Acts 1:8 According to the Christian Coalition
“But Ralph Reed & Pat Robertson shall come upon you and give you power. Then you will tell everyone about abortion and gay marriage in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria and everywhere in the world.”
There is a bumper sticker I saw recently that really set me off. Lost in wonderment and awe staring at the bumper of an ever so pretentiously eco-green Prius, it read “the Religious Right is neither”. I’ve got to get one of those! Imagine the nasty post-it notes on the window of my car on Sunday. That thought alone causes me to feel warm and toasty inside. This may have detrimental affects on my church membership, that is, if I was a member in the first place.
What is the real purpose of the church – big C church, not just your local community? The same question can be asked of individual Christ followers?
With those thoughts in mind, there are a few things that christiandom needs to just let go of. If the Gospel of Christ is to spread at home and around the world then evangelicals need to release the stranglehold on a few issues. Namely these four in no order are Abortion, Gay Marriage, Creation Science, and Prayer in schools. Oh boy, there it is! The Holy Quad of all things Christian. Before you run off for wood and matches to burn me at the stake as a heretic, just bear with me a minute.
When you turn on your radio to a religious station which of the following topics do you hear about? The latest from DC on a states ruling on limiting definitions of civil unions, or a discussion on what it means to live like Jesus in a post modern culture? Do you hear Dobson go on and on about Hollywood, or do you hear a call in program where anyone can ask the tough questions and doubts about God? We don’t hear those things not because they are not needed, but because they don’t cause action. And by action I mean money. In the Christian realm of America action = cash. If you get them mad you can get their money.
Just think for a moment what $26.5 million dollars would do for places like the Miami Valley Womens Center, Elizabeth New Life Center, Christ’s Hope International, and Stand True? That is the exact amount of revenue the Christian Coalition of America once generated. More recently, they are more than $2 million dollars in debt. Following is a clip from CNN.com on the CCA:
” The president-elect of the Christian Coalition of America resigned his post Monday.
Rev. Joel C. Hunter cited a difference in philosophy over which issues the conservative Christian organization, in his opinion, should embrace.
Currently the senior pastor of the Northland Church in Longwood, Florida, Hunter was to assume the presidency in January. (Watch why Hunter stepped aside –> –> –> –> –> –> –>[if gte vml 1]> –> –> –> –> –>[endif]–> –> –> –> –> –> –> –>[if !vml]–>
–> –> –> –> –> –> –>[endif]–>)
But Hunter said CCA leaders resisted his calls to expand their issue base.
“I wanted to expand the issues from only moral ones — such as opposing abortion and redefining marriage — to include compassion issues such as poverty, justice, and creation care,” Hunter said in a statement. “We need to care as much for the vulnerable outside the womb as inside the womb.”
Hunter also said he wanted to focus on rebuilding the CCA’s once powerful grassroots network — an appeal he says board members rejected.
“After initial willingness to consider these changes, the board of the CCA decided, ‘that is fine, but that is not who we are,’ ” Hunter said.
That last sentence astonishes me. “Thats fine, but that’s not who we are”. Providing food for the hungry, standing up for the treatment of other humans, and caring for what God created is not who you are? Then who exactly are you? And don’t give me the christianese jargon of that’s not our calling or our mission. Sorry, if you use the word “Christian” in your name, that is your mission, along with a few other things, whether you like it or not!
What if we as believers take our clinched fists that hold these issues so tightly that they have come to define who we are, and open our hands and release them? What if our fists became open hands and open arms raised in worship humbly allowing our Creator to define us? Make His passions our passions. His purpose our purpose. This does not mean we are waving the white flag in defeat and giving up. It means that we are putting them back in the hands of the only one who can fix them. It means we admit that these issues are part of a bigger problem caused by the fall and our only redemption is in hands with scars.
There is such a thing as a coalition of Christians. It’s called the Church. Its time for the church to stop acting as a Political Action Committee and start acting like the Church. Its time to stop yelling and start serving.
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
