After one becomes a believer, one can then understand what the Bible teaches about the unique value of all human life at every stage and of sexual purity and the danger of putting vain things before our eyes. Should those who are set apart to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ descend to a lower kingdom so that they resemble the sounding brass and tinkling cymbal of the legions now competing for temporal power? Absolutely not! They corrupt the gospel and suggest in deed and in word that if one is to receive Jesus as Savior, one must also receive the entire political and social agenda of the 'Religious Right,' which has nothing to do with salvation. Real change comes heart by heart, not election by election, because our primary problems are not economic and political but moral and spiritual. Laypeople can organize, peacefully demonstrate, boycott, pray for those in authority (that includes Democrats as well as Republicans), participate in pregnancy-help centers, and lobby elected officials.īut they should do so without illusions.

Should we vote after informing ourselves about issues and candidates? Absolutely! The things that are Caesar's are not only our tax dollars, but our citizenship. Should Christians involve themselves in politics? To paraphrase the President, that depends on what the meaning of involve involves. Either they were wrong then or they are wrong now. They use the same 'inerrant, infallible' Bible, but reach different conclusions in order to justify their claim that the laity and preachers must be involved in politics. The Gospel does not clean up the outside but rather regenerates the inside.'įor the past 20 years, Falwell and others who once regarded politics with the same antipathy they held for movies, liquor, and dancing have been singing a different tune. We are not told to wage a war against bootleggers, liquor stores, gamblers, murderers, prostitutes, racketeers, prejudiced persons or institutions, or any other exisiting evil as such. Nowhere are we told to reform the externals. No less an authority than Jerry Falwell, godfather of the 'Religious Right,' argued in a previous incarnation, 'We have a message of redeeeming grace through a crucified and risen Lord.

Within recent memory, conservative-evangelical-fundamentalist (choose your modifier) Christians used Scripture to justify their opposition to political activism.

Julius caesar quotes brass and tinkling