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