Hijacking Jesus

As a kid, life was a lot simpler than now. There was school, family and church. Each operated independent from the other but in harmony. There was also freedom to support political parties without hate and anger and vilification of the opposing party. As recent as the mid 80’s, there were no political speeches and agenda being promoted in church. Somewhere, our churches and message have been hijacked by a political party and we have since, allowed ourselves and our churches to be used as a political mouthpiece. I assume that the beginning of this shift was around the “moral majority” and the leaders that came from that movement. These included Jerry Fallwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson and a myriad of others. I was a faithful listener to James Dobson and his daily radio show for several years. I started to notice around 1986, a change in the message from spiritual to political, so much so that one day Dr. Dobson stated that he understood if people wanted to turn from his show to another political conservative show that was on at the same time….hint, hint, Rush Limbaugh. I had no idea who that was but after researching the other show, I was shocked that a religious leader would endorse a show that was so full of hatred and vitriol toward anyone and anything democratic or liberal. I tried to consider the changing viewpoints offered on Christian radio and in church but I could not support the agenda. My Grandfather was a Democrat and my Dad is a Democrat and I am basically being told that all of us are evil and going to burn in hell unless we joined the Republican and conservative movements. I was working with a church youth group at the time and we were into Christian Rock music. It was a really pure art from and focused on the gospel message. Even this began to change. The change was so dramatic that at a concert, one singer stopped to preach about abortion and how democrats wanted to kill infants. I was so shocked that I sent an email to the band and stated my opinions. My point to him was that Jesus / Religion should not be mixed with politics. Politics should be similar to pulling for your favorite ball team. You can pull hard for your side, but you can’t go to war in the streets over a ball game or ball team. Further, you could not get up in church and state that God loves Alabama and hates Auburn or God loves Michigan and reviles Ohio State and you could not say that Florida is Godly and Florida State is evil and is responsible for the decay of modern society. My ultimate point would be that church and politics do not mix and if you have a church or pastor that spends their time churning up a political fight that simply means that he or she does not have enough biblical knowledge and insight to discuss the real issues about God and the bible. In acting, anger is the easiest emotion to portray and so it is in church. It is easy and lazy to whip a crowd into a political frenzy but it is not the right thing to do. The sad part is that inherent in most denominations and religions is the attitude of “our way is right and everyone else in wrong”. This lends itself to easy political manipulation to consider that if you are a Christian, then you have to be a Republican. The next step in that line of reasoning is that all democrats are going to hell and it is proper to kill abortion doctors in their church and to protest abortion to the point of knocking down a pregnant teenager at a clinic and causing her to have a miscarriage. God does not support any political party and he never will. We would be well served to stay out of political matters as a group because when we insist on being involved in church and politics, then there would really be no reason to keep tax free status in tact because you have become a political agent and not an agent for God. There is no persecution of Christianity here at this time but when we brandish guns at church and justify murder and lies through our political actions and church combined, then we are asking for persecution to fall on us and if that happens, we would have no one to blame but ourselves. You may say, my church is not like that, they never get involved in politics and never preach against political leaders or parties or promote political parties or tell me who to vote for. I say that if you agree with the statements, you probably do not even hear them being said. Take time to really listen and analyze your church and pastor over these issues and pray over them and if need be challenge them. One major Affect that this change has had, is with public education. Many years ago, the public school teachers were by a large percentage, supportive of the Democratic Party because the Democratic Party supported funding of education and schools. There have been Republican leaders that have stated that they would like to do away with the Department of Education and yet, because of the local teachers being told by the church and local Pastors that they should vote Republican, these teachers have voted against their best interest out of a sense of duty and moral obligation. It doesn’t matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat but your decision should be based on your own research and best interest and not on what a Pastor says or radio talk show host say. I have actually heard some National conservative radio show host tell their audience that they will tell them how they should feel and what their opinions should be. Why become a parrot for anyone? Believers in God should take the plane back from the hijackers that have taken over the religious faiths in this Country. I am not for hearing any politics from the pulpit or in the public classroom, not liberal or conservative.