Should Christians Be Politically Active?

Protesters making their views known about the “trans” military ban in front of the White House, on July 26, 2017.

Photo by Ted Eytan from Washington, DC, USA [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Last week, I received an e-mail from a teenager who read my book, Assumptions That Affect Our Lives. I rarely receive notes from teen readers, and it pleases me when I do. 

Portions of the young man's note are as follows: 

"Dr. Overman, I am 17 years old and very disturbed at the state of our country, as I am sure you are. I just finished reading your Assumptions book, and I must say, it was very eye-opening and well written. However, I do not agree with you when you stated in the epilogue that 'As followers of Christ, we must be politically active.' I do not know of any place in the Bible where we are commanded to play a role in politics…Why is it that you place such high importance on being politically active? I believe that it is through the ministry of the church that the hearts and minds of people will be changed. If the church fulfills the Great Commission, and people's hearts are changed, then we will see Christian politicians. I believe this is the only way to see change in our county…Proclaiming the gospel is much more important that politics, and is in fact, our duty as Christians. If we do our job, and proclaim the gospel, then our country will change.”

This young man's thinking reflects the thinking of many Christian adults, including church leaders. I don't know, but perhaps the young man who wrote to me may have heard from one or two.  

Should Christians be politically active?

Several days after receiving the above note, a friend of mine [who did not know of my communication with the young reader] sent me an article with the title, Did the Call for Christians to "Just Preach the Gospel" result in California Becoming Anti-Christian?

This was too much for me to pass up.  

Rather than re-stating the main points of this article, I encourage you to read it for yourself. Chew it well before swallowing, so it can be digested slowly: click here.

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman 

The Greater Threat To Christianity In The U.S.

Big gifts sometimes come in small packages. God Spoke, by Dr. Erik Strandness, is such a gift. In a mere 56 pages, the author says things better than most writers can do in 256 pages.

Dr. Strandness points to a 2016 Gallup poll showing 90% of Americans still believe in “God.” Turns out, the greater threat to Christianity in the U.S. is not atheism, but polytheism: the postmodern notion that any god will do, and one god is just as valid as another. This is ancient Greece all over again.

“We all have the same God-shaped hole,” writes Dr. Strandness, “but the odd ways in which we try to fill it create religious differences. Our postmodern culture [is] telling us that all paths lead to the same divine mountaintop, but that illusory unity is shattered once we reach the summit and look around to see that each religious victory flag has been struck on a completely different peak.”

The “spiritual hole” Dr. Strandness alludes to is the same spiritual hole Paul found in the marketplace of Athens. Paul congratulated them on their religious nature, but challenged them to get specific about who their ‘unknown god’ really was. Strandness takes a similar tack, using brilliant 21^st century imagery.

This is a beautifully written apologetic for people who are wondering about who the ‘unknown god’ really is. It reflects the journey of the author himself, who practiced neonatal medicine for twenty years before his life was radically transformed by a passion to thoroughly understand his faith.

Temporarily setting aside his medical practice, Dr. Strandness went back to school and earned a degree in theology. It’s a rare thing to find a medical doctor with a theology degree! Erik has since resumed practicing medicine in Spokane, Washington, and serves as a Christian worldview educator during his off-hours.

I met Erik while he was participating in the Colson Fellows Program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. I can vouch for his character. He is the “real deal.” What’s more, he is a great writer, with the most unusual way with words I've seen.

God Spoke: Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide with Divine Discourse is Erik’s 3rd book. Prior to this, he wrote The Director’s Cut: Finding God’s Screenplay on the Cutting Room Floor, and, Cry of the Elephant Man: Listening for Man’s Voice above the Herd.

For your copy of God Spoke, click here.

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman 

There Will Rise Up A Stigma

Public shaming has been around for a long time. These men were put into the stocks at Bramhall, England, in the year 1900. I don't know why they were put into the stocks, but they must have done something...very...very...bad.
 
[Photo Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Author unknown.]

A National Public Radio web article flashed the headline: "Christian colleges are tangled in their own LGBT policies." John Stonestreet, President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and Roberto Rivera, followed up with an ominous BreakPoint commentary (link below).

The reality is that many Christian colleges are as much at risk today as "politically incorrect" flower shops and cake decorating businesses. If student loans from the government are not allowed to be used at colleges having particular views on sexual practice, many colleges will not survive the financial hit.

I would only add to the BreakPoint analysis, that even if the student loan situation were not an issue, the "court of public opinion" is. Christian colleges holding to a biblical view of homosexuality will be targets of increasing public shaming for being "intolerant," "narrow minded," and (the worst) "unloving." 

They will be painted as Southern schools of the early '60s with segregation policies. There will rise up a stigma associated with such schools which many Christian students (and their parents) will not be willing to carry in public.

As this stigma becomes a reality for Christian colleges, it will become a reality for Christian K-12 schools. But it will not stop there.

It will become a reality for Bible-teaching churches, too. Christian K-12 schools will be facing the prospect of losing enough students to shut their doors. This is exactly where things are headed. And churches will not be able to dodge this bullet either. The faithful everywhere will be put into public stocks and shamed.

Think it could never happen? Think again.

Christian institutions (whether K-12 schools, colleges, or churches) that hold to the belief that homosexual conduct is sin (I use an old, outdated word) are headed for difficult testing. Some Christian schools and churches will try to "survive" by moderating their views on what is acceptable sexual behavior. This is already happening. 

Such testing is God's way. Allowing the likes of LGBTQ activism to test the hearts and minds of His own has been His way of doing things since the days of Job, and before.

God's judgment begins with the testing of His own people. As the Apostle Peter wrote to his own generation, "The time has come for God's judgment, and it is beginning with the testing of his own people." The Living Water Translation, I Peter 4:17.

For the BreakPoint article, click here. 

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman 

Worklife Restoration and Advancement Project

Effective Christian schools have effective leaders. Cindy Mathisen, is one such leader at Lighthouse Christian School, Gig Harbor, Washington.

Worldview Matters® is currently accepting applications from Christian schools for the Worklife Restoration and Advancement Project [WRAP], starting in the coming 2018-19 academic year.

For more information about the WRAP, including how to get an Application Form, click here.

Maybe you don't know what the "WRAP" is all about. The best way to find out, is to watch the short video clip below, as teachers and administrators from Lighthouse Christian School, a WRAP school in Gig Harbor, Washington, share about their professional development experience through the WRAP program.

In recent posts I have spoken of the problem of "secularizing" schools, both the State type and "Christian" school type. So, what does a de-secularizing school look like?

It looks like this:

If this video does not play, click https://youtu.be/ZAEGrH_z8gE

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman