Friday, January 16, 2009
Christians and politics
"Once Christians were ignored or scorned; now they are courted by every savvy politician. Evangelicals especially are identified with a certain political stance, so much that the news media use the terms "evangelical" and "religious right" interchangeably. When I ask a stranger, "what is an evangelical Christian?" I get an answer something like this: "Someone who supports family values and opposes homosexual rights and abortion." This trend troubles me because the gospel of Jesus was not primarily a political platform. The issues that confront Christians in a secular society must be faced and addressed and legislated, and a democracy gives Christians every right to express themselves. But we dare not invest so much in the kingdom of this world that we neglect our main task of introducing people to a different kind of kingdom, one based solely on God's grace and forgiveness. Passing laws to enforce morality serves a necessary function, to dam up evil, but it never solves human problems. If a century from now all that historians can say about evangelicals of the 1990s is that they stood for family values, then we will have failed the mission Jesus gave us to accomplish: to communicate God's reconciling love to sinners." - Philip Yancey (The Jesus I Never Knew)
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Wow, amen. But where to start? As Christians, all of us our supposed to be spreading the saving work of Christ, but not all of us are as naturally capable of that sort task, or at least, this is what I think, feel, and believe. I don't mean that as an excuse, such as "Well, I'm just not good with people; God doesn't want me to do that." Of course He DOES! But how should I personally go about doing so? At this point, I feel that living with integrity and discipline is the best way for me to get who I am for across to those who are lost. But, I probalby haven't given this issue as much thought as I should. I suppose the real this is this: are you honestly desring God to put you where He wants you to be? If so, whether you're an actor, a scientist, a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor, a homemaker, a manager, an accountant, whatever it may be: you are doing God's will. We are always supposed to be ready to tell why we are how we are though: that Christ died for us and that we accept we are sinners in need of His sacrifice.
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