Discipleship

A Political Thought

Aug 16, 2010

I tweeted last week in regards to the fact that it seems to be ok in America to have a political opinion…unless you are a Christian, then ANYTHING you say in the political realm is simply you aligning yourself with a hate group and being intolerant.

It’s the perfect argument really…if you are a Christian then you cannot say anything political…OR people accuse you of being too political. (All the while it seems to be perfectly fine for any other group in the country to have a strong opinion…as long as they are not Christian.)

Please do not misunderstand me on this…I am NOT saying that the church should pimp a particular political party. I am not saying that unless you vote one particular way then God’s wrath will fall upon you. It do not believe our main message is political, but rather spiritual…the fact is that you could give everyone in our country healthcare, we could pass some sort of immigration reform AND find a way to pay off the national debt…and none of that will change the fact that people are spiritually lost, blind and dead without Jesus.

Some churches take the political thing WAY too far…and some pastors should run for office instead of working in the church because they talk about politics way more than they talk about Jesus.

BUT…on the flip side it is NOT wrong for a Christian to have a political opinion. In fact, I think if we are following Christ we should care about politics…we should vote…we should pray for our government officials and we should be willing to discuss our views in a gentle and respectful way with people who ask…

BUT…His church can NEVER allow politics to be our main message because…

I’ve seen presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush II and Obama all campaign…I watched all of them make promises, I wanted all of them talk about hope…and I watched every single one of them, at some point, go back on their word, let people down and fall into the political trap known as Washington DC.

And then there is Jesus…whose power rises so far above a political system. He is unchanging (Hebrews 13:8) and reigns over everyone and everything! He has never broken a promise…and when the political system of today is talked about in history books 500 years from now as an outdated idea…HE will still reign, HE will still be changing lives…and HE will STILL have never broken a promise.

So…have a political opinion (even if you are a Christian.) And VOTE (if you don’t vote then SHUT UP about how you feel about politics.) But let’s not EVER forget that Jesus died for us…HE should be our obsession…HE didn’t just want our vote but rather wanted to pay for our sins so we could be reconciled to God.  HE, and not some political system, is our Savior.

I tweeted last week in regards to the fact that it seems to be ok in America to have a political opinion…unless you are a Christian, then ANYTHING you say in the political realm is simply you aligning yourself with a hate group and being intolerant.

It’s the perfect argument really…if you are a Christian then you cannot say anything political…OR people accuse you of being too political. (All the while it seems to be perfectly fine for any other group in the country to have a strong opinion…as long as they are not Christian.)

Please do not misunderstand me on this…I am NOT saying that the church should pimp a particular political party. I am not saying that unless you vote one particular way then God’s wrath will fall upon you. I do not believe our main message is political, but rather spiritual…the fact is that you could give everyone in our country healthcare, we could pass some sort of immigration reform AND find a way to pay off the national debt…and none of that will change the fact that people are spiritually lost, blind and dead without Jesus.

Some churches take the political thing WAY too far…and some pastors should run for office instead of working in the church because they talk about politics way more than they talk about Jesus.

BUT…on the flip side it is NOT wrong for a Christian to have a political opinion. In fact, I think if we are following Christ we should care about politics…we should vote…we should pray for our government officials and we should be willing to discuss our views in a gentle and respectful way with people who ask…

BUT…His church can NEVER allow politics to be our main message.  because…

I’ve seen presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush II and Obama all campaign…I watched all of them make promises, I watched all of them talk about hope…and I watched every single one of them, at some point, go back on their word, let people down and fall into the political trap known as Washington DC.

And then there is Jesus…whose power rises so far above a political system. He is unchanging (Hebrews 13:8) and reigns over everyone and everything!  He has never broken a promise…and when the political system of today is talked about in history books 500 years from now as an outdated idea…HE will still reign, HE will still be changing lives…and HE will STILL have never broken a promise.

So…have a political opinion (even if you are a Christian.) And VOTE (if you don’t vote then SHUT UP about how you feel about politics.) But let’s not EVER forget that Jesus died for us…HE should be our obsession…HE didn’t just want our vote but rather wanted to pay for our sins so we could be reconciled to God.  HE, and not some political system, is our Savior.