What Does God Require of Governments?

To answer this question, Anabaptist scholar John Redekop gives this 20-point list in his book Politics Under God (pp. 70-81) answer to the question.  Key Scripture passages that stand behind this list include Isaiah 10:1-2; Matthew 5-7, and Romans 13:1-7.
1.  A government has the God-given responsibility to rule.
2.  A government should uphold the general good.
3.  A government should see its role as a trust.
4.  People in government are required by God to practice integrity and honesty.
5.  A government should work hard to establish and maintain a free society.
6.  A government should respect, promote, and nurture human dignity.
7.  A good government has a social conscience and embraces a good measure of humanitarianism.
8.  A government should pay particular attention in its policies to the exploited and the marginalized.
9.  A government is required by God to establish and maintain law and order, to the best of its ability.
10.  An inherent function of government is to regulate the exercising of power by other institutions and organizations.
11.  A good government is committed to the pursuit of justice.
12.  A government should practice procedural fairness.
13.  A government should practice fiscal integrity.
14.  A government should implement fair trading laws.
15.  A government should strive for peace.
16.  A government should promote public morality.
17.  A good government realizes that it has responsibility for its physical environment.
18.  A good government is ready to listen to its critics.
19.  All governments should acknowledge that they are servants of God.
20.  All governments should acknowledge that they are accountable to God.

A New Map of the World

“I will propose a new map of the world…It will not be an East-West map.  It will not be a North-South map.  It will be a map that shows you which regions are functioning within globalization’s expanding web of connectivity and which remain fundamentally disconnected from that process.  It will show you that where globalization has spread, there you will find stable governments that neither require our periodic military interventions nor warrant our consideration as threats.  But look beyond globalization’s frontier, and there you will find the failed states that command our attention, the rogue states that demand our vigilance, and the endemic conflicts that fuel the terror we now recognize as the dominant threat not just to America’s future security but to globalization’s continued advance.” — Thomas P.M. Barnett, The Pentagon’s New Map, pp.121-122. 

Petraeus and Crocker Reports

Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker gave their reports yesterday (April 8, Tuesday) to the senate committees.  You may read the reports through the links below:
1.  Gen. Petraeus’ Testimony (pdf)
2.  Ambassador Crocker’s testimony to the Armed Services Committee (pdf)
3.  Ambassador Crocker’s testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (pdf)
4.  Testimony handout packet (with charts and graphs) (pdf)