Hey guys, it's Lee. Thanks for stopping by The Not So Political Protestant, a publication dedicated to correcting the course of the American church regarding politics and its place in the lives of Christians. The Not So Political Protestant is here to call God's people back to sanity and repentance because, as citizens of another world, our mandate is to live kingdom first, country second.
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The political power today’s Christian activism so desperately seeks, in reality, is powerlessness disguised as power. It completely ignores the power of the gospel to change the world and settles for the world’s power and tactics instead. They claim to have a mandate to fight a worldly battle, fought by worldly means, but it is far from the actual battle Christians should be fighting.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:3-4)
Whether it is seeking to protect the rights of the church or changing the morals of our nation, political power is fleeting and does not come close to the power given by God in the spiritual.
In Ephesians Chapter 6, while shackled in a Roman prison, is speaking of the war Christians face. He opens with the admonition to “Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand” but reminds them their war is not against flesh and blood but spiritual. He then lays out what our weapons are.
belt of truth
breastplate of righteousness
feet shod with the gospel of peace
shield of faith
helmet of salvation
sword of the Spirit
Notice all those weapons, while he uses worldly examples, all of these are spiritual, truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the Spirit. These are the weapons, tactics, and power of the Christian armies because our war is a spiritual war, and fleshly tactics and weapons can never win a spiritual war.
Something interesting to note here is that when Paul called the people to action, he did not say overthrow the government, tear down the pagan temples, or go on a crusade to annihilate those who are persecuting us. Even more telling is that he does not say “come break me out of prison”. Instead, he says, “Pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit”. This man who has been beaten, stoned, and under constant persecution did not call for attempts to fight his oppressors, nor did he call for physical opposition to those who are oppressing the Ephesian church, but instead called for prayer.
In addition to that, the letters of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon were written while he was in prison, but throughout those letters he never had a whoa-is-me attitude about his imprisonment. Instead, he said things like, “what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.” (Philippians 1:12).
You see, Paul’s concern was not for his rights, but the gospel. His priority was seeing men and women come to Christ, not his comfort and respect. He set his rights and comforts aside and accepted persecution for the greater cause of reaching the lost.
This is antithetical to today’s Political Christian obsession with fighting for its rights, but it is the call and mandate of every Christian.
We are called to deny ourselves (Luke 9:23) but the Political Christian call is to fight for our rights.
We are called to live in humility considering others as more important than ourselves (Philippians 2:3) while Christian activism calls for Christians to be held in high regard.
We are called to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, and do good to those who hate us (Matthew 5:44) while the religious right demonizes and berates its opponents.
We are called to crucify our fleshly passions and desires (Galatians 5:24) while political Christianity is a slave to its passion for power, respect, and comfort.
Many times, as I’ve proclaimed this message of denying ourselves and not fighting for our rights, I have been called weak or said to be living in fear. But the truth is, it takes more strength to deny our fleshly desires and passions than to fight for them. It takes more strength to humbly accept being treated wrong in order to advance the gospel, than it does standing up for our rights. It takes more strength to serve those we disagree or even dislike than it does to lord over them.
That is why Political Christian power is a weak, powerless caricature of Spirit empowered strength. It is one that has no control over fleshly desire and no strength to live as Christ lived; in humble servanthood making himself of no reputation (Philippians 2:6-7). This type of living is foolishness to the worldly minded but that is the way of the cross.
“The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to them, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”. (1 Corinthians 2:14-16)
The problem with today’s Christianity is we have replaced the biblical “take up your cross, deny yourself and follow me” into the worldly “God loves you just the way you are, and wants you to be happy”. God is less concerned with our happiness than He is our holiness, and holiness only comes by denying ourselves and allowing the Spirit to renew us.
We are born depraved (Psalm 51:5), with no defense against our deserved punishment. Our hearts are deceitfully wicked (Jeremiah 17:9) and our minds are at war with God (Romans 8:7) so it is impossible for our fleshly minds to know the mind of God, let alone desire them. That is why it is so easy to stand up for our right, but the Christian way is not easy.
If following our worldview ‘feels right’ and does not cause an inner struggle between our flesh and the Spirit, our worldview is not God’s.
Every man, woman, boy, and girl is born with an innate desire for self-preservation, getting our way, being the star of the show, or in power. Those things make our flesh feel good. They feel right. Especially in America where we are taught, we have the right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’.
That is why political power is so seductive but as is so often the case, the things that are most seductive lead us away from what is best.
Let me stop right here to clear the air because it always comes up from those who believe political activism is a Christian duty; I am not saying we should not vote, and I am not saying being involved in politics and pushing for moral laws is wrong. However, I am saying it not part of the church’s mission and is certainly not required in order to bring moral change to our world. Let me say that again, it is okay and can be helpful to be involved in politics, but God’s way is not politics, and it certainly is not the best way.
Are We Better Off?
Evangelical Christian political involvement is certainly not a new thing. It has had a steady ebb and flow since the nineteenth century, including the political ‘revival’ brought about in the fifties which led to the idioms ‘In God We Trust’ and ‘One nation under God’ being adopted as American standards. But 1979 is when today’s Political Christian movement really kicked into overdrive. That is when an evangelical preacher named Jerry Falwell began an organization called The Moral Majority to fight for the rights of Christians and for godly morals via political means.
This movement took American politics by storm and changed the landscape completely, paving the way to Republican party’s alignment with evangelical ideals such as school prayer, ten commandments in the public square, as well as anti-abortion and traditional marriage legislation. Their goal was to change the moral fabric of America.
The question is, did it work?
This is the question I ask of those who passionately believe political activism is a must for the American church. With the decades of fighting against abortion, gay marriage, pornography, and every other moral ill, are the morals of our nation better or worse? Are family values stronger?
The deafening answer is NO!
Gay marriage bans have been overturned, and it is now a protected right. Forty percent of all children are born to unwed mothers and half those who are born to married parents will see them get divorced, some multiple times. While Roe V. Wade was overturned in 2022 and multiple red states have some form of abortion ban, abortions reached the highest rate in over a decade in 2024. Pornography is no longer hidden in some dark corner of a seedy convenience store but easily accessible with a few keystrokes on the web. Homosexuality which used to be considered a mental illness by the psychiatric community is no longer classified as such. We have gone from LGB to LGBTQ+ and non-binary is now a common term. Millions of people now ‘identify’ as a different gender and even as cats or dogs.
So, I ask again, with all the political Christian activism over the past forty years, are the morals of America better or worse?
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Here’s the thing about political power; it is fluid and at the mercy of public sentiment at the time of every election cycle. One president and Congress may pass morally acceptable laws only to see them overturned by the Supreme Court, or next Congress. It is a hopeless path to permanent change.
That is why Jesus had no desire to change worldly empires. He had the power to topple the Roman government in a single day yet chose not to. Instead, He laid down his power and took up a cross. He became a servant to those He was Lord over so He could be their savior. He declined Satan’s temptation of “I will give you all these kingdoms”, and told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world” because He had a higher, more effective, plan to change the hearts of men.
Political laws are only as strong as the vote that keeps those who agree with them in office or the leanings of the court that can revoke them. God’s laws, written on the hearts of His children, are eternal and no court of democratic vote can change them.
That is why political power is powerless, but God’s power is limitless and that my friend is why we must live KINGDOM FIRST - COUNTRY SECOND.
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Well, I hope you have enjoyed this edition of The Not So Political Protestant. I would love to hear your thoughts, whether you agree or disagree. Just keep it civil and know you will be pressed to give scriptural proofs for your stance, so search the scriptures because without those, we have no footing to take a stand.
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