Talk:Cultural mandate

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Calvinism Portal Cultural mandate falls within the scope of WikiProject Calvinism, an attempt to build a comprehensive guide to Calvinism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. If you are new to editing Wikipedia visit the welcome page so as to become familier with the guidelines.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the Project's quality scale. Please rate the article and then leave a short summary here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.

[edit] Cultural Mandate – NOT

This is frustrating, to read articles like this. Whoever reads it should read the quotes from Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey, ALL the quotes. The quote included here is from page 47. She also talks about the Cultural Mandate on pages 48-49, 50, 72, 81, and 129. In Note 29 to the quote from page 47, which is on page 399, she also writes that for a more detailed treatment of the Cultural Mandate, one should read chapter 31 of How Now Shall We Then Live, (a book written by her and Chuck Colson) which is entitled, “Saved to What?”

Once your read all this then the reader will easily see that there is no need for discussion of subjects like theocracy, Dominionism, Christian Reconstructionism, Kingdom Now theology, or to call the Cultural Mandate a type of Theonomy. These terms come from the radical fringe of Christianity.

If you say that “(t)he Cultural Mandate is probably most closely aligned with Neo-Calvinism,” then you are starting to go in the right direction. Pearcey learned from Francis Schaeffer. Schaeffer learned from Van Til and Dooyeweerd, and Dooyeweerd systematized the work of Kuyper. When all of them write about the Cultural Mandate, they are all talking about the Lordship of Christ over all of life. And this Lordship of Christ is not a theology or way of life that is an “in your face,” or “our way or the highway” type of theology and way of life like the radical fringe promote. It is one that is taught through what Schaeffer called the Mark of the Christian. All men are to be treated with dignity and respect because they bear the image of God and all Christians should love each other as Christ loved us. For if we don’t then the non-believer has every right to ask the question, “Why should I have anything to do with Christianity?”

Pardon me for being harsh. It’s just frustrating to constantly see articles in Wikipedia that are trying very hard to put people like Francis Schaeffer, Nancy Pearcey, and Chuck Colson even close to the same camp as the radical fringe of Christianity. As always, I’m open for discussion :-) --Awinger48 21:15, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure how to "send" you a message here in wikipedia, but I got your note about being frustrated with the Cultural Mandate page. You sound like you are more knowledgable on the subject than me, but I just created it because it was absent.

I think you should add your notes about the line of thought predeseccors. I mentioned the more fringe groups, not to sully the image of the Cultural mandate, but to try to show how it relates to similar but different, related theologies - I tried to put it into a type of continuum between radical Reconstructionists and Isolationists. In the middle of that continuum are a host of acceptable choices.

I don't see theonomy as a bad thing, and I do think that the Cultural Mandate is certainly a type of theonomy, don't you? I mean, is there some negative connotation that we are trying to avoid.

Please, edit the Cultural Mandate page as you wish. But if you could compare/contrast it to other movements which outsiders might confuse it with, and show where it is on the continuum regarding Christian biblical invovement in politics and culture, and also add its theological and philosophical lineage, that would be great. Sorry to frustrate!  :D dgsinclair (early September 2006) (originally on talk page for Awinger48).

Got your comments on my user talk page. Now I know I was unkind in what I said. My apologies. Your suggestions are good ones. I'm not as smart as you think on this subject. But I'm learning. Hope we can work together more on this article :-) --Awinger48 00:19, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] POV check

I have asked for a POV review of this article. It weighs heavily on sources who advocate the doctrine, and suffers from the absence of verifiable analysis from uninvolved sources. I am concerned also that the absence of independent sources gives too much attention to sources which are advocates of the movement, which makes the article seem too promotional. More independent sources are sorely needed here, and statements must be verified against them, with much less reliance on books and policy papers from individuals promoting the cultural mandate.Professor marginalia 19:10, 10 March 2007 (UTC)