Dagens Stanley II

"'Social ethics' is not what the church does after it has got its theological convictions straight and its own house in order. But our theological convictions and corresponding community are a social ethic as they provide the necessary context for us to understand the world in which we live.
The churches serves the world first by providing categories of interpretation that offer the means for us to understand ourselves truthfully, e.g., we are a sinful yet redeemed people. Interpretation does not preclude action, but our actions can only be effective when they are formed according to a truthful account of the world.

And part of what such an account entails is that the world can never be the church. If this is what is meant by the 'withdrawal' charge, then I must accept it as an accurate account of my position. The world cannot be the church, for the world, while still God's good creation, is a realm that knows not God and is thus characterized by the fears that constantly fuel the fires of violence. We live in a mad existence where some people kill other people for abstract and unworthy entities called nations.
The church's first task is not to make the nation-state system work, but rather to remind us that the nation, especially as we know it today, is not an ontological necessity for human living. The church, as an international society, is a sign that God, not nations, rule this world."

Ur: A Community of Character av Stanley Hauerwas