A Study in Contrasts

What are evangelicals to do with recent electoral victories? Two approaches are shown by Jim Dobson and Chuck Colson. The New York Times is reporting Evangelical Leader Threatens to Use His Political Muscle Against Some Democrats:

COLORADO SPRINGS - James C. Dobson, the nation's most influential evangelical leader, is threatening to put six potentially vulnerable Democratic senators "in the 'bull's-eye' " if they block conservative appointments to the Supreme Court.

In a letter his aides say is being sent to more than one million of his supporters, Dr. Dobson, the child psychologist and founder of the evangelical organization Focus on the Family, promises "a battle of enormous proportions from sea to shining sea" if President Bush fails to appoint "strict constructionist" jurists or if Democrats filibuster to block conservative nominees.

The same article refers to an open letter to the Christian Church by Chuck Colson. Here Chuck Colson warns evangelicals not to become yet another special interest group.

So, what are we lining up at Election Day to get in return for our votes?  Nothing.  All we want is the President to be the man that he is and do the kinds of things he did in the first term.

I resent the media implication that Christians are waiting for their payback.  We’re interested in the common good for all people (the theological term for that is common grace).  We vote with conviction about a man’s integrity, his faith, his beliefs, and his accomplishments in restoring the moral order in American life.

So, Mr. President, give us more of the same.

This is an open letter to the church and to church leaders.  Do not let the media typecast us.  We are not special interest pleaders.  The media would love to catch us in the trap, talking about what the president is going to do for us.  The media loves to use stuff like that to paint us as “theocrats.”  Note what the New York Times did Thursday.   Garry Wills wrote a harsh piece, charging that we were trying to “roll back the Enlightenment” which is, of course, pure nonsense.  Poor Thomas Friedman wrote that he woke up the morning after the election to discover that many of us want a different America than he does (yes, we do—we want a moral America, which boggles the minds of some who live on Manhattan Island.)  But the point is we mustn’t give them an excuse to bash us.

What we care about is what’s good for the nation.  Record numbers of Americans cast their votes for Bush because he proved to so many of us that he shares these values, that he cares about the moral state of American life, and that he puts his faith in practice.  He has shown us his faith by his works.  Let’s us show our faith, not by flexing political muscles but by our good works.

Chuck Colson is willing to make such a sentiment as part of his New Year's resolutions.

We also, however, face a sobering question. Evangelicals have come back into the limelight. Talking heads are commenting on the increasing power of “values voters” and conservative Christians. And to listen to some Christians, one gets the idea that this is the time for our political payback.

So the question is this: Can we handle success and increased influence with grace and prudence?

The sad fact is that all Christians are susceptible to worldly wiles. In fact, sad to say, the Church has managed to shoot itself in the foot almost every time it has achieved power in society.

So what we need most right now is a bracing dose of humility. We’re not a labor union, lining up for our share of the spoils after the election. We are the Church. Our job is to bring biblical truth to bear in society; to win people to Christ; and to promote righteousness and justice. We serve the King of kings, no mere temporal king.

The Apostle Peter tells us always to be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is within us, but with gentleness and reverence. And we are to keep a clear conscience so that when people slander us, they may become “ashamed of their slander.” Though we are commanded to engage in the political process, we are to do so lovingly, as citizens concerned for the common good. Trying to do that is my first resolution.

Not a bad way to start 2005.