In seeking the source of America’s “greatness and genius” 19th century French diplomat Alexis de Toqueville stated:
“Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.”
America cannot – she must not – lose that power that resides in her pulpits. Our pastors must not permit themselves to be intimidated into silence and inaction at a time when the truth of God’s Word has never been more needed within our culture.
“Today, the culture has tried to impose on ministers a role that relegates them almost to irrelevance, discouraging them from having any direct visibility or influence on society or the culture; but this modern reduced role is precedented neither by the Bible nor American history. God still needs ‘heroes of hardihood and lofty courage’ to be His voice crying in the modern wilderness – spiritual leaders who will stand at the vanguard to meet any danger head on.”
David Barton, The Black Regiment; The Founders’ Bible (pg. 633)
In 1954, then-Senator Lyndon Johnson introduced an amendment to the U.S. tax code that prohibited churches (and other non-profit organizations) from taking a public stand on “political issues.” Now, any who fail to comply risk losing their tax-exempt status. In the decades that followed, virtually every Biblical issue has been politicized, making many of the doctrines and teachings of the Bible itself “off limits,” and limiting the Christian’s “free exercise” of religion outside the four walls of the church.
In his poignant book, “Letter to the American Church,” Eric Metaxas reminds us that religious liberty cannot be understood as the government’s permission to “do as you like in that building at… [designated] hours, but when you come out you must bow to the secular authority of the state.”
In America…we have known that religious liberty means we are not merely able to worship privately…but are guaranteed a ‘free exercise thereof,’ so that our faith must by definition be carried everywhere we go, on every day of the week, and in every place we take ourselves.
Rev Charles Finney, famous minister in the Second Great Awakening, admonished the church of his day not to neglect its duties in the political sphere when the hot topic on which the church was to remain “a-political” was slavery and abolition:
The church must take right ground in regard to politics…the time has come that Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics…God cannot sustain this free and blessed country which we love and pray for unless the church will take right ground. Politics are a part of a religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to the country as part of their duty to God. It seems sometimes as if the foundations of the nation were becoming rotten, and Christians seem to act as if they thought God did not see what they do in politics. But I tell you, He does see it, and He will bless or curse this nation according to the course they take.
Many of the issues of our day are just as important and pressing as those in the days of Charles Finny.
The questions then become:
- What can the church legally do to influence policy and politics?
- How would a pastor or a church even begin to approach the task of being “salt and light” in local, state, and federal governments?
Explore these questions and much more using the links to the left.