Ethics Daily ran my latest article today, which is entitled "A 'Transformative Moment' in SBC Political Activity." It notes that tomorrow is the thirtieth anniversary of an important religious-political rally, the National Affairs Briefing that was held by the Religious Roundtable in Dallas. Then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan spoke at the rally. For the article, I talked with several people, including evangelist James Robison (who was in charge of the event).
Copyright 2017, Brian Kaylor. All rights Reserved.
At the Dallas event, Reagan claimed that "religious America is awakening," by which he meant conservative Christians. Echoing this sentiment, Robison urged evangelicals at the event to "crawl out from under the pews and stop looking through stained-glass windows" and instead get involved in politics to "take over this country."
ReplyDeleteOh ye of little faith! From a spiritual standpoint, I think this is deeply flawed thinking from Robison.
The power of faith far, far exceeds any political power. Name one political organization throughout history with anywhere near the lasting power of the Abrahamic religions. Does anyone seriously expect any of today's political parties to have the power to endure into the far future, as faith in Jehovah has endured and flourished for thousands of years? Political empires come and go, while faith remains.
So why would men who profess the power of faith advocate a turn to political means to achieve their ends? It doesn't make any sense to me. We should not lose sight of the fact that faith in God will far outlast and out-perform any notion of "God's Own Party". We don't win souls or even lasting positive societal change by organizing and flexing political power to "take over this country". We do it by living our faith and showing a better way through example.
Now Robison laments: "We're heading the wrong direction," Robison stated about today's national leaders. "We need an about-face."
This is obviously because the "Reagan revolution", like all political movements, is fleeting. What seemed so powerful then has lost much of it's ability to influence our country's direction today.
How much better would it been if we had used our time in the pews behind those stained-glass windows to focus on faith instead of politics for these past 30 years? What enduring positive effects could we have had on our society if we had only spent more of that time proclaiming the positive power of faith from the rooftops instead of promoting political action from the pulpit?
the event served in many ways as the marriage ceremony between Southern Baptists and the Republican Party.
And now we must face the results of this unequal yoking between spiritual faith and secular politics. We were warned (2 Cor. 6:14).