One Man’s Opinion

I recently saw a Nightline segment about Rev. Joel C. Hunter who was recently elected to head the Christian Coalition.  He has stepped down before he even served one day. There is no scandal, no deceit, and no real bad behavior going with him. He simply wanted to broaden the right wing Christian group’s focus. He felt just focusing on gay marriage and abortion was not only polarizing but there are other issues the group could focus on.  He wanted to take the group in a compassionate direction with more focus on the poor and other social issues. This seemed to scare the board members who felt it would scare off supporters and cost them money. Rev. Hunter said about his stepping down “just a basic philosophical difference …. I saw an opportunity to really broaden the conversation and broaden the constituency. I’m really over this whole polarization thing.” 

I believe he is right; it is time that Christians, conservative and liberal start looking at what they are doing. Being political and separating into groups of right and left is causing many to feel disillusioned with the state of the Christian church. As far as I can tell Jesus was not aligned with a political party nor was he friendly with the powerful Church leaders. I was happy to hear someone within the dirty realm of Christian politics was pushing for a more Jesus model of dealing with issues. The unfortunate truth is these groups care more about hot issues than actual people and spreading the Gospel. I understand politics is a big part of people’s lives but sometimes it does a lot more harm than good. I am not a supporter of the Christian Coalition, nor have I ever been. I honestly didn’t pay a lot of attention to them until this latest story. I felt finally someone in that world was trying to get things back to where they should be. Gay marriage and abortion are hot issues that play on peoples emotions and are generally seen as the be all end all issue of the political right, The problem is they aren’t the biggest issues facing Christians and should not be presented as such.  

Finally I am sick of people calling someone liberal if they are in support of peace and compassion. If that is the case Jesus Christ was a flaming liberal. I also think it is dumb to see someone as a conservative if the feel abortion is something they have strong convictions about. We are Christians not members of parties. You can be left or right politically but when it comes to our faith we need to stop separating into groups because we are to be one body. Call it idealism, which is likely is, but I feel Jesus didn’t want to see his people hurting each other, name calling and putting label son people who see differently on political viewpoints.  

I am not a Republican, Democrat or anyone else because I feel they are not representatives of who I am. I certainly do not believe the represent the Christian faith in anyway. Politics are a man made thing that is naturally corrupted by the power that comes with the job. I feel that I need to look at all sides and be able to choose based on my convictions. I first and foremost rely on my faith and the teachings of Christ. It would be nice to see the preachers preach and leave the politics to the politicians. I doubt that will happen but at least if the preachers are in
Washington maybe they should present Christ in a way that is representative of who is really is. Whether left or right if these Christian men and women believe that God needs to be in politics then show them who Jesus really is.