A Few Thoughts About Our Fight
I state the obvious when I say most, if not all of us, remember the campaign for the presidential election in 2024. As usual, the rhetoric that permeated every speech, every pundit’s comments, and the newscasters’ predictions was how this election stood far beyond any election in the past as to its impact on the American future. Republicans claimed President Biden was too old and too mentally unstable to lead our country anywhere but into disaster. This, of course, assuming he was truly in charge of his own administration. His vice-president only compounded problems. Democrats claimed democracy hung in the balance and that former president Trump would complete his first term attempt to destroy democracy as we know it and instill himself a tyrannical despot.
Amid this political debacle, the political fight drew in Christians whom pastors told from their pulpits they must vote Republican because an opposite vote threatened the survival of Christianity. Wrong voting would continue and accelerate the headlong plunge of our morality into the abyss of hell. After what I have just written, please rest assured I do not intend this article as a political post to affirm or deny the claims of either party. It is not my debate. My interest is to steer us away from the panic that often drives Christian churches to think that what happens in our government threatens to destroy the church or in the right twist to enable our success. Viewed this way, too many Christians believe political issues are the most pressing upon Christians today. We should focus on these because the outcome will make or break us.
An article I read last month prompted a small part of these comments. I paraphrase the question asked: “Are there principles in the issues we face today that are similar to the problems dealt with by the church throughout history?” I believe none can deny that political opposition has long been a subject of preacher’s sermons. The apostles dealt with it by mostly telling us to leave the government alone and let it leave us alone as much as possible. Let governmental leaders stay in their sphere and we will stay in ours. Neither Jesus, Paul, nor any apostle told us to panic because of anything the government does. Nor did they tell the church to pursue the government to insist upon our rights.
How much Christians should involve themselves in government is a matter of debate. I know there are ambitious zealots on one side and the weak-kneed intimidated on the other. Somewhere in the middle of this is where I think we should be. In no case should we fear because either a Democrat or Republican holds the presidential office. If God is not frightened by how this will affect His people, neither should we be afraid. Persecution fills history books, but we are faithfully here still persevering and waiting for Christ to come.
An excellent idea for Christians in this country is to examine the past hundreds of years and whether those dark times stamped out the church or caused it to thrive. We should also look to Christians around the world to see if the problems of America are in any way the cause of anxieties and/or insecurities as if Christianity is in danger by what happens here. Christianity around the world and throughout the centuries has fought on the same battlefields we do today. The scriptures tell us nothing less than complete victory is what we can expect. Still, there is a level of healthy debate since we are also American citizens with the right to criticize and correct our government. We applaud Christians who are on the right side of moral debates. The church must speak to morality, but general political warfare is not our business.
Pastor V. Mark Smith