The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Political Activism

Is there a reason the Church today in America is hung up on political activism? Why spend so much time and money lobbying for moral law in Washington when it is a fool's endeavor? Why do American Christians sacrifice evangelism? Why do they think they can make America into some Christian moral utopia? Why do they claim we must fight to keep America pure?

Is it remotely possible Satan is delighted so many seem to be distracted from spreading the gospel?

Dear Saint,

You know, I agree to an extent, there is a waste of money on trying to pass moral laws, we ought to just let this country turn into the most corrupt and dispicable nation on earth, we can let it turn into the new Sodom and Gomorrah. Heck, why not, the Muslims will probably over run the entire continent anyway!

That was sarcasm by the way. The Christian political activism has one positive effect though, it gives a Christian opinion in a public forum. I personally think that polotics is a waste, but that doesn't mean it is, that some good can't come of it.
Remember that the Church in America is by no means as organized and as cooperative as the church in other lands. There are vast numbers of church's under good denominational names saying what sound to be good biblical things but denying the power of God or having only a partial knowledge of the Word of God.

I agree, the world isn't going to get better, but by not opposing immorality, aren't we in fact encouraging immorality? There will be no Christian Utopia in America till Christ comes back, and even then, I doubt the Western Hemisphere is all that important to the age to come.

The problem is pastors teaching ideals that match up not with the Bible but with the american ideology which is remarkably Arminian in my opinion. The Problem is pastor's who teach man centered beliefs and move in seeker sensitive ways and wash down truth for the poor children who won't grow up.

That said though, there are reformed pastor's who do political activist work, they protest, they excersise their "Rights" under the US Constitution, each of them has their reasons. These pastor's obviously have a belief that the church should influence the people that make up the state. I think church/state seperation is ludicrous, the church and the state have very rarely been seperated throughout history and the church if it is a church following God must influence the people. As I'm about to argue in one of my classes, we may have freedom of religion, but there is no such thing as freedom from religion (which is what modern america's small vocal minority seems to want).

I think you could make a pretty good case that we should be politically active though, obviously we see polotics all over the Bible, and when we see theocracies, prayer can be considered a form of activism.

I don't know if the above makes much sense, but hey, it's a reply. Certainly it's an issue to be discussed. I do not believe though that political activism in and of itself is the sole reason that christians in america are distracted from evangelism, certainly we have plenty of preachers preaching the gospel, the problem is there are a lot who don't know what evangelism is.

-Brother Luke

P.S. It's all well and good for us to point out a problem, but solving that problem might be a good thing too.

Sarcasm or not I'd like to address it. When did Paul command the Church in Rome to lobby for moral law? When did the Church in Rome raise a big fuss about putting a monument of the ten commandments outside the coliseum? When did the Church in Rome try to gather signatures to outlaw public lewdness?

Perhaps I should clarify myself to a degree. I believe we should be involved. I believe it is foolish not to vote or lend support. But channeling the amount of resources that we do is extreme. We are also called to obey the land we are in. This means Judge Moore was in severe error in refusing to take down his monument. He was ordered to remove it an refused. We are fighting over ridiculous, and dare I say, childish things.

What if Christians lobbied for prohibition again? What good would it do? Would it create a more moral society? Would it decrease sin? Would it be bringing the Gospel to men, women, and children? Would the hearing of the no alcohol law bring about faith? Would banning sodomy make people suddenly think they should go to church? Will people hear profanity is made illegal and proclaim faith in God? Will people hear abortion is illegal and go and be baptised? What Biblical reason is there to expect society to change inwardly by forcing outward moral law?