With the recent mid-term elections, I've been hearing a lot about how wrong it is for evangelicals and social-justice Christians to hold to the political right and Left, respectively, as the answer to the nation's problems.
I, too went through a time where I questioned why so many Protestants wrapped up their faith and their politics to the point where the two couldn't be separated. I, too, want to see this stopped, because Christians fighting Christians about whose politics are more Christian is, um, not Christian.
But as much as I love these calls to stop the madness, I don't think it will work. As long as political liberals hold and defend the party line on the two big moral issues (abortion and gay issues), there will always be a backlash from those Christians on the Right.
Like many Christians, I've asked the questions about why these two issues are picked as hot-button topics. In particular, why are conservative Christians so vocal about homosexuality and not other sexual sins? I think there are three answers to this:
1. It's a false supposition: Many evangelical Christians leaders preach just as much about other sexual sins, but nobody is noticing.
2. If right-leaning Christians do focus on one sexual sin over the others, it's because they cannot relate. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul lists several sins that are problematic: witchcraft, fornication, alcoholism, homosexuality. But many Christians are more forgiving when it comes to alcoholism and fornication because they engaged in that behavior in their youth. Most do not have any incidences of homosexuality or witchcraft in their past, so those two sins are elevated. This particular charge against evangelicals is right-on.
3. Homosexuality and abortion are unique in that they are the only sins which have organizations which seek to make them acceptable. Is anyone out there advocating bank robbery as an acceptable way to earn a living? Is anyone lobbying legislatures to legalize murder? Is there a push to get churches to drop the idea that fornication is sin? No. But there has been a major push over the past 3 decades to make abortion and homosexuality acceptable, both socially and legally. A backlash from conservatives is to be expected. It's not evidence of meanness or intolerance. It's an obvious, predictable reaction from those who hold to a particular worldview. To cast is as intolerance or hate is nothing less than dishonest.
I, too went through a time where I questioned why so many Protestants wrapped up their faith and their politics to the point where the two couldn't be separated. I, too, want to see this stopped, because Christians fighting Christians about whose politics are more Christian is, um, not Christian.
But as much as I love these calls to stop the madness, I don't think it will work. As long as political liberals hold and defend the party line on the two big moral issues (abortion and gay issues), there will always be a backlash from those Christians on the Right.
Like many Christians, I've asked the questions about why these two issues are picked as hot-button topics. In particular, why are conservative Christians so vocal about homosexuality and not other sexual sins? I think there are three answers to this:
1. It's a false supposition: Many evangelical Christians leaders preach just as much about other sexual sins, but nobody is noticing.
2. If right-leaning Christians do focus on one sexual sin over the others, it's because they cannot relate. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul lists several sins that are problematic: witchcraft, fornication, alcoholism, homosexuality. But many Christians are more forgiving when it comes to alcoholism and fornication because they engaged in that behavior in their youth. Most do not have any incidences of homosexuality or witchcraft in their past, so those two sins are elevated. This particular charge against evangelicals is right-on.
3. Homosexuality and abortion are unique in that they are the only sins which have organizations which seek to make them acceptable. Is anyone out there advocating bank robbery as an acceptable way to earn a living? Is anyone lobbying legislatures to legalize murder? Is there a push to get churches to drop the idea that fornication is sin? No. But there has been a major push over the past 3 decades to make abortion and homosexuality acceptable, both socially and legally. A backlash from conservatives is to be expected. It's not evidence of meanness or intolerance. It's an obvious, predictable reaction from those who hold to a particular worldview. To cast is as intolerance or hate is nothing less than dishonest.
Comments