Militant and Christianity- They Don’t Go Together
So now we come to an even more controversial subject; Christian Political Activism.

I’m not talking about individuals, who happen to be Christians involving themselves in the political arena. I'm referring here to Christians who involve themselves in politics, because they are Christians, identifying themselves as Christians AND identifying their politics as being those of Christ.

For the record, I can find no scripture that would identify Jesus as a Republican or a Democrat. In fact, reviewing Christ’s life on earth, I think that just about the time that either of the party’s faithful became comfortable with Jesus’ politics that he would identify a position contrary to that party’s platform.

So to begin this section let’s discuss a subject about which every reader is sure to hold a view.
Abortion

The church has seldom shown more hate and un-Christ-like behavior than it has over the issue of abortion. There are a multitude of mistakes that have allowed these attitudes and behaviors to grow in churches.

The church has once again attempted to get unredeemed hearts to behave as if they were redeemed. We must to stop trying to change the behavior of sinners and start offering them hope for change in their hearts.

If Jesus were walking the Earth today, he no doubt would have lunch at the house of an abortionist. Unfortunately, he would be unable to get booking on most Christian talk radio shows afterward.

If you want to stop abortions in this country there are two basic choices.

-Change the hearts of the millions of women who consider an abortion each year.
-Change the hearts of the hundreds of abortionists who perform them each year.

Which do you think sounds more mathematically practical?

By the way- notice if you will that I did not list changing the law a way to stop abortion. Changing the law will just make abortion an underground behavior. If we are truly interested in stopping abortion, we must concentrate on changing hearts.

Instead of picketing abortion clinics, we should be befriending abortionists. We should be showing them the same unconditional love that we needed, no more than them, and which we found through the sacrifice of Christ.

If every pregnant woman in America wanted an abortion and there were no abortionists, how many abortions would be performed?

Sadly, this logic, combined with a hate-filled heart and carried to an extreme has resulted in the murder of several abortionists in our country.

Seeds of hate will never produce a crop of love. Seeds of vengeance will never produce a harvest of tolerance. We can never replace turning the tables for turning the other cheek and expect the sanction of God.

At any point where Christianity reduces itself to the tactics of its opponents, the opponents have already won the day.

I was walking through a parking lot some time ago and saw a license plate frame that read, "Saturday is the Sabbath." As I watched people walk by, no one read the message, fell on their knees and repented, saved from a fiery eternity. It amazes me what insignificant practices the body of Christ will elevate and debate with ferocity while, every second, billions of people slip closer to the brink of an eternity without God.

When we attempt to replace the love that is the basis of Christianity with bumper sticker theology; when we forfeit being moved with compassion, (as scripture so often records just prior to miraculous ministry of Jesus), when we politicize what has been offered freely to Greek Jew, Republican, Democrat, homophobe and homosexual, we quench the ability of the Holy Spirit to move in the lives of those who need Christ so desperately, for we have removed liberty.

Speak the truth in love we are told. But, goes the argument, it is love to point out sin to sinner. Tough love you say is speaking the unpopular boldly. Tough love, I say, is turning the other cheek. Tough love is showing compassion to one who is in the middle of turmoil, no matter who has caused the turmoil.

We need to understand some basic things about political zealotry and Christianity. It is not a new phenomenon. Even while Jesus walked the shores of Galilee, religious zealots with a political agenda of overthrowing Rome were present. The title of Christianity has been co-opted for political and social causes ranging from the Holy Roman Empire to the Ku Klux Klan to the Civil Rights Movement to Pro-Life organizations to Third-World Hungry-Children Programs. It is not my intent to take sides on these issues in this writing, rather I intend to discuss some principles and guidelines that we need to employ if we are even considering a venture into these arenas.

In many discussions concerning Christian Activism in political and social causes, I have yet to hear some of the following fundamentals addressed. I don’t think it is because they are viewed as "givens" and therefore unnecessary to bring up. I believe it is because these ideas are rejected by many religious zealots who advance political causes in the name of Christ.

-To invoke the name of Jesus in any political cause, we must first be certain that the position we take is exactly the position our savior would take if He were present in the flesh. To do otherwise is moral hypocrisy at best.

-To invoke the name of Jesus in any political cause, we must first be certain that the actions associated with our position are completely consistent with the actions our savior would take if He were present in the flesh. To do otherwise is moral hypocrisy at best.

-To invoke the name of Jesus in any political cause, we must first accept that this cause is important enough to risk alienating persons of the opposite view from an eternity with Jesus. It is after all a very real possibility.

-We must recognize that having a political or constitutional right is not the same as having a spiritual right.

-We must recognize that having a spiritual right is not the same as having a spiritual mandate. (We see an example of this concerning divorce. Under the Mosaic law, men had the right to divorce their wives for infidelity; it was a concession allowed by God, not a mandate required by Him.)

-Any cause for which we find ourselves demonstrating with zeal will by definition minimize the amount of energy and attention we can give to other areas in our lives. We must choose well what we will allow to consume our energies.

-We are not as Christians required to advance the kingdoms of this world, but rather the kingdom of God.

-We are told that people will know us as Christians by our love for one another.

Having accepted all of the above, and having then decided that you are going to make a political stand in the name of Christianity, only those methods which are acceptable both in the political arena and in the teachings of Jesus are acceptable. This would mean that though burning your opposition in effigy may be politically acceptable (for the sake of argument) it would not be consistent with the love we are required to show as Christians and therefore be a behavior excluded from the arsenal of the true Christian zealot.

There is a song we sing sometimes, based on scripture; "The zeal of God has consumed me; it burns in my soul; a driving force that cannot be stopped; a fire that cannot be quenched." It is my personal opinion that while many people possess the zeal of God; few have let it consume them. Few have let the zeal of God consume their own personal agendas and desires; few have let the zeal of God consume their own political motivations; few have let the zeal of God consume their old way of doing things when they want to get something done.

What we are left with are spiritually loaded cannons with little discernment over where to aim themselves and what charge they should be carrying.

I contend that the political process we should be most involved in is not picketing and protesting; lobbying and bully-pulpit sermonizing; it is extending love to those who have made bad choices and welcoming them to the kingdom of God with open arms and open hearts. There are few (I might well argue no) causes so urgent that we as Christians need to substitute intolerance, impatience, ridicule and harshness for the love extended by our head, Jesus.  ¶ 10:45 AM