I have become a big fan of NPR (National Public Radio). I get the benefits of talk radio (over crappy music), it is very enlightening, usually pretty balanced, and when it leans to the left I get a glimpse of their point-of-view.

Yesterday, as I was riding home from work I heard a piece on a historic church building in Washington, D.C. – that is, it is historic according to Historical Society standards. You see, this building was designed according to Brutalism. Brutalism was a very popular architectural style in the 1950s and ’60s. It’s ugly nature has left church desiring to tear it down and build a new, more functional building. However, there is a hitch. In 1991 a Historical Society applied to have The Third Church, Scientist designated as a historical landmark. So what does this mean? Simple, the church no longer has the right to tear down their building!

The piece was quite hilarious, I laughed out loud more than once. I think this was my favorite quote:

“Nothing expresses a church’s religious exercise more than its architecture. And this architecture does not express our theology and our exercise. Brutalism is not our religious expression,” he says.

I don’t know much about the “Christian Science” movement and it appears that this group is somehow aligned with the Church of Christ. But we all know what Christ said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, the architectural style of your buildings.” (John 13:35)

Anyways if you want to read the article you can find it here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93844919

From time to time we all hear about the United States of America being a “Christian Nation.” Many Muslim terrorist hate the U.S. because they believe it is a Christian Nation. Many U.S. citizens desire the U.S. to become a true Christian Nation. Many U.S. citizens believe the U.S. is already a Christian Nation. There are even some who feel that you should be a Christian to be considered a citizen of the U.S.

In the olden days, when Rome ruled the world, it was quite common to convert all the people of a nation to Catholicism. If you were a citizen, then you were Catholic. This was when the church and state were one. My question to you all is this: Do we really want the United States to become a Christian Nation?

If everyone in the United States were a Christian, there would be a few issues that we’d have to deal with. First, who would they share the gospel with (apart from their newborns)? Second, who would they disciple as new believers? Third, how would they influence the world?

It seems to me that God already has a nation… or a “Kingdom” and he has sent it into the world. A “Christian Nation” would not only be impossible from a obedience stand-point, but also would be impossible from a logistical stand-point. If everyone in the U.S. were Christian, then there would be no one in the U.S. For all would be obedient in sharing the gospel and discipling the Lost. So the U.S. would be empty and then ultimately be filled with non-believers.

What do you think? Should the U.S. strive to become a Christian nation? Are there more logistical issues with being a Christian nation? Are my concerns invalid?

Over the past few weeks I have written on the topic of Christians and the Government. In these posts I discussed my current (and ever changing) views about how I feel Christians should interact within their governments (specifically dealing with American Christians). If you have kept up with these posts you would have noticed that I generally feel that Christians should have a very limited role in the government. I would not be so bold to presume that if a Christian is involved in the government they are sinning.

There is no direct command from Scripture or from God (that I know of) to prevent a Christian from being directly involved in the government. However, I sense that it would be wisest for a Christian to refrain from being too involved.

With that said, I would also like to say that I feel that it is extremely important for a Christian to know and understand what is happening in their governments (and the worlds governments). It is important to helps us know and understand the issues, be able to discern the truth, and even be able to be able to foresee and prepare for future events. We can take an active role in the goverment most of all by being prepared for the future.

I would like to thank everyone who took part in this series. Your comments and challenges were excellent. I think we had some very civil conversations through this series. Considering the topics, I think it went very well.

For a reference, here are the topics I discussed in this series:
Christians and the Government – An introduction to the topics.
Christians and Politics – Should Christians be involved in politics and hold political offices?
Christians and Voting – Should Christians exercise their American given right to vote?
Christians and Lobbying – Should Christians protest and lobby their government?
Christians and Military – What role should a Christian play in their governments military?
Christians and the Pledge – Should Christians recite the pledge or pledge their allegiance to a country?
Christians and the Court – Should a Christian be a judge or part of a jury?
The Other Side – A recent article from BP News taking the opposite position from my own (esp. regarding voting).

I hope you all enjoyed this series. As I said, there was some really great conversation, I appreciate all your participation!

I recently read this timely post from Baptist Press titled When God’s people fail to vote. I figured it would be good if I included this article as an outside perspective – one that disagreed with my own position(s). There have been many great comments that disagree with me. I think that this article is wrong and that the author has misjudged scripture… but I’d still break bread with him. The article is basically a summary of his book, “Sinful Silence.” The title seems a little harsh. I am not sure that either party should say the other is sinning by voting or not voting.

Here is the article:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Evangelicals have a pitiful record when it comes to voting. Over the last 30 years, on average only half of eligible evangelicals took the time and made the effort to go to vote in a general election for a president, and far fewer bothered to vote in the primaries.

It’s fair to ask, “So what?” Does this really matter to God? Is He really concerned about the primaries?

At one time I had concluded that perhaps it didn’t. I knew God absolutely was concerned about moral issues in our nation, such as abortion and homosexuality, and as a pastor I passionately represented those concerns in various ways. But I assumed that He probably wasn’t so concerned about such mundane things as elections and voting.

That was until a politically active Christian brother challenged me to study God’s Word on the matter. I did a word study on “justice,” which took me to the Hebrew word “mishphat,” which took me to the first chapter of Isaiah. What I found there rocked my world. From Isaiah 1:10-31, I found undeniable and irrefutable principles regarding our role and responsibility in the civil arena — principles that should drive us to our knees, and then to the polls.

In Isaiah 1:10, the mighty prophet declares: “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!” The Lord, in this scathing rebuke, equated the rulers of Judah with the rulers of Sodom. But what had they done that would justify such a harsh comparison?

Isaiah revealed their wickedness in 1:17, where he declared that the nation had failed to “seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” Isaiah continued the indictment in verse 23, where he proclaimed: “Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.”

This alarming indictment was because of Judah’s civil sin. The national leadership had failed miserably in key areas of civil responsibility: justice, deliverance from oppression and protection for the helpless. They had also allowed their rulings and policies to be influenced by bribes and “gifts.” God explicitly identified this failure as “evil” in Isaiah 1:16, and equated these civil sins with the depravity of Sodom and Gomorrah in 1:10.

But why would a fair and just God include the general population of Judah in this indictment? These failures came from Judah’s national leadership, not the average person on the street. When we look closely at Judah’s broader history, we find that God had indeed given the people a key role in deciding their leadership.

In Deuteronomy 16:18-19, Moses commanded the people to: “Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the LORD your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly. Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe.” God assigned the people the responsibility of appointing fair and just civil leaders in each local area — leaders who would not be tempted by bribes.

In Isaiah’s day, God not only held the leaders accountable for their civil immorality, He held the people accountable for their actions as well.

The principle we draw from this passage is this: When the citizens have a voice in the selection and direction of their civil leaders, God holds both the leaders and the citizens accountable for the civil sins of their government.

It was true of Judah, but is it fair to suggest that God applies this standard to us today? Consider the following:

The citizens of the United States elect the leaders of our nation — leaders who set civil and social policies for our nation, including policies on moral issues such as abortion, “gay marriage,” euthanasia, assisted suicide, and more. The decisions of these leaders directly impact the moral direction of our nation. Therefore, the people’s vote (or failure to vote) ultimately determines our nation’s civil, social, and moral direction.

Furthermore, the president is responsible for appointing members of the federal judiciary. These judges interpret laws and make legal decisions that affect the entire nation. Therefore, the citizen’s role in each election directly impacts every level of government.

Because the American system is a representative form of government, there is an obvious relationship between an elected leader’s actions and the citizens who elected the leader — or who allowed his election by not voting.

It logically follows that God holds the citizens accountable for immoral governmental policies.

God has established universal standards of justice that He expects all nations to uphold and enforce — and the United States is not exempt from these standards. If our government refuses to uphold and enforce them, we shouldn’t be surprised at the judgment that is certain to follow. But even more sobering is the reality that when the citizens choose their leaders, He holds the citizens corporately accountable for the actions of their leaders.

Our vote — or failure to vote — has a direct bearing on not only the election, but on how the Lord will deal with our land. If we fail to vote for candidates that most closely reflect God’s standards — or if we fail to vote — we should not expect to escape the consequences.
–30–
John Revell is editor of SBC Life. This is adapted from “Sinful Silence: When Christians Neglect Their Civic Duty,” by Ken Connor and John Revell.

What do you think?

The United States has three branches of government, the Executive branch which is administered by the President. The President enforces the laws that the Legislative branch makes. There is the legislative branch is also know as the Congress. The Congress makes the laws of the U.S. The congress is divided into two parts, the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The third part of the United States is the Judicial part, which includes the Supreme Court and the 9 Justices. The purpose of this branch is to interpret laws according to the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme court s the highest court int eh country and only hears cases pertaining to issues related to the Constitution. They have lower courts located in each state to hear cases involving federal issues.

Court has always been a weird subject for Christians. Mainly because there is some pretty obvious teaching about courts in the New Testament. These teaching generally come in the form of what Christians should do with one-another (i.e. not to sue one another but bring their “cases” before one another). I think most conservative Christians would probably agree that we should not be suing each other. This tends to run into some problems in America because we generally hold an entitlement attitude.

What I really want to discuss are the verses that talk about how we Christians should interact with the world. In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul tells us that we really have no business judging “outsiders” – God will judge the world. Now I don’t believe that Paul is specifically talking about the court system here. He is most likely talking about our attitudes towards the lost. However, I think this philosophy should definitely leak into our understanding of our court systems – not only as judges but as juries.

I also sense that this idea of not judging the world leaks into the other government realms, politics, voting, lobbying, etc.

What do you think? I have really been enjoying the conversation going on in this series.