What Lessons In Governing Is All About

I'm Peter Alexander, essayist for the new book, Lessons In Governing: The Inseparable Relationship Between God, Man and Government. The book contains 19 essays based on a new translation I commissioned from the Septuagint of Deuteronomy, the most quoted book of the American Revolution, as discovered Bruce Feiler author of America's Prophet: How the Story of Moses Shaped America.

The translation was done by Andy Gaus, whose solo translation of the New Testament is called The Unvarnished New Testament. One important thing - if you don't like what I write, don't blame Andy.

I wrote the book to answer Barack Obama's question, "What Scriptures shall guide our public policy?" Most evangelicals I know thought his question was stupid and that he "should have known" what the answer is.

But I've been a Christian since I was 19 (please don't ask when that was) and I didn't know the answer. This was really brought home to me by my local Congressman, Randy Forbes (R-VA), founder of the Congressional Prayer Caucus. Every time he'd write his constituents asking for our views on various issues, I'd sit down and try to write a letter from a Christian perspective, but honestly, with some issues, I had a hard time figuring out what that might be.

So I thought that pursuing Mr. Obama's question was worth the time because if nothing else, I might be able to answer Mr. Forbes' questions with something better than successions of sound bites strung together to allegedly create a letter.

But I also pursued his question because Mr. Obama's question had really captured my imagination. I've been writing for a lot of years and I've learned that a good question is a journey worth pursuing.

It took me three years to do the research, the reading, and then, of course, the time it took to write the essays, then rewrite them, some up to a dozen times. Oh well, you know the old adage, the best copy isn't written, it's rewritten.

Along the way, I learned some things I hadn't been taught in Sunday School about God and governing.

In short, I discovered that God's concern for governing extended far beyond what many refer to as social issues.

So what I'll be writing about is seeing how to apply God's principles for governing to the issues we read, see and hear about every day.

If I had to come up with a subtitle for this blog it would be, "A View From a Man in the Pew." That's because I tend to have a view that doesn't always settle well with my evangelical friends. So unlike James Dean, I'm a rebel with a cause.

In practicality, this means that when you hear a political leader on either side talk about what Americans really want, and if you hear a religious leader talking about what most American Christians really want, be assured my opinion wasn't asked.

That's why I'm here. To speak up.

My plan is not only to challenge your thinking, but also your heart and soul, too, by looking at news and events from a different perspective.

Shalom.