In-Sight: The Death of Christianity

Okay…I admit it.  I entitled this post to get your attention.  I guess if you’ve read this far, it worked.  🙂

Now, to the point.  As the United States presidential-election process has moved along (for what seems longer than ever), something very disturbing to me is occurring.  Because it affects how some people view spirituality in general and Christianity in particular, I want to briefly describe my concern.

It is simply the tendency (among the popular media and some others in both the church and academy) to identify “true Christianity” with only one part of the political spectrum.  I could be more specific, but I’m going to guess you have seen at least one version of this tendency. It happens on the religious “left” as well as the “right.”

The truth is, Christianity (as it was intended to be) will die if it becomes a synonym for a single political and/or social perspective.  An example of this is the article written by Dan Cady last year entitled, “Why Evangelicals Hate Jesus.”  Unfortunately, professor Cady painted with too broad a brush in his use of the term “evangelical,”—-but—-he did capture what the rank-and-file general public tend to think about people who use that term to describe themselves.  And even more unfortunate is the fact that a lot of what he said about some evangelicals is true.

And that’s the problem—things rise and fall more by the perceptions attached to them than the facts, which can only surface when people take the time to become part of a community and expose themselves to actual beliefs taught by people who have not caricatured the thing itself.

Jesus warned his disciples to beware the leaven of both Sadducees and Pharisees, and he was careful to keep separated what was “of God” and what was “of Caesar.”  We lose his way when we try to create another way that equates Christianity with politics, no matter what piece of it.

I’ve now voted in eleven presidential elections, and those elections have produced presidents from both major parties.  None of them (or their party) has solved the problems plaguing this nation.  Christians make a fundamental and serious mistake by identifying the faith with any person or party.

Christianity dies when this happens because it “humanizes” and “idolizes” what only God can do.  That’s why Jesus would not reduce what he was trying to do to partisanship of any kind.  Our way asks humans to be gods.  Christ’s way asks us to let God be God.

This does not eliminate the need for all people to vote as their minds, hearts, and consciences lead them to vote.  It does not mean that government is not used by God to improve life.   But it must mean that we don’t think the winner will now “bring in the Kingdom.”  Politicians come close enough to making us believe this will happen if they are elected.  At least, let’s remember Jesus didn’t tell us it would happen that way.