The delaying action on the moral battlefield

As Christians living in a post-Christian, formerly Christian and rapidly becoming hostile to Christian society, we face a unique challenge.  In the first centuries of the church, Christians faced an indifferent and then hostile Roman government.  In our society, we live and work in a context where the culture had a nominally Christian worldview and was positively disposed toward the church, if not actively supportive of Christian ministries. 

That has changed.  We now live and work in a culture that is radically pluralistic in its worldview, and hostile to any exclusive truth claims, except those of radical pluralism.  In this context, what is the best approach for Christians to take?  Many Christians, myself included, believe that fighting a culture war on the terms of those who espouse a pluralistic world is a lost cause.  No one is suggesting that Christians should turn a blind eye to the moral breakdown that is happening around us.  The question is how do we best address that breakdown.

Since the late 70’s, the socially conservative right, generally associated with conservative Christians and the political right, has tried to influence the direction of our society by working within the political/judicial systems.  We have witnessed the rise of the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition and a number of other PACs and ‘ministries’.  They have enjoyed some minor success and short-lived victories.  However, the moral decay of the culture is unabated.  The Messe Commission, with such conservatives as James Dobson, advised putting the full force of the federal government into the effort of stamping out pornography.  How is that working?

The track record of long term moral reform using the political/judicial approach is about as good as the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl, mostly spectators and when they get involved, they don’t do very well.  This is not meant as a condemnation of those people who have work so faithfully in these areas.  But the efforts for moral reform through the political/judicial system are not unlike a delaying action on a battlefield.  A battle is never won by a delaying action, it may, however, allow for the real offensive to begin.  Unfortunately, many Christians have mistaken the delaying action on the political/judicial front as the real offensive.

There is a better way!

Let’s suppose there are, as of May 2016, 10 million committed disciples of Jesus Christ in this country of about 320 million.  (I hope there are more but I have my doubts)  If each of those 10 million disciples were to lead one person to faith in Jesus Christ and lead them to do the same, in one year there would be 20 million committed disciples of Jesus Christ.  That means that in May 2017, those 20 million would begin repeating the process.  So, by May 2018, there would be 40 million and in May 2019, there would be 80 million.  By the time of the next presidential election, there would be over 160 million committed followers of Jesus Christ.  And a year into the next President’s second term nearly everyone in this nation would be a disciple of Christ.  We are 5 years away from a nation in which laws on the books are less important than the law as summarized by Jesus.  There is no way that working in the political/judicial system can accomplish so much, so fast.  The best hope for a five-year plan in the political/judicial approach would be to delay the rate of decay, but would never reverse that decay.

Realistically, I don’t believe this will happen for three reasons. 

First, many Christians are too busy being distracted from the work of making disciples by the craftiness of the enemy.  By believing our own delaying action is the real fight, we have put ourselves in the position to distracted to love, reach, evangelize and disciple our neighbors.  The limited resources are sent to support the losing side in a delaying action while the real battle is left un-fought. 

Second, many people want the benefits of a Christian ethic without the commitment to Christ.  Too many of us want the blessings of a “Traditional, American Christian Culture”; we just don’t want the cross.   Jesus said that to be His disciple we have to die to self.  Many only want to rid our society of other’s sins.  We rail against the sins that offend us, such as transgender behavior, gay marriage, or legalization of marijuana while not addressing the sin in our own lives.  We want a society that on the surface looks very much like “Leave it to Beaver”, but in which we can still watch porn on line, practice covert racism, or practice lives of greedy luxury while people go hungry.

Third, many “Christians” simply do not love lost people.  They may love the folks they like-folks who are like them and don’t offend them or make them uncomfortable, who happen to be lost- but they do not love people who are lost and fit into certain categories.   I heard a man teaching a Sunday School class say, “I want no queers in my church”.  There is so much wrong with that statement I hardly know where to begin.  I suppose the shortest answer is, “Die on a cross, be buried, return to life, start your own church then you can keep them out of your church!”  Could we read into the attitude of many Christians as to say, “I would rather them go to Hell?”  Perhaps, we could love and accept messed up people if they get fixed, straightened out, and cleaned up.  But that will never happen because they are incapable of change until God’s grace works on them.  That grace, by God’s design, flows through us to the messed up people. 

One aspect of the political/judicial approach that is very appealing to many Christians is that it doesn’t require me to love or in anyway get involved with people trapped in sin.  One need never get any closer to them than across a police barricade while we hold our signs and chant slogans at each other.  Meanwhile……the enemy laughs.