Inside or Outside the Door?

For those of you that have been regular followers, yes, I have been on hiatus.  Sometimes life catches up with you and some things fall to the wayside.  I trust you will continue to follow my blog as I take up "the pen" once again.

Part of the reason for my absence in blogging is due to my engagement in a battle I have been fighting since I was about 15 years old (we won't say how many years ago that was...) and first began getting active in political and social issues.  As a young person I was beginning to become aware of abortion and the fact that it was legal in our country, what it entailed, and how prevalent it was.  I was astounded at our laws and the statistics indicating its prevalence and I decided it was time to "fight" for pro life causes.  I took my findings and my passion to the church I attended (I have never been one short on words) and was astounded to meet push back on the idea of talking about this in church.  It seemed a no-brainer to me: abortion is murder, the Bible says "thou shalt not kill", the church teaches the Bible, the church should teach about its position on abortion because, it surely must have one.  Right?  And thus has pursued a battle of these many years regarding the church, church leaders, and Christians in regards to being active in what is deemed social and political issues.

By now, you have probably heard it said that the election of 2012 is the most important one of our life time.  That in itself is a topic requiring 100 blogs.  There is much unrest in our country when it comes to the economy, political leaders, race issues, social issues.  Poll after poll shows that the majority of Americans believe that our country is headed in the wrong direction.  So, the question is, what are we going to do about it?  Specifically for the purpose of this article, what are those of us that consider ourselves Christians going to do about it?

A few months ago I received one of those group letters from Jim Daly, President of Focus on the Family.  In his letter he addressed this very issue. He stated his belief that the Christian church has three main camps regarding how Christians should respond to the culture, government, and society.  I have to agree with his assessment.

First is the group that would like to ignore the problem and keep church "business as usual".  They show no interest in talk of a "culture war".  They may or may not recognize the presence of political corruption, cultural depravity, and loss of Judeo-Christian roots in our country, but their interest in becoming involved to find a solution is minor, or altogether absent.  I think of them like the violin players on the deck of the Titanic in the movie, the ship was sinking fast, but they just sat there and kept on playing because the music was, after all, very beautiful and there is no sense in becoming involved or concerned outside of your realm.

Second is the group that is aware of the problems and are eager and willing to engage the culture and be "active".  They are the ones that will hand out voter guides, serve at crisis pregnancy centers,  and openly confront the depravity we see in our society.  You might have heard them referred to as the "religious-right", or maybe just plain crazy by the media. They see the problems, they are convicted about them and they are determined to take up the cause like the Olympic flame and carry it across the country to the finish line.  They are passionate about bringing the issues our country faces to the forefront and trying to change the situation.

Lastly is the group of Christians that are not sure what to do.  They see traditional values eroding in our society, they might state that they disagree with things like abortion, homosexual "marriage", lack of prayer in schools, but they are not comfortable getting involved. They might say they disagree with certain things, but they don't want to have those believes carry over into how they vote or what they do. Basically, they are fence sitters.  They sing the old mantra of "I disagree with what is happening, but I am just not the type of person to get involved in issues and causes".  Think of them like people that say meatloaf is their favorite dish and they love it if someone else makes it for them, but don't ask them to make it themselves.  If they did they would have to stick their hands in the mess to mix it all up.  Yuck---who really wants to get their hands dirty.

So, let's be honest here.  Which category do you and your church fall into?  Are we salt and light to the world when it comes to preaching salvation from personal sin, but not salvation from the sins of others upon the world in which we live?  Are we salt and light preaching to the child abuser that he is a sinner, but not salt and light rescuing the abused child?  Are we salt and light telling ourselves that we must practice stewardship of finances, but not salt and light in carrying the message to those around us--even to the public square of government?  Are we salt and light reading our Bible to our children, but not in making sure the Bible can still be handed out at the local school?  Are we salt and light in our house and in our church walls, but not outside the doors of either?  When Jesus walked the earth, did He just deal with the evangelism of the individual, or did He pursue evangelism of the thousands?  Did he walk amongst the people, or did he sit in the synagogue preaching a message to only those that dared come inside?  Does God's Word address us on the individual level, or does it speak to society?  Does God deal with only people's salvation, or do we read of the salvation of whole societies like Nineveh, Sodom and Gomorrah, Israel, the entire land at the time of Noah? 

Do we as Christians have the answer to the problems plaguing our society and affecting almost every area of our lives?  Sure we do.  It is salvation in Christ.  It is redemption from sin.  So here is the question:  is it enough to preach the message of salvation on an individual basis?  Is it enough to live our personal lives in our own quiet way and leave the rest to those outside the church?  Do we as individual Christians and as the church collective have a job to lead, or to defer to the forces outside the church walls?

Jim Daly puts it like this:  "Will we, as Christians, stand for Biblical truth, regardless of how unpopular it might be?  Are we ready to endure ridicule and persecution with grace and love?  The foundations [of America] are shaking...We have a responsibility as disciples of Christ to live in a way that demonstrates to our culture why people should look to the church for answers...Simply building bigger churches, increasing attendance and emulating cultural norms with coffee shops and rock-performance caliber worship bands is not enough to turn the tide."

Where do you stand as a Christian with regards to being involved in the "social and political issues"?  Are you standing inside the church doors waiting for all to come in?  Or are you on the street making sure people will still have a clear path to get to the church so you can direct them there?  We each have a choice to make.  The answer to that question will ultimately decide the fate of America.  Call me and Jim Daly and other people I respect crazy for saying it, but I think that is what they called Noah too.