As we enter a new year and this new blog continues to unfold, I would just like to share some thoughts I had about the importance of centrism in religion as well as politics, and caution against marrying them so closely….
I wish many of our Christian brethren/sisters would leave the realm of trying to marry religious beliefs to a particular political persuasion. Paradoxical as it may seem, Christianity does not need politics to be furthered. Well-meaning Christians often think it does. Christians who try to package God up and peddle Him to others as though He is as simple to comprehend as a political viewpoint may essentially be pushing a modern form of idolatry.
Fellow Christians have become drunken with ‘victory’ at the polls, instead of the victory at the cross. But we as Christians don’t have to be “victorious” in stuffing our religion down others’ throats by being elected and telling others how they’ve got it all wrong. That only turns people off to your religion and political party in the long run.
A real change in a person’s life through Christ does not happen overnight, but over a lifetime through God’s inner workings and not legal impositions. God works with each individual over time in His own way. For this reason, we Christians must resist the temptation to “save” the country from the evil and ‘unrighteousness’ that exists in this world by a stroke of the legal pen or the vote of a citizen or Member of Congress.
We must change our thinking: God is not restricted in working only through politicians or political parties. God is not so small.
If God wants us to know something as Christians and to act on our beliefs across all of society, I am convinced He will lead us. We each must approach the matter very openly and dialogue with each other about the best course of action. We must listen to each other, and not think too highly of ourselves, but consider all sides of the issues of our day. Jesus would do no less, and if He would so act, then we, His followers, should surely do likewise.
The danger of a blurring of the lines between separation of church and state is that the simple religious message gets lost in politics. We must preserve the sanctity of both by keeping them from polluting each other.
I sometimes have gotten discouraged during the past six years that the voice of Christian reason and moderation has been lost. I sincerely hope that the pendulum has begun to swing back to the center after this past fall’s elections.
I don’t want the pendulum to swing too far back left though. I believe the center is where we should be as a country…and I just remind myself that we wouldn’t know where the “center” is, if we didn’t have swings between the right and left periodically. That is just the history of things, and it is no different now.
