During Ramadan, this year, a Christian family was arrested on an island in Tanzania called "Zanzibar". What was their crime? They were cooking and eating lunch during Ramadan! In many Muslim countries, it is illegal to eat during the day during Ramadan. We take it for granted that this type of thing would not normally happen in America, (though you can get in trouble for not making a cake!), but most people don't acknowledge that this is due to our Christian heritage. It is also our Christian heritage that makes it illegal in many places within the states, to purchase alcohol on Sunday. There are other laws like this still on the books which reflect the strong presence of Christianity in our nation's history. Many people believe that our "tolerant" disposition in our nation is due to secularization and the abandonment of a religion of preference. But this is not the case.
tolerance in the Christian sense would mean that we are gracious to others and know that we cannot force them to worship God. However, this doesn't mean that we will or should tolerate any and every thought, agenda, or behavior. Far from it! "Tolerance" itself has now become its own religion that doesn't actually tolerate dissent. There is severe intolerance for anything and anyone who doesn't approve of the favoritism and blessing being given to sexually confused and misled people. This thing we call "gay rights" is not a Christian principal. In fact, in flies in the face of true Christianity. So, whose principle is it? Who has issued the decree that homosexuality is now a virtue? This didn't come from the Bible or from Jesus and His Gospel of the Kingdom. But it did come from somewhere... I saw a bumper sticker just yesterday that said "the last time we mixed politics and religion, we ended up burning people at the stake." But this is not true. Politics and religion have been and always will be inseparable. The question we should be asking our politicians is not wether they are religious or not but which god do they serve? Maybe this is one reason why Jesus did not go around proclaiming a new way to go to heaven, but instead proclaiming that the kingdom of God was arriving right here on earth as it is in heaven. In other words, Jesus didn't come with only a spiritual agenda. Jesus came with a definite political agenda too. Jesus came to change the way we do power and to make humans truly human again. But this is, of course, a rival claim to all the others, both individual and national, who claim to have their own solutions and their own methods for brining about change. That is why understanding where a politician is coming from "religiously" speaking, is 100 percent relevant. Wether or not a leader acknowledges the authority and sovereignty of Jesus over the earth will deeply effect the way they govern and the values they hold. We have been told to keep religion out of politics but since that is impossible, it has left us trying to speak nonsense. Nobody knows what we believe or where our values come from because we are not allowed to talk about it or acknowledge it. Meanwhile, the wisdom of the day and the spirit of the age continues to drive and shape our culture, virtually unchallenged by the Church and hence, virtually unchallenged at all. We are governed by values and agenda that derive from somewhere and which are controlled by something. We really ought to be asking "where?" and "what?" Asking these questions could really lead us to the truth that will bring true freedom to our country and our people.
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