Sometimes, in the imperfect world of politics, God’s people are reduced to choosing – even if by not choosing – the lesser of two evils.
That does not mean, however, we should celebrate or become partisans for that evil.
To do so destroys our witness.
Rather, we should repent and humble ourselves before God and a watching world …
“Progressive Christians” seem to think it’s fine for government to:
Ban street preachers from public places, because open evangelism is “offensive”.
Intolerant “tolerance”
Bar side-walk counselors outside abortion clinics, because pro-life activists are “judgmental”.
Prohibit a fourth grader from reading her Bible in class, because she might become “close minded”.
Censure God from a valedictorian’s speech, because he can’t be “disrespectful” of other view points.
Force a bakery owner to cater homosexual weddings, because he’s an “intolerant” fundamentalist.
Compel an evangelical adoption agency to place babies with unmarried couples, because “discrimination” against other lifestyles is wrong.
Penalize churches that support marriage integrity referendums, because they’re engaged in “hate speech”.
Rob Moley, in his blog Restore the Word, wrote yesterday on “The Great Commission: Discipling Individuals or Nations?”.
In it, he says this about the Great Commission:
Rather than being a command to influence nations with the principles and truths of God’s kingdom, the logic of the command in Matt. 28:19-20 is to make disciples from every nation. Then, as ambassadors of God’s kingdom, these disciples are able to influence all aspects of society, and God willing, even disciple whole nations.
His point is that the Great Commission is about transforming individuals into disciples who obey all that Christ commands, who in turn transform the world around them.
I may be a citizen of the Kingdom of God, but the precinct where God has me live and vote is here in Virginia.
Because of my citizenship in Christ’s Kingdom…
Because the Lord rose triumphantly from the grave and declared that “all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me”…
And because of His concurrent command in Matt. 28 to therefore go transform all “nations” (the Greek word is “ethne”, which actually means cultures)…
I take the time to understand the issues and the candidates – and then vote.
I’m a generally conservative Republican, so it pains me to see presidential candidate Herman Cain stumble. But even more so, I am appalled at the blogs and comments supporting Mr. Cain from folks who, I suspect, were on President Clinton like white on rice when allegations first surfaced about him.
Herman Cain
As Christians, we must speak truth to power, but with integrity and without applying double standards!
I’ve seen this same phenomena in pastoral sex abuse cases that I’ve handled. Folks will defend a pastor who – under the Biblical standard of two or three witnesses like we now have with Mr. Cain – is a confirmed sexual predator, simply because they like him or he helped them in the past. The fact is, sexual predators of all stripes are the most charming, charismatic, and capable people I’ve ever met!
Let me repeat that: Sexual predators are the MOST CHARMING, CHARISMATIC AND CAPABLE PEOPLE you, too, will ever meet.
S&P downgraded the United States last night.
I hope and pray that this will serve as a wake-up call for the Church to realize that Biblical precepts can’t be mocked if any nation wants to survive. If God’s people don’t begin to understand, articulate and follow those precepts, then there is no hope.
One of those precepts is that God has ordained certain roles and responsibilities for civil government, and Scripture has lots to say about how individuals, families, the Church, the State and voluntary associations are to function.
However, there is not a single verse or example in all of Scripture which lends any credence to the view that God has given civil government the right or responsibility to re-distribute wealth or provide for our individual health or income. See The Growing Idolatry of Civil Government.
“The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” ~ Margaret Thatcher
Some may think we’ve not yet sunk into the clutches of socialism — 
which happens when we have a state-run economy. But consider this: In 2009, federal and state governments will consume 40 percent of the United States’ TOTAL gross domestic product.
This means that nearly half of all the wealth generated in America this year will be taken by civil government to fund its ever expanding control over more and more of our lives and our economy. As a result, we have run out of money while undercutting the means for producing future wealth.
Yet the federal government seeks to expand its reach even more.
It’s the 4th of July weekend here in the United States, and I was thinking about the first time I truly fell in love with America.
It was during my first trip overseas on my own, at the ripe old age of 21, after a year of grad school at Westminster Theological Seminary. I was sitting in Trafalgar Square in London on Independence Day, after more than a month of backpacking through the British Isles. It had been a grand trip of personal discovery as I hitchhiked from town to town, ate my meals in open air markets, slept on church steps, and occasionally visited youth hostels to take a shower. During my stay in Scotland, someone had given me the book “When Free Men Shall Stand,” and I had been reading it off and on during my travels.
As my trip was coming to a close and I was hanging out in London waiting for a stand-by airline seat home, I finished the book while sitting in that park. For the first time, I started looking back at America through the filter of another culture and began thinking about what made America unique. Many, like me that day, never really discover America until they’ve had the opportunity to leave her.
At that time in the United Kingdom, Thatcher had not yet been elected Prime Minister and the Liberal Party was wrecking that nation with policies that destroyed personal responsibility and initiative. Even as a twenty-one year old, the culture and the people, by and large, struck me as bland, crass and dominated by attitudes of entitlement. As money was being sucked out of the economy to feed that sense of personal entitlement at the hand of big brother, hope and opportunity were dying.
As a result, the Brits had lost their spark and zest for life. It finally was dawning on me that those qualities are vital for any people. I also was beginning to realize that those qualities had persevered in America because of the ideals that sparked the revolution of 1776 and then the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Those ideals, in turn, were gleaned by our Founding Fathers from Biblical principles that gave birth to the first Constitutional Republic to grace the earth in nearly 3000 years (since dying out when Israel foolishly chose a King rather than continuing as a constitutional republic under the Decalogue through locally chosen representative leaders).
I very much had been a liberal activist until then, but started weeping that day as I suddenly realized how I had taken for granted – and been ignorant about – the principles in our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. I also began to appreciate how truly revolutionary the core value of our Founding Fathers had been: Mainly, that the liberty to pursue virtue requires limited civil government, and that the greatest danger to virtue and liberty is a government which assumes the prerogatives of individual responsibility under the guise of benevolence.
I came back a changed man.
Are there any other 4th of July stories out there, or tales about your own political and cultural epiphanies, as we celebrate Independence Day?
(c) Copyright 2009, Fulcrum Ministries. All Rights Reserved.
The following is an op-ed I wrote and the Baltimore Sun published on December 3, 1986. I was in my late twenties at that time and leading the main pro-life, pro-family organization in Maryland, which I started six years earlier and had over 15,000 active members with offices next to the General Assembly in Annapolis. I like to say I’m now a refugee from Maryland living the good life in Virginia. I no longer describe myself as “fundamentalist”, at least regarding my attitudes, even though I strongly adhere to the essentials of the faith.
I’m re-publishing the op-ed because it’s interesting to see how much has changed, yet how much remains the same!
Crossroad Junction 