How Would Jesus Vote?: A Christian Perspective on the Issues - Couverture rigide

Chapter One: Do Jesus and Politics Mix?

But Peter and John replied,
“Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.”
–Acts 4:19, NIV

Jesus and politics. They do not mix. Or so we have been told.
Jesus is certainly above politics. The question is, would He have His followers be involved in the political process? On the one hand, we should not put our trust in princes. Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas likes to point out that salvation will not come on Air Force One. Fair enough.

Erwin Lutzer, an author and pastor, reminds us that the Cross can accomplish things politics cannot. I agree completely and invest most of my time in evangelism and discipleship. On the other hand, I also believe we must be involved in the political process.

There’s no question conservative Christianity is important in politics. In the wake of the 2006 elections, some “progressive” leaders among the Republicans blamed the religious Right for Democrat gains. Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family shot back: “Values voters are not going to carry the water for the Republican Party if it ignores their deeply held convictions and beliefs.”

Dobson warned the Republican leadership to think twice before it abandoned “their pro-moral, pro-family and pro-life base.”

Meanwhile, a November 2006 poll shows that fewer Christians trust the GOP as faith-friendly: “The number of people who consider the GOP friendly to religion dropped from 55 percent to 47 percent.”3 In November 2006, Newsweek magazine devoted a cover story to “The Politics of Jesus,” while a February 2007 editorial in Time magazine shouted “The Religious Right’s Era Is Over.”5 The same month, Christian Newswire declared that evangelicals are the nation’s single largest voting bloc.6 Even Hillary Clinton, who in 2001 said, “I wonder if it’s possible to be a Republican and a Christian at the same time,”7 recently hired an evangelical consultant to build bridges between her and the faith community.

Any way you look at it, Jesus and politics are a hot topic.

FEAR OF THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT
A former writer for the New York Times, Christopher Hedges, wrote a book titled American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.

In a recent commentary about the book, Don Feder, an orthodox Jew, said, Hedges’ screed is the latest in a long, long, line of hysterical tracts denouncing what the secular left calls the Religious Right. The past year alone has seen such saliva-specked exposés of alleged
Christian extremism as:

Religion Gone Bad: Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right by Mel White
Why the Christian Right Is Wrong by Robin Meyers
The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right by Michael Lerner
Theocons: Secular America Under Siege by Damon Linker
American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips
The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plan for the
Rest of Us by James Rudin
Piety and Politics: The Right Wing Assault on Religious Freedom by the Reverend Barry Lynn and
Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism by Michelle Goldberg.

The objective of all of this Chicken Little squawking is to convince us that the Constitution is falling–that conservative Christians intend to abolish the Bill of Rights, outlaw sin and replace democracy with a theocratic state that will make Calvin’s Geneva look like Hugh Hefner’s bachelor party....

Hedges quotes evangelist [D. James] Kennedy: “As vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government” and “our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors....”

How successful the religious right has been in exercising “godly dominion” over the news media and Hollywood may be seen by picking up the New York Times, tuning in to CNN or NPR or experiencing the torrent of sex and violence (not to mention the ubiquitous attacks on Christianity) in movies shown every evening on cable television.

Kennedy and his colleagues are saying that Christians have a right and a duty to bring their values into the political arena. Shocking!

So here we are in an interesting place. Many in this country, it seems, would prefer that evangelical Christians remain absent from the political process. And yet, for the last decade or so, many Christians, including myself, have taken an active stand in politics, giving the other side plenty to be upset about.

Are Christians really to blame for the problems facing our nation today? Perhaps an analogy

THE CASE OF DR. FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER
We all are aware of the alarming statistics being generated across our nation.
epidemic crime
plummeting educational achievement
pornography infiltrating our homes, even those of some pastors
the breakdown of the family
widespread acceptance of immorality

Clearly, our society is in a great need of a true awakening. I believe it is our only real hope.
What happened along the way from Plymouth Rock to the present? Who is responsible? Was it the atheists? the humanists? the secularists? the communists? the cultists? the New Agers? the hedonists? the ACLU? NOW? the People for the American Way?

Let me tell you a story. You remember it, I am sure. Just imagine, if you will, that final scene in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein when the monster has gone berserk and has wreaked havoc upon the townspeople. He’s left scores of people dead, and now he’s coming after his maker. He’s destroyed his home, and the whole thing is now ablaze and setting the sky alight.

Imagine that, just then, a friend of Frankenstein arrives from a distant city and sees the carnage and the chaos and asks, “Dr. Frankenstein, what has happened here?”

“A monster, a monster!” says the doctor.

The friend is confused. “What are you talking about?”

“A monster did this. It was terrible! He went berserk, killing people and destroying my home!”

“A monster? Where in the world did it come from?”

Silence.

“Dr. Frankenstein? Where did the monster come from?”

The doctor’s face falls. “I...I created it. I made it myself.”

In case you do not see the application, my friend, we have to acknowledge that a great deal of the blame for the state of the nation must fall upon us. It must be placed at the doorstep of the church. We have failed to obey the Great Commission in this country. We have failed to obey our cultural mandate to be involved in every sphere of social activity. We have retreated from politics, from social involvement, from the media, and from higher education.

Now chaos has broken loose, and we look at the scene before us with horror. We may not have created this monster with our own hands, but we have allowed it to grow and take power. With the power of the government, the colleges, the courts, the legislatures, and the media, it has wreaked this disaster–this carnage in America today. Christians have failed to fulfill their responsibilities as citizens in this country, and we have allowed this great blessing of a godly nation to slip through our hands.

WHAT PARTY DOES GOD CLAIM?

What side is God on? People have wanted to know that since the beginning of warfare. During the Civil War, people wondered which side God was on. Initially many pastors and their congregations were duped by Adolf Hitler. Journalist and historian William L. Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, notes that some German “Christians” even drew up a resolution (which ultimately was not adopted) demanding “One People, One
Reich, One Faith,” and these same professing believers wanted to require “all pastors to take an oath of allegiance to Hitler.”

Surely, God did not approve of Hitler’s anti-Jewish, anti-Christian, anti-freedom regime. In the book of Joshua, the title character has an encounter with God, or more precisely, the Son of God:
Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?” (Joshua 5:13—14, NIV)

Interpreting this passage, we know it was Jesus because of the parallel in Revelation 1. Line up the two passages, and you find even some of the same phrases applied to the divine man with the sword who appeared in both cases (further, whenever men attempted to worship an angel, the angel would rebuke them). Joshua asks Jesus, “Are you on our side?” much the same way we ask today, “Lord, are you on our side or theirs?” And how does Jesus answer? “Neither.” In some versions the word is translated “No.” He is not on anybody’s side. Jesus said that He was the commander–Joshua’s captain and the Lord of the battle. He commands not only His people but the days of all people and the host of heaven as well.
We want to vote “correctly,” but how do we know the right way to vote–the Christian way to vote? Throughout history, many people have been burned by thinking their party was right. There was even a so-called Christian party in Nazi Germany when virtually the whole country jumped on the bandwagon. These professing Christians dared to align ...

The 2008 election is shaping up to be one of the most important political contests in American history. In fact, Dr. D. James Kennedy believes it will be a watershed moment that could impact our very survival as a nation under God.

Values voters–people whose political views and votes are based on their faith in God–are being targeted as never before. As we move forward in the campaign season, the significant players will debate terrorism, radical Islam, nuclear threats, global warming, social issues, gay marriage, immigration, education, health care, and many other essential issues that can create sharp ideological divisions.

Into this overwhelmingly complex political situation, Dr. Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe bring a clear, compelling, and nonpartisan exploration of what God’s Word has to say on these critical matters. How Would Jesus Vote? isn’t intended to tell you which candidates to support; rather it offers you a Christ-centered understanding of the world to help you draw your own political conclusions.

This election, don’t cast an uninformed vote that fails to reflect your values. Instead, learn how to apply your faith and obedience to God to your ballot. This timely, helpful, and hopeful book will enable you to do just that.