The "Christian" Right
As we enter into the home stretch of our political season, I can't help but notice how much Christianity plays a role in politics. I often hear it stated from the Christian sidelines that we want politicians who uphold traditional Christian values. I actually find it a little sad that there is actually a political position associated with Christianity. I'm afraid one of the reasons our nation becomes more and more divided politically is because we treat each other like opposite sides of a college rivalry. We have become so absorbed with different political parties that we stopped listening to each other years ago and have since been rooting against each other.
Sometimes I fear that, as Christians, our biggest concerns have gone from loving our neighbors to winning elections. Or at least winning an argument, be it evolution vs creation or predestination vs freewill. I'm also afraid that we have come to a place where we have begun to view those who don't share our beliefs as enemies rather than people with a different perspective. Let's face it, as Christians, if we believe with confidence that we have discovered in Christ the greatest way to live on this Earth, then we must view others as missing out on something special. Something special, that we should want to share with them. We also should have the perspective that if people are not choosing Christianity, it is not because they are haters of Christ and haters of Christians, it means they have not yet experienced the love that we proclaim. And perhaps the reason they haven't experienced that is that we haven't shown it to them.
Don't get me wrong, I think we all should vote and vote our conscience, but I think we need to be careful mixing our politics and our religion. A vote against what one believes in is not a vote against "God." Love thy neighbor and render unto Cesar that which is Caesar's.
Sometimes I fear that, as Christians, our biggest concerns have gone from loving our neighbors to winning elections. Or at least winning an argument, be it evolution vs creation or predestination vs freewill. I'm also afraid that we have come to a place where we have begun to view those who don't share our beliefs as enemies rather than people with a different perspective. Let's face it, as Christians, if we believe with confidence that we have discovered in Christ the greatest way to live on this Earth, then we must view others as missing out on something special. Something special, that we should want to share with them. We also should have the perspective that if people are not choosing Christianity, it is not because they are haters of Christ and haters of Christians, it means they have not yet experienced the love that we proclaim. And perhaps the reason they haven't experienced that is that we haven't shown it to them.
Don't get me wrong, I think we all should vote and vote our conscience, but I think we need to be careful mixing our politics and our religion. A vote against what one believes in is not a vote against "God." Love thy neighbor and render unto Cesar that which is Caesar's.
Yes, I agree that we are to love others. But you are wrong when you said: "if people are not choosing Christianity, it is not because they are haters of Christ and haters of Christians, it means they have not yet experienced the love that we proclaim." God says different.
ReplyDelete"John 15:17-19 NIV
17 This is my command: Love each other.
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."
The world does hate Christ and it does hate Christians. But, yes, we also haven't loved very well. We need to be sure that it's Christ they are offended at and not something that we've done ourselves. It's very hard, but necessary, to die to ourselves and love as we should. We are forgiven sinners, living in a sinful broken world, trying to get along with people who hate Christ and the Christ that they see in us, while we are trying to kill our flesh and sin nature, and love them in spite of the sin in them and us. It's a hard road to walk. Also many people say they are Christian but quite a lot of them are not born again. They add to the offense that is caused by Christians. It's hard enough to walk in God's ways but impossible to do without having a changed heart or His Holy Spirit to help.
And, yes, religion and politics do mix. Jesus is to influence every part of our lives and every part of our day. We are also to be salt to our culture and that is a preservative. As we take God out of our culture, we see the decay of morals. All the things that God said would happen in the end times are happening now.
"2 Timothy 3 (NIV1984)
Godlessness in the Last Days
1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them."
As you can see, these scriptures speak about our world today. The heading to this chapter is "Godlessness in the last days." We have chased God out of our country and we are reaping the consequences.