Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Donkeys And Elephants In The Room

My good friend David and I were talking during lunch the other day when some political talk came up. He brought up a good point to think about -- I'm paraphrasing now from my shoddy memory mind you, so these are not direct quotes, and I pray I don't misrepresent him: How much should we as Christians get involved in the political realm? Many spend a great deal of time protesting against, or campaigning for, laws concerning morality, but in doing so, aren't we just pointing out the "elephant in the room" that the world is sinful?

If we spent a great deal of energy fighting for a law to make [insert hot button issue of the day] illegal, what have we accomplished? Sure we've probably stopped something from happening, but have we changed any hearts? Isn't the heart what really needs to change ? If we only change the law and not the hearts of many, how long will the change last (prohibition may be a fair example here)?

If I recall correctly, David said he remembered there is some Biblical guidance for this, but not off the top of his head. I was determined tonight to settle the issue (in my mind anyway) from a Biblical perspective and be done with it. I have most likely failed in that respect, but I did come across this paper I liked (and a lot of other junk I'm not linking to):

http://www.valleybible.net/PositionPapers/Politics.pdf


On a final note, I linked to the article before finishing it completely. It made me smile to see, near the end, the phrase "...change only comes from the heart." Very true.

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