I don't want to make a habit of making this blog a personal soapbox, but I can't help but talk about this subject of religion and politics, after reading a chapter in Philip Yancey's What's So Amazing About Grace.
In the last few years of my life, I have become more interested in politics and have been following things more closely. With social progressives seeking to change the definition of marriage, legalize many forms of abortion and remove God from anything they can. Of course, being a Christian, my first reaction was "what? you've got to be kidding" but after reading this chapter, Yancey has made me see things differently. While all of these things are clearly in violation of biblical principles, as Yancey noted in his book, abortion and homosexuality existed in Jesus' day (albeit in somewhat different forms) and yet He said nothing about dealing with them which tells you how important Jesus thought it was. While I think it's important for Christians to resist such motives within the Church, are we really loving others when we ridicule them publicly for things they can't help any more than we can help things like lust, pride, and other sins? After all, Jesus makes no distinction between severity of sins, a sin is a sin, period.
Yancey also asserts that when we enter politics to try and force Christian values in society, we are seeking to make earth like heaven, something that will NEVER happen until the return of Christ, simply because it is a fallen world. He talked about how many times Christians have been in power and tried to impose their values on society, it has resulted in violence and hatred towards non-Christians (sometimes worse than non-Christians). His point is that grace and power do not go together well, like any other prideful human we tend to abuse power.
Yancey sums up well his point in referring to Jesus' parable of the wheat and weeds (Matthew 13:24-30) which says:
Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?'
28" 'An enemy did this,' he replied.
"The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
29" 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' " (NIV)
Jesus' point I believe is that it's not our place to judge others, much less judge them based on our values. Therefore we need to be loving of others, regardless of their views and beliefs. Love is the cornerstone of Christianity and if we are not being loving, we are not being Christian. We may not agree with the way people live their lives, but we can't afford to alienate them and polarize them from the rest of society. We have our own imperfections too (or 'plank in our eye' as Jesus puts it). People will not listen to us and will not want to be like us if we are hateful towards them and who are we to decide who enters the kingdom of heaven?
In conclusion, no matter how hard we try to impose Christian values, we can't force people into following Christ, it is a choice that has to be made by individuals. All we can do and should do is show them grace and love and not lower ourselves to hate tactics that non-Christians resort to. The Church should be a place of sanctuary, not of ridicule. Government is of this world and therefore flawed and thus will never be perfect, so we should accept that and not be outraged when such things that cut against our beliefs are made into law. This happened all the time in ancient days, but yet never did Paul or the disciples resort to imposing their values. They simply pointed out the consequences of following bad values and offered an alternative and that's what we should do. After all, we submit to a higher authority who will bring justice on His return to earth, it is not our place to set things right. So, instead of saying, "what?? you've got to be kidding" and protesting we should be saying, "oh, that's too bad" and seeking to love each other.
