Keeping Politics Out Of It

Posted on May 17, 2005 | Filed Under Evangelism

Normally, I’m not a big fan of USA Today. But every once in a while, they have a little something that interests me. That’s the beauty of News Aggregators, by the way. You don’t have to frequent a specific site. You can get their XML feed in your aggregator. Also, Google News is great for getting through the news as well. But that is really a topic for the Web category of this blog.

Back to USA Today. They did a piece on Billy Graham that was really good. But there was one particular part of it that stood out from the rest. It was a quote about how he feels about taking political “sides”.

“If I took sides in all these different divisive areas, I would cut off a great part of the people that I really want to reach. So I’ve felt that the Lord would have me just present the Gospel” and stay out of politics

I thought about this, since lately, it has been very compelling to take a stronger stand on the political fence. We are all guilty of it: getting caught up in the political drama that has enveloped our nation for the past few years. It shows no signs of stopping. And is it really productive for us, as Christians, to wrap politics into our faith? I think that answer is a resounding NO.

Billy Graham is right. If we take sides, we are in danger of alienating some of the people we want to reach. Is that what we should be doing? Sure, in this country, we want to take a stand for what we believe. We want our elected government to reflect this belief. But when it comes right down to it, what is more important, political activisim or reaching people with the Gospel? I don’t know about you, but I’ve got to go with the latter.

Don’t those that do not agree with you on a political level still deserve to be reached with the Gospel? If we alienate them with our political views, we will never reach them. In fact, we will only serve to push them farther away from the truth.

We have a tremendous opportunity right now. The world is being made aware of Christianity like never before. From the death of a pope to the political drive of the “conservative right,” people of the world are being made aware. Let’s make sure we send the right message. Remember, as much as we love our country and our system of government that has allowed us to preach without violent repercussion, it is still a government that is of this world. We should focus on Christ’s heavenly kingdom and not this earthly one.

Jesus said in John 18:36 “My kingdom is not of this world” and he reminds us in Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, and Luke 21:33 “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”

Focus on what is important: working for Christ’s Kingdom.


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Comments

2 Responses to “Keeping Politics Out Of It”

  1. Mom on May 20th, 2005 8:50 am

    AMEN! Preach it!

  2. rawfish on June 14th, 2005 9:20 pm

    gotta agree with you there… are we spending our time as Christians tidying up a sinking ship or warning people to put their lifejackets on? A lot of politics is all about secular solutions for a secular world… pray for our leaders, vote as your Lord leads you to - but getting upset over what the unsaved are legislating and how they’re running the govt? I think the Lord has bigger plans for us to focus on. Love Jesus Freaks by the way. I keep a copy by my bed. Kind of puts my prayers in perspective whenever I feel like moaning to the Lord over something trivial.
    Bless you.

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