Religion and Politics

Preface: Religion and politics, the building blocks for a popular blog. However, since I don't have aspirations of webfame, these won't show up too often.

In church today, I got reminded yet again why I like my pastor so much. This reminder usually happens on a weekly basis. Anyway, amidst a great sermon about sharing your faith, he made a point that I think a lot of people need to realize:

"There are many people more concerned about Christianity's political influence than its spiritual influence." Not that Christians should not be involved in the political arena; if you can stand up to the immense pressure to compromise your integrity, by all means go make a difference! That is not the problem. What is the problem, though, are the multitudes of Christians who think it is their God-given duty to go make sure every Republican is elected, and to make sure that everybody knows that it is a damnable sin to approve of any liberal legislation.

Rather than pour our energies and funds into these endeavors, shouldn't we be concerned with telling others about God and His incredible gift to us? We should be showing them God's love and being witnesses to them through our word and deed. Jesus teaches that we should love our neighbor as ourselves... Why should that not apply to helping people who are struggling, sometimes for mere survival, rather than focusing on political issues related to making our own lives easier? Again, I'm not downplaying the importance of Christians making their voice heard in our governments, it just seems that in the recent past our collective energies have been focused too much in those directions.

Acts 1:6-8 says

So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (NIV)

In this passage the disciples ask Jesus if he is going to regain control of Israel from the Romans, as many Jews were anticipating (the Zealots were trying to effect this revolution themselves). Jesus instead answers that they should focus on spreading the Good News. We should take this to heart; whether or not our country needs a political revolution, we should not forsake our first calling, to spread our faith. This definitely hit home with me.

in the player: Richard Bona - Reverence, Norm Stockton - Pondering the Sushi