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TechnoratiAs a nation, we cannot overemphasize the importance of faith-informed views being introduced into the discussions in the public square and in the political process.
People of faith are not somehow disqualified from commenting or being involved in the political process because of their belief in One who is greater than themselves. Our responsibility to be involved—prayerfully and personally—in the affairs of our nation does not dissipate once Election Day is past. Without Christians’ participation in society, our culture will continue to deteriorate rapidly.
We need the influence of the Almighty in America, reflected in the principled involvement of devout citizens, because we need a bedrock foundation for our national character that is external to ourselves. We need to be reminded of our accountability to a transcendent moral authority beyond human capacity to create or dismantle, because history shows that is the only sure way to preserve the self-evident, divinely established “unalienable” rights on which this nation is founded.
You can’t force people to act morally—long term, at least—by government mandate, regulation, and force. True change takes place in hearts and minds, which then will be reflected in the “government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people.” It is a fallacy to assume that the government and the courts can produce a moral system in people or do much more than help preserve a decent moral environment. Even if our government permitted it, which it doesn’t, we can’t simply declare this country to be one that affirms and practices Judeo-Christian values rooted in biblical authority. It can only become such a country through the transformation of individual hearts and minds. Transformation of hearts and minds is not the government’s job any more than it is the government’s role to prescribe or to prohibit religion.
Not just our social fabric is at stake; our liberty is as well. If we were to reach a point at which most Americans no longer believed in a transcendent moral order and did not feel an internal obligation to do the right thing even when no one was watching, the consequence would be chaos, followed by reduced liberty. Forced to choose, most people would opt for order over chaos, even at the loss of significant liberty.
This does not mean it is right or desirable for us to have Christianity established as the official or unofficial faith of the nation. That would be detrimental to America, and it would be even more detrimental to Christianity. To equate America with Christianity is to blur the distinction between the secular and the sacred. No matter how much we love our country; we must never confuse or conflate being American with being Christian.
Yet people have the right to bring their moral values to bear on public policy debates and to be heard regardless of the underlying convictions that inform those values. Then society decides through public debate and the ballot box what public policies the people want to implement.
Christians, just like all other citizens, have an obligation to be educated about the issues and the candidates. That is why we go straight to the source in constructing our unique voters’ resource: a comparison of the position statements adopted by the Democrat and Republican parties at their political conventions. As we excerpted the two parties’ views on the issues of the day in building the 2008 Party Platform Comparison Guide, we went to great lengths to insure that our personal viewpoints did not color our efforts. Visit iVoteValues./party_platforms to download a copy of the ERLC’s Party Platform Comparison Guide. Continue »
