POLITICS A NO NO!!

No doubt you will have been told or heard that Christianity and politics don’t mix. It is wrong for Christians to get involved in politics. After all, doesn’t the bible say to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar and to God the things that are God. Therefore it must mean that politics is off limits to the Christian because that is of Caesar.

If that is what you believe may I respectfully advise you that you are wrong? In the times of the bible both old and new testament, there was no such thing as a sacred-secular divide. In those days, regardless of who your God was, everything was sacred, both spiritual and secular society.

Whatever your God was or your religion, you carried the tenets of your faith into everyday life. If it said not to kill, you did not kill. If it said not to steal, you didn’t steal or you didn’t make a law that said it was OK to steal.

When the Israelites went into battle it was spiritual as God gave strict instructions as to how they were to battle and the outcomes that they had to achieve, like killing all their enemies so that they would not be contaminated by their culture or collecting all the gold and silver and donating it to the temple.

If society has a vacuum, it will be filled by someone or something. With the rise of evangelicalism and the spurning of the secular by them, the vacuum they left was filled…by secular humanists and what a good job they have done.

Here are some examples.

They have won the war over the legal killing of babies, euphemistically called abortion.

They have won the war over education, insisting that religion has no place in the classroom. They forget to mention that secular humanism is a religion and is given free reign in secular education.

They have won the war in government, insisting that if you are a Christian, you can’t make judgments based on your religious faith. Of course, they forget to mention if you are a secular humanist, you can make judgments based on that religion.

They have won the war in the media. Most newspapers are staffed by secular humanists that delight in pulling the Christian faith over the coals and ridiculing its claims.

They have won the war in the arts, insisting that what artists do no matter how repulsive is legitimate in the name of artistic freedom.

They have won the war in Hollywood as most films that come out now are full of violence, sex and foul language even though the odd film that does not contain these things are the best sellers at the box office.

They have won the war in literature with most novels full of sex, sex and sex, even books for teenagers.

They have won the war in bringing up children with their mantra that teenagers need to know all about sex because they are going to do it anyway.

Our response? Couch potato Christianity. We retreat into our spiritual enclave inside the four walls of our buildings, sing a few songs, listen to meaningless sermons and say what a good boy am I that I am not tainted by the things of the world whilst the world daily destroys our culture and the lives of those it sucks into its basket of lies.

Excitement you say? No thanks, that might entail me moving out of my comfort zone. I prefer the predictable and the inoffensive. You know the sort of inoffensive that Jesus modelled when he called the religious leaders snakes, vipers, hypocrites and blind fools; when he threw the money changers out of the temple; when he told Satan to get behind him when Peter asked a question; when he told off the Pharisees that they were a bunch of losers; the Jesus who fraternised with prostitutes; the Jesus who warned his disciples against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Oh dear, you say, is that the Jesus of the bible? Yes it is and he was no couch potato. He was ruthless with his detractors.

Help!! Can you find me another messiah? One that is…well…not quite so offensive. You know, gentle Jesus meek and mild. The other sort is too confronting for me.