A 1941 article by C. S. Lewis. (HT: Victor Reppert)
The Third Commandment in the ordering preferred by Protestants of Lewis' stripe is the one about taking the Lord's name in vain:
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Lewis meditates on the difficulties that must beset attempts to form a political party animated by Christian principles.
Christians may be expected to agree on the general ends of good government, but that agreement does not suffice for a political party. What one needs for a political party, which by its very nature is oriented toward concrete actions in the here and now, is the championship of very specific means. But then bitter contention over these means is unavoidable and our incipient Christian party breaks apart into competing factions.
The cynosure of Lewis' disapprobation, I take it, is the invocation of God to justify one's very specific political means. One who does that takes the name of the Lord in vain.
One is put in mind of Dylan's With God On Its Side.
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