David has a helpful post here on the Church’s relationship to the State and what it might mean to ‘be political’ in a divisive and ideologically-driven political environment. He suggests a relationship at once dialectical, covenantal and dialogical, and concludes by asserting that the Church cannot be silent on social and political issues, that the Church’s speech ‘cannot help but be political, since there are not two spheres of engagement but, in fact, only one sphere, one kingdom, one reign of Jesus Christ, and that the Church must be steadfastly opposed to all ideologioical manipulatn of the gospel’. Finally, he contends that the Church’s being-in-dialogue is a being-in-love. ‘Modern political dialogue’, he writes, ‘is inherently violent because it is rooted in a capitalistic climate of competitiveness. In order for the church to engage the world politically, it must find a way to establish a dialogue rooted in love. We can learn something from Paul’s discourse on love in 1 Cor. 13. The church needs to learn to interpret this passage as a guide to political dialogue’.