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Originally Posted by Igzy
I understand the point you are making. I just think (1) it's fundamentally flawed, and (2) even if it isn't your fear about it is overblown in a democracy. If a theocracy starts invoking God that's one thing. That's a power play. But if a bunch of diverse people each start invoking God for different, diverse causes, they are just identifying that the root of their convictions is the spiritual. What's wrong with that? That sounds like honesty to me.
Really, what's the difference between saying "I think we should help the poor because it's right to do so" and "I think we should help the poor because God wants us to"? Both are saying that helping the poor is in line with what is essentially right and true. They are just saying it in different ways.
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To me, the problem is that there is a rather vocal group of Christians that have seized on the idea that America was founded as a "Christian Nation" and that they have both a right and a command to return it to that position. They believe in America as a theocracy. They may not be the majority position among Christians, or even among the evangelicals. But they speak as if they are. And within too many assemblies, the proponents of this position are the strong voices that phrase their arguments in such a way that speaking against them becomes seen as speaking against God.
Taking on that kind of rhetoric is quite difficult. It is a little like the problem we have here of identifying how mostly correct teachings are made part of very incorrect teachings. You are seen as fighting against "enjoying God" or something like that. Fighting a Christian Nation proponent is seen as fighting against the very core of the gospel.
And because there are those people, positions that might otherwise be acceptable stances have been clouded by that extreme. "Christian" has become the bully of the "right." (And I despise the implication that just because it is conservative it is "right." It equivocates and makes conservatism "right" and liberalism "wrong" rather than "left." I am conservative, but I see the effects it has on the proponents of the "right.")
I do not say that Christians should not be in politics. But how we package our positions is questionable. Is it really the "right thing to do" when we take positions on issues that places us as those fighting against people for being what they consider themselves to be when society has determined that their being is not illegal? I can see the argument against the change of the definition of marriage. But is there a legal equivalent that could be allowed? At present there is not uniformly such a thing. Are we so opposed to the people that are gay that we would march out like an army to fight them? Where is this found to be consistent with the command to love your neighbor?
And many of us are not engaged in these things. But because there are those who are, our efforts at much of anything are (somewhat rightly) viewed with skepticism. The very mention of God in the marketplace of ideas has been damaged by those who use it so openly for the extreme ideologies of the gay-bashers, abortion clinic bombers, and foam-at-the-mouth Christian Nation advocates trying to "take the nation back." If we can't openly debate these things in our congregations and even in the public eye, we will be labeled as one with it. It won't be true, but our testimony will be damaged.
But whether or not we take it on so openly, we need to do as much of the kind of justice that Jesus spoke of, and was mentioned over and over in the OT. We need to be actively kind to everyone. Even the gay guy, the abortionist, and especially those who have been touched by abortion. Be kind, not condescending and judgmental.
We need to marginalize the voices of hate that march out claiming to be God's army. They need to find themselves in the same position as the slave proponents of the 19th century, and the racists of the 20th century.