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My Journey Through The Ecclesiastical Maze

Part 23

The Conservative Christian Right

While visiting Northern Virginia in 1977 on my work placement from Elim Bible Institute I watched Air Force One fly overhead.  It was Inauguration Day, and President Ford was flying home to Michigan after handing the reigns over to Jimmy Carter.  Even though the Republicans lost the White House in the 1976 election the “Conservative Christian Right” was emerging as a credible force in American politics.  Jerry Falwell and Pat Roberson, both from Virginia , although from different parts of the ecclesiastical spectrum, were two of the movement’s leaders.  I visited both Falwell’s Liberty University and Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network while living in Virginia .  It was in this world of “Christian Conservatism” that I was baptized into U. S. politics.

When we moved to the United States in 1980, we lived in Vienna , Virginia , a suburb of Washington D.C. .  Metropolitan Washington was nothing like our little city of thirty-five thousand people in Canada .  I’ve never lived in a more exhilarating place in all of my life.  Everything was buzzing around you, from the traffic, to commerce, and to the world of government and politics.  Two things I learned to like or else feel out of place were American politics and Washington Red Skins football.  My friends in Virginia were addicted to both.

While living in Northern Virginia I got to visit the White House, Capital Hill, and many other important places, including the building in which U.S. currency  is printed.  I just have one complaint about that place.  They didn’t offer me any free samples of their product.

I recall sitting in the U.S. senate chamber listening to Ted Kennedy eloquently expounding on his perception of the “peace movement” as it was called in 1981.  This was before the fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall.  Kennedy’s view on this matter was quite different from President Reagan’s world view of peace.

I clearly recall the day President Reagan was shot.  I watched it all on TV while in bed after accidently  poking my left eye with a sharp metal stick at an Arlington , Virginia flower shop where I worked. I bent over to pick something up from the floor when the tallest of six metal sticks that were firmly planted into a flower pot rammed it self into my eye.  Flowers were normally attached to these sticks and the pot of flowers would be placed beside a gravestone.  I didn’t see this stick as I bent over.  I didn’t have time to close my eyes, and certainly didn’t have time to slow the movement of my head to avoid the collision.  Within minutes my body was in shock and I could no longer stand because of the piercing pain.  I don’t know how or why I didn’t lose  my eye, except that maybe Jesus figured I needed two bad eyes instead of one bad eye.  It’s probably my strange sense of humour, but it seems funny to me that Jesus hasn’t made my two bad eyes good, but He would prevent the loss of one of my bad eyes.  Not that it means anything to anyone, but both Reagan and I were relegated to a bed that day.        

I learned a lot about the religious heritage of the U.S. in those days since Virginia is so important to U.S. history.  In some localities it seems like the Civil War just ended yesterday.  Some historians claim the foundation of America was based more on Deistic theology than Christian theology, but whatever the case, “in God we trust” was evident in America ’s formation. 

I got caught up in the “Christian involvement in government” movement which has been a topic of debate for centuries in the ecclesiastical maze.  Opinions range from no involvement at all in such a worldly institution, to Christians having a responsibility to change society through politics.  Thus Pat Robertson ran for president in 1988. I had followed his ministry since the early 1970’s and even had the opportunity to sing and speak with two of my friends on his upstate New York radio network years earlier.    

In 1981 we moved south to Richmond , Virginia where I became a precinct canvassing coordinator for the Republican candidate in the 1982 congressional election.  My job was to round up people to go door to door with me evangelizing about the virtues of the Republican party.  One thing I intentionally  excluded from my “Republican gospel” was the fact that I was a Canadian and couldn’t vote for the one I was encouraging others to vote for.    

Ern Baxter was a prominent Bible teacher in the Charismatic Movement.  After returning to Canada I asked him what he thought about Pat Robertson running for president.  He said that he had no real problem with it as long as Robertson understood that if he became president, he’d be demoting himself from being a preacher of the gospel to being president of the United States .  I never quite thought about it in those terms before.  His answer began to change my thinking on this issue towards a more balanced position.    

I’m not opposed to Christian involvement in government and politics.  Many of us live in democracies that allow us to promote our Christian world view in the public arena, and I’m grateful for that.  Still, I’ve come to understand that all governments, including our western democracies, are worldly and not Christian.  Some people seem to equate political democracy as being part of the Kingdom of God , but it’s not.  Peter, in Acts 2:40 warned people to “save themselves from this corrupt  generation”, which in my thinking includes secular government.  

Jesus, in Matthew 24:6 tells us that nations will rise up against other nations.  This is a result of the spiritual battle that is presently taking place in the spiritual atmosphere around us.  This tells me that governments aren’t Christian.  Jesus then tells us in Matthew 24:14 that “the gospel of the Kingdom” would be preached throughout  the world before the end of the age comes.  Note that Jesus doesn’t say the “gospel of salvation” would be preached.  The gospel that will be preached at the end  is the gospel of the  soon-coming Kingdom of God that will replace the kingdoms of men.  This tells me that worldly kingdoms will fall and give way to the Kingdom of God .  So whether governments are democratic or socialistic, liberal or conservative, they will all fall at the judgment seat of Christ. 

I’ve often thought that if the apostle Paul wanted to change society through government, he would have somehow found his way to Rome in some official capacity, but he didn’t.  He ended up in Rome as a prisoner for Jesus, an ambassador of the Kingdom of God , preaching the gospel to those in the political arena.  Paul knew that the kingdoms of men and the Kingdom of God don’t mix.  Jesus chose him to change society through the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit.  This change would come about by individuals giving their lives to Jesus.       

It’s clear to me that we cannot Christianize our society by government becoming Christian. That’s been tried and it doesn’t work.  The “Christianization of the Roman Empire ” in the fourth century was a total disaster.  It did more harm than most of us realize to Christians and to the church throughout the centuries.  Mixing worldliness with Christian faith is not scriptural.  What is scriptural is leaving worldliness behind to devote oneself to Jesus.  To be honest, I don’t think our mandate is to “Christianize society”.  Jesus will do that at the end of this age when He sets up His Kingdom on the new earth as seen in Revelation.  Our mandate is to “Christianize individual people” by leading them to Jesus in true repentance and faith.   

Supposedly there were Christian candidates in the United Sates election of 2008, but from my standpoint some of the things done, especially behind the scenes, weren’t Christian.  The problem is that these candidates  were running in the kingdom of men where the rules are much different than in the Kingdom of God .  So for the most part Christian campaigns are no different than non-Christian campaigns, and that’s probably to be expected because in many cases the world of church that Christian politicians are used to is no different than the world of politics.  And by the way, did you happen to notice that in the U.S. primaries, pretty well every candidate claimed to be a person of faith?  In the midst of these claims I heard no mention of Jesus, and that’s what Christian faith is all about.   

Our government and our society is presently moving away from any Christian consensus it might have had.  In this process Christians and the church are beginning to feel the squeeze from a humanistic society.  I foresee a day when churches will lose their government perks such as their special tax status, and their pass on paying property taxes, but that doesn’t’ bother me.  I think such a squeeze will benefit us in the long run, and might well force us to live out church as it was meant to be lived.

Whatever happens in the future, and lots will happen, we need our priorities right in this matter.  Jesus told us to seek His kingdom first. (Matthew 6:33) That means our allegiance is first to the Kingdom of God , not to kingdoms of men.  He also said that “His Kingdom was not of this world”, suggesting we can’t mix His Kingdom with our kingdoms. (John 18:36)  When thinking of Christian involvement in government and politics, we need to understand how the Kingdom of God relates to the kingdoms of men, weigh the cost of our involvement, and prioritize such involvement with other things Jesus would have us do.      

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