Politics and the church

My Internet friend Kevin Bussey writes an excellent blog entitle "Confession of a Recovering Pharisee" Yesterday, he had a comment about politics and believers. You ought to check it out. Here's the site: http://kevinbussey.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/is-the-christian-right-steering-without-a-rudder/

Then this morning I read from Baptist Press this article. You can find it in its entirety here. http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=25223 But it says in part:

By examining 32 measures of religious commitment, belief and activity, Barna found that while Republicans continue to attract the most born-again Christian voters, Democrats are gaining ground. Republicans attract a disproportionate share of evangelicals, Barna found, and Democrats are much more likely to attract other religions.

The article concludes with this important statement:

“Keep in mind that many Christian voters are increasingly skeptical of being played for political purposes,” Kinnaman said. “Appealing to them must go beyond simply saying the right combination of messages or getting them to show up at the polls, but instead should genuinely connect with their perspectives and principles.”

I believe that Christians must be involved in the political process. BUT, I do not believe that the church ought to be involved in the process. The church and politics are at cross purposes. They are not antagonstic. They may at times be complementary. But one is eternal and the other is temporal. The church's purpose is the glory of God. The political process is the election of a candidate.

Jesus made it clear that we ought to render to Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is God's. (Matthew 22:21). When we allow ourselves to be viewed as just another political action group for either the republicans or the democrats, we lose our ability to speak the kind of truth that John the Baptist was able to speak in Matthew 14:3-4:

For Herod had arrested John, chained him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, 4 since John had been telling him, “It’s not lawful for you to have her!”

Or when Jesus said in Luke 13:31-33:

At that time some Pharisees came and told Him, “Go, get out of here! Herod wants to kill You!” 32 He said to them, “Go tell that fox, ‘Look! I’m driving out demons and performing healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will complete My work.’ 33 Yet I must travel today, tomorrow, and the next day, because it is not possible for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem!

Paul could appeal to the Roman authority in Acts 25:11. American believers ought to exercise their rights as given to us by the Constitution. Churches ought to have the same freedoms to exist as any one else.

However, Bible believers must use spiritual means to fight what is a spiritual war. The battle for the souls of men, the battle for the sanctity of life, the battle for Biblical justice is done on our knees and in sharing our faith in Jesus person to person. It is an abdication of our mandate as believers to give that over to a mere earthly political party.