Faith-friendly politicians

I have an interesting problem with Bethany’s latest video — and it goes back to one of her first couple of videos about “faith night” at sports events.

My problem is not that Bethany is wrong about politicians leveraging churches and the faith of people for benefit at the polls. She’s right about the play to the Cross being an ever-popular (and useful) tool of demagoguery. My problem is that she doesn’t see that it is the kind of “Christianity” that thinks “faith night at the ball game” is actually promoting the Gospel which falls for the church-as-scenery political plea.

Listen: it’s a robust faith that cannot be manipulated by political ends. If we have a “faith” that is only pragmatic, and sees the church as a voting block which needs to be implementing laws through government when it cannot reach the hearts of men and women with the call to repent and believe, then we do not understand the message of the cross at all.

The question, really, is not “should Christians vote” (yes), or “is abortion immoral” (yes), but “is government our primary tool for reproaching society with its shortcomings?” If we answer “yes” to that question, we are merely a different flavor of secular humanists.

Let me suggest something to the readers of Hot Air: the Christian faith once overcame a completely pagan and godless world — and it did it in a non-democratic civilization. The method by which they did it is found in the Epistle to Diognetus — and notice that they didn’t overcome the world either by preaching or believing a milquetoast Gospel or by taking over the seats of power: they did it by holding to a robust doctrine of the Cross and of Christ, and by living differently as dictated by that Gospel.

They didn’t have “fish-emblem nights” at the Chariot races: they refrained from idols, and were sacrificially generous. They were the ones not just doing good but doing good for the right reasons — and making it known that Christ was made flesh and dwelt among men.

Bethany has demonstrated one part of the problem. The other part is not “them”: it is us. God be willing that we will take the log out of our own eye first.

centuri0n on October 24, 2006 at 3:56 PM