, I am reminded of Mark Twain’s saying about trying to teach a pig to sing: it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
May this be a basic conviction and understanding relative to your God-given job as a leader in Government; may your convictions be based upon a scripturally solid understanding of sin. May humanistic naiveté come to an end not only in the White House but also on the Hill.
