Guidelines for Government and Citizenship

Second Quarter 2005

With this issue of the Public Justice Report, we are pleased to be able to announce the release of the first eight of the Center's new Guidelines for Government and Citizenship, which you can access at Guidelines

The Center for Public Justice is grounded in the conviction that a constructive contribution by citizens to American political life depends on a principled understanding of government's purpose and responsibilities. It is not enough for citizens to want a few good things or to be convinced that law and politics involve important moral considerations. The underlying question is this: What ought to define a political community like that of the republic of the United States of America, and how should government go about fulfilling its responsibility to uphold justice and the general welfare?

The Center takes its point of departure from a Christian view of life, working in the tradition of reformers who have rejected past accommodations of Christianity to imperialism, state absolutism, laissez-faire individualism, and civil religion. The Center stands in what can be called the Christian-democratic tradition, which affirms, on biblical grounds, the importance of constitutionally limited government; an open society; protection of the weak; public-legal protection of certain fundamental rights of citizens and nongovernment organizations, including equal treatment of citizens of all faiths; and the existence of a public commons.

In the American context we stress the high calling of government and the importance of the republic as a political community in its own right and not simply as a means to other ends. Government's task is not only to protect individual rights and property and to foster economic growth and American security. Yet government should not try to manage the whole of society directly. The Guidelines address the nature of political community, the task of government, the responsibility of citizens, and a number of key policy areas, such as education, welfare, security and defense, and more. Additional Guidelines will be published in the months and years ahead.

It is important to stress at the outset that the Guidelines represent the vision of the Center for Public Justice. The Center does not intend to ask government to try to impose these convictions on every citizen. To the contrary, as the principles themselves make clear, the aim is to foster a more just society in which all citizens enjoy the same right to articulate and promote their political views. One of the principles of the Center's by-laws states that "no person or community of persons anywhere ought to be compelled by governmental power to subscribe to this or any other political creed." We believe is that the republic can only be healthy if its citizens articulate and engage in genuine debate over what the republic ought to be. The Guidelines, which articulate the Center's view of civic responsibility, are intended to promote civic debate and thereby the development of a healthier republic.

In this regard, we are encouraged by the March 2005 release of a new document by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) titled "For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility." In the brief compass of 26 pages, the pamphlet articulates the basis and method for Christian civic engagement, the structures of public life, and principles of political engagement. Under principles, the statement summarizes evangelical commitment to (1) religious freedom and liberty of conscience, (2) family life and the protection of children, (3) the sanctity of human life, (4) justice and compassion for the poor and vulnerable, (5) the protection of human rights, (6) the pursuit of peace and the restraint of violence, and (7) to the protection and care of God's creation.

Many evangelical leaders have signed the document "For the Health of the Nation," and it will serve as a constructive point of departure for the discussion of the Center's Guidelines.

At the same time that the NAE released its call to civic responsibility, it announced a companion book titled Toward and Evangelical Public Policy (Baker Books), edited by Ronald J. Sider and Diane Knippers. The 380-page book offers a wide range of articles of a historical, biblical, methodological, and policy character. For information about both the book and the NAE document, "For the Health of the Nation," contact NAE,  PO Box 20026, Washington, DC 23269, or go to its web site.

—The Editors