I ran across this exceptional essay from Dave Burchett, a writer and public speaker. In this piece, he does something truly remarkable in today's political and religious discourse; he admits mistakes and shares what he learned from them. At a time when most speakers are trying to shout down those who disagree with them to make sure their voice is the loudest, Burchett humbles himself and shares his lessons and also those of Dr. Gregory Boyd, the minister who lost over 1,000 members from his church because he preached that the church should stay clear of politics.
Here are some important quotes from Mr. Burchett:
"I have been roundly criticised for supporting George Bush in my first book, When Bad Christians Happen to Good People. I regret the political references I made in that book. I wish I could remove them because I found out that political remarks polarize and deflect the message of the Cross. I tried to make it clear that Christians were making a mistake by trying to change our culture through politics instead of by changing hearts for Jesus."
"I regret the impression that I gave to some readers that I believed the Republican party was the official party of Christianity. I do not believe that at all. And yes, I expect to see Democrats in heaven. And Libertarians. A few Republicans will be there too. But the common link will not be politcal ideology. The link that will bring us there will be Jesus. Period."
"I am not smart enough to decide what God has called people to do. If He has placed a desire for people to impact the culture through political action I am not about to question their motives. But I do agree that His house should be a house of worship and not a house of political promotion."
Mr. Burchett also includes some quotes from Dr. Boyd excerpted from a New York Times story:
"Christians are not to seek "power over" others by controlling governments, passing legislation or fighting wars. Christians should seek to have "power under" others winning others hearts by sacrificing for those in need."
"America is not the light of the world and the hope of the world. The light of the world and the hope of the world is Jesus Christ."
There is a lot of wisdom here from these two men, and there is more in the article I linked to.
This speaks to the messiah complex President Bush has demonstrated in trying to position the United States as the world's savior and the inevitable failure of that because this world has only one true Savior, Jesus Christ.
This speaks to those who claim absolute moral and political authority over the United States when there is actually only one absolute moral authority--Jesus Christ. Those who claim to know His judgement for others need to worry a lot more about His plans for themselves.
This speaks to how religious leaders are trying to shape this nation into their own image twisting selected passages from the Bible to claim their authority. In truth, they have no authority. Instead of trying to impose their will on the people of the United States, they need to be on their knees and submitting to the will of Jesus Christ.
Jesus will not transform the nation and the world through court rulings or legislation. He will touch the hearts of His children one at a time, and His greatest rewards will wait for those who faciliated ahd helped feed open hearts and open minds, not for those who got laws passed or stacked courts with right-wing judges.
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There's a lot of truth here! Jesus is our only hope! However, we must put legs on our prayers and do our very best as Christians to see to it that, to use St. Augustine's words, we try to "make earth a colony of heaven." Otherwise, we allow all sorts of injustices to prevail and merely pray for the souls of the oppressors and pray for the well-being of the oppressed, and that is, in my opinion, not acceptable from a Christian viewpoint that demands that we care "for the least of these."
ReplyDeleteI know it's easy to forget that Jesus is the focal point of our lives when we take up a political or other secular cause, and it's something that I have to guard against in my own life. However, we do others, ourselves, and Christianity little justice if we don't actively engage the political and educational processes to not only provide a vehicle for God to change hearts and minds, but see to it that all of God's children have every one of the civil rights afforded those in the dominant group.
In my opinion, to do less is a copout, and does a great disservice to not only the oppressed among us, but to our Christian witness.