God's Politics
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April 3, 2005.



Many of us feel that our faith has been stolen, and it's time to take it back.

In particular, an enormous public misrepresentation of Christianity has taken place.

And because of an almost uniform media misperception, many people around the world now think
Christian faith stands for political commitments that are almost the opposite of its true meaning.

How did the faith of Jesus come to be known as pro-rich, pro-war, and only pro-American?

What has happened here?

And how do we get back to a historic, biblical, and genuinely evangelical faith rescued from its
contemporary distortions?

That rescue operation is even more crucial today, in the face of a deepening social crisis that cries
out for more prophetic religion.

Of course, nobody can steal your personal faith; that's between you and God.

The problem is in the political arena, where strident voices claim to represent Christians when they
clearly don't speak for most of us.

It's time to take back our faith in the public square, especially in a time when a more authentic social
witness is desperately needed.

The religious and political Right gets the public meaning of religion mostly wrong ---
preferring to focus only on sexual and cultural issues while ignoring the weightier matters of justice.

And the secular Left doesn't seem to get the meaning and promise of faith for politics at
all-mistakenly dismissing spirituality as irrelevant to social change.

I actually happen to be conservative on issues of personal responsibility, the sacredness of human
life, the reality of evil in our world, and the critical importance of individual character, parenting,
and strong "family values."

But the popular presentations of religion in our time (especially in the media) almost completely
ignore the biblical vision of social justice and, even worse, dismiss such concerns as merely
"left wing."

It is indeed time to take back our faith.

Take back our faith from whom? To be honest, the confusion comes from many sources.

From religious right-wingers who claim to know God's political views on every issue,
then ignore the subjects that God seems to care the most about.

From pedophile priests and cover-up bishops who destroy lives and shame the church.

From television preachers whose extravagant lifestyles and crass fund-raising tactics embarrass
more Christians than they know.

From liberal secularists who want to banish faith from public life and deny spiritual values to the soul
of politics.

And even from liberal theologians whose cultural conf