Quote:
Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah
What we are so heavenly that we are of no earthly good? We see lies and deceit and just keep quiet? My experience with WL, WN, PL, etc. is that you do not ignore lies and deceit. You have to challenge it head on. Churchill said that in a democracy the people get the government they deserve. The constitution guarantees the right to free speech, the flip side is we cannot shirk our responsibility as citizens by saying "what could I do". You were given the right to speak up. If you keep silent you are without excuse.
|
And while I made that specific statement, I have also said that I am not opposing political activity on our part. And I do not oppose acknowledging our Christian heritage and perspective as we do that.
The problem is how that is done. If our lives affect enough others that we change the face of the nation, then maybe there will be a change in the laws and other societal landscape. But that is the outgrowth of our living the gospel, not politicking for stronger laws. The difference seems to be lost on too many people. For a movement of Christians to start to push, even demand, more "moral" laws (from the Christian perspective) places the very core of the church into the realm of politics. While we do not desire the kind of marriage of church and state that our founders sought to free themselves from, we seem to be determined to obtain the benefit of having it anyway. When that happens how do you assert that we are not simply in bed with the government and find that people who are on the outside are exactly like the Pilgrims.
We may not take it as far as they did in England, or in Rome or Constantinople, but we are dancing around the same error. Becoming the "in power" religion that is able to execute God's rules on those who do not claim to follow our God.
What shall we do about those who would mock our religion in the media? Who would argue for the freedom to stop at the numerous appointed times during the school day to pray to Mecca?
And, picking back on an issue that is now banned here and in the other (locked) thread (but only as an example), how do we deal with the legitimate exceptions on abortion, especially where one or the other is almost certainly to die? Do we just leave it for the natural outcome to decide and punish those who refuse to wait for that? In other words, do we want laws that favor us and our heritage and our religion and disfavor those of others, with the result that we create a sort of Religious state?
Stop suggesting that I do not get involved in politics in any way, or that I am insisting on such a thing. I am not. I am merely pointing to a different approach to it. One that is not concerned with my "rights" but with the will of God which is concerned with the salvation of mankind, not the subjugation of it to well-meaning religious masters.