Evangelicals, Our Problem Is Spiritual, Not Political

There is no point in “winning” if you sell your soul to do it.

I think most Christians know that the root of national & personal problems is spiritual. But perhaps Christians believed that part of confronting some of these problems was legitimate use of the political process in order to limit the effects of the spiritual problem and to help in practical ways those affected by the problems/sins. To achieve those limitations and helps, we try to elect a certain type of person to a political office who appears to agree with our concerns. In recent decades, however, as American culture has moved dramatically away from Judeo-Christian beliefs, we see increasing problems and increasing numbers of people who reject even the general philosophical assumptions of the Bible. We have a society living off of the fumes of a Biblical past, fumes which are quickly dissipating. As all of this is happening, I personally see many Christians concerned about these changes but who also are so immersed in the culture that they don’t see how they have become part of the problem. For example, I find it very odd that, as our country is sinking into deeper spiritual darkness, churches struggle to get people to Sunday School or even to come to church to pray together. Music concert, church-league ball game? No problem. A good Sunday School class (the original “small group”) - not interested. Of course the root problem is spiritual. Most Christians know that. But being willing to actually DO something or make CHANGES, unfortunately many Christians have not come to that point.

but it is more so the result of 3 decades of Republicans who refused to fight the corruption before them, but instead participated in it. Others preferred to be genteel and ignore the corruption. That corruption led people to be desperate and go with an outsider like Trump.

And thanks to Aaron for posting.

Many of Israel’s 1st century religious leaders bemoaned the spiritual decline of the day as measured by the declining practice of Jewish tradition and the influence of Greco/Roman rule on their culture and philosophy. In their attempts to be godly, they separated themselves from those influences with passion and vitriol. Without a doubt, they would be approved and redeemed by an avenging messiah as he would sweep away the godless pagan cultures and practices and restore Israel to glory and rule as a Jew on the throne of David.

But then a little man from Nazareth, claiming to be the Son of God came on the scene and had a horrible word for them - REPENT.

And they thought…REPENT? US? We, who are impeccably ceremonially clean, who tithe and pray, who don’t even eat with those gentile dogs? They rejected Jesus. Without realizing it, they rejected God even though they thought they were approved by Him.

I wonder which messiah 21st century American Christians are looking for? Is it He who tells them to repent despite their separation from culture and godless practice? Or is it he who will restore the nation to its rightful glory? The two are not the same, and a choice has to be made between one or the other.

I’ve had the privilege of interacting a lot with people who work in factories (and many who hope to), and a huge portion of Mr. Drumpf’s appeal is his promise, more or less, to burn the place down. 30 years of broken promises, crying wolf as it were, makes a huge portion of Americans amenable to that message.

And yes, as Wally notes, that same demographic also needs to hear of why it’s important for them to help themselves, starting with following the commands of Christ. The guys I knew at the smoke shack were not just huffing the cancer sticks and “drinking like Catholics” (their words meaning “get very drunk”) when away from work, but were also unlikely to be found in church. Hard to get ahead in life that way, to put it mildly.

Back in the middle and late 1970’s Christians were hopeful of turning our country around. Christian schools, the Moral Majority, politicians who claimed to be Christians (we elected a Baptist Sunday School teacher to be president), and II Chronicles 7:14 on our walls and car bumpers filled us with optimism. There was even a revival of post-millennial thinking (remember Rushdoony?). We were excited when Reagan was elected (we managed to tolerate the fact that he was a Hollywood actor and divorced).

Our millennium (?) lasted 8 years. When are we going to learn that we’ll never vote ourselves into righteousness?

I am not voting “to make America righteous”. I am voting in the hope of keeping myself employed and out of jail!

[Joeb]

Mark I get the bottom bunk Bert can have the Top and Mark you can have the floor. They will triple us believers up. Remember Mark and Bert no bouncing Joeb’s head off the wall for entertainment.

You always take the fun out of everything, Joe. :^) OK, promise….

(Mark, you can have the top bunk if you promise not to step on me when you get out of bed….)

Three meals a day, a place to sleep, and a job making license plates; what’s not to like? (I thought this was my future in 2008 and 2012, but I was wrong.)