The Ten Commandments of Evangelical Co-belligerence

Steve Camp makes some sobering points through humor about evangelical involvement in politics:

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF EVANGELICAL CO-BELLIGERENCE ...where faith and culture collide

In the highly charged, politically sensitive environment affecting the church today, "an ecumenical movement" has gradually surfaced within Christianity, crossing all denominational lines, advocating political remedies to correct the moral maladies facing our nation. This is an effort in futility. Well-meaning, but confused, evangelical leaders are attempting to accomplish this societal moral sea-change absent of the gospel of Jesus Christ (sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus) and the authority of God's Word (sola scriptura). Because of the biblical vacuum that exists within ECB, here is how The Ten Commandments could be rewritten for today to champion their philosophy of co-belligerence. (Though written in a "tongue in cheek" manner, it is a sad - heartrending reality that Christianity is now known in government circles by political policy, rather than by the preaching and ministry of the gospel--"Jesus Christ and Him crucified.")

1. Thou shalt keep all family values and moral/social causes continually before you

2. Thou shalt not let the Word of God, doctrine, theology, truth, or the gospel of Jesus Christ keep you from “standing together” with anyone to reach our goal of impacting our culture by returning it back to moral traditional values through legislation, judicial process, and co-belligerent partnerships

3. Thou shalt remember the Lord's Day and keep it political; rename it by changing it from the Lord's Day to "Justice Sunday." Be sure to substitute the worship of God; the preaching of His Word; prayer; the heralding of the gospel, turning the Sunday evening worship service into a political rally; making certain you feature non-Christians from different faith-based groups to share the pulpit and platform to insure a wide tolerant political religious ideological appeal

4. Thou shalt not take the name of family value/moral causes in vain; but use every social cultural political co-belligerent means necessary to strong arm politicians to win the day

5. Thou shalt honor thy senator and thy congressman as long as they stand for what we tell them to stand for (this is the first commandment with a vote)

6. Thou shalt boycott, protest and petition against all who act immorally and who try to filibuster judicial Presidential appointees

7. Thou shalt fault, criticize and belittle unsaved people for living like unsaved people given every opportunity possible. It’s OK for them to remain unsaved people, but they just can’t live like they're "too unsaved." (They can be unsaved, but just can’t be outwardly gay; they can be unsaved, but just can’t be vocally pro-choice; they can be unsaved, but just can’t believe in euthanasia; they can even remain unsaved, but must be for a constitutional amendment to protect traditional marriage)

8. Thou shalt faithfully turn the body of Christ into The Pope’s Political Action Committee (TPPAC): The Lord's Lobbyists; Value Voters, Patriot Pastors; the Largest Special Interest Group in America; and most importantly, Christocrats.

9. Thou shalt not do anything to shrink the mailing list of any Para-church ministry for three things are always necessary for success: donations, donations, donations.

10. Thou shalt always remember to keep your primary focus on the family and not on the faith

Christians and government

This is another topic I am preparing to delve into deeply on this blog in the coming months. There are many different views throughout the evangelical world on what a Christian's role is in government and the political process. Most of these viewpoints have little or no Biblical foundation.

As an appetizer for this I'd like to offer the following take on checks and balances in government from the Believe to Reason blog:

Why so much accountability? The Founding Fathers believed what Lord Acton famously said: “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” And, built into an engrained Biblical worldview, the Fathers understood that the reason why power corrupts people is because the people themselves are corrupt. The idea that corruption comes from within is uniquely a Biblical concept. No other religion in the world gives such a poor view of the present state of man than the Bible. Jeremiah 17: 9 says, “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it?” Jesus said in Mark 7:22-24, “For from within out of the heart of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the man.” In Romans 3:10-12 it says, “There is none righteous, no not one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. There are none that do good.” Isaiah 64:6 says, “our righteous deeds are as filthy rags in the eyes of God.” Even our best is tainted by sin and deceit!

Check out the entire article here.

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Obama and McCain to appear at Saddleback

According to this news release, presumptive Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are scheduled to make their first joint appearance on August 16th hosted by Rick Warren and his 22,000-member Saddleback Church's Civil Forum on Leadership and Compassion.

Warren states that the primary purpose of this event will be "to hear both candidates speak from the heart -- without interruption -- in a civil and thoughtful format absent the partisan 'gotcha' questions that typically produce heat instead of light." Warren, who will be the sole moderator and question-asker for this event, will not be asking many of the questions that typical presidential debates raise. Rather, he will be "pressing issues that are bridging divides in our nation, such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, climate and human rights."

These types of events and these issues for Warren are an outcropping of his "P.E.A.C.E. plan", which according to the Purpose Driven website is a 50-year plan to address "spiritual emptiness, selfish leadership, poverty, disease, and ignorance."

The fact that Warren, #1 on Barna's top 10 list of influential evangelical leaders, lists poverty, disease, climate, human rights, etc. as the most critical issues for Christendom is a clear indication of the pernicious and ubiquitous influence of two things: the Social Gospel movement and baby-boomer ethics. In a prosperous culture during a prosperous time like the one we live in today, the social gospel with it's emphasis on service and helping others (and it's corresponding deemphasis on salvation by faith alone, repentance and the substitutionary atonement of Christ) dovetails nicely with postmodern, baby-boomerism.

In the future, I hope to post a more detailed explanation of how these influences have harmed the advance of the one true Gospel by undermining propositional truth and supplanting it with service that assuages the pangs of a guilty conscience.