LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY hummingwolf)

Via rssworldmag: Evangelicals for government power?

The Gospel is simply not reducible to the institution of laws amenable to Christian morality. And a disproportionate emphasis on such laws tends toward a position that is inimical to Christianity. Yet the perception often remains that the way the church is to “engage culture” is primarily, if not solely, through public policy.

Beyond these theological problems lies a prudential question of the wise use of political power. In the broad area of decency standards, this third problem flows out of the coercive nature of governmental power.

While Christians maintain the influence to form policy in a certain area, the laws are likely to remain in accord with Christian morality. The danger is that once the power of such regulation of speech and free expression has been ceded to the government, it is nearly impossible to get it back. And it is almost certain that the current season of Christian political influence will eventually wane.

Today perhaps the antics of a Howard Stern will be outlawed by increased governmental regulation. But tomorrow it may well be that simply reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans will be prohibited as hate speech, indecent, or otherwise intolerant. We have already seen threats of this in other countries. In the words of Jesus, “All who draw the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52 NIV).

religionnewsblo

Evangelical Christians are God's wing of the GOP.

President Bush invites their leaders to the White House. Magazine covers feature their faces. Talk-show hosts put them on the air.

But some leading Christian thinkers are questioning the evangelicals' priorities. Will partisan politics mute the church's prophetic voice — the courage, as intellectual Edward Said put it, to speak truth to power? Are evangelicals so focused on abortion and same-sex marriage that they are forgetting Christ's injunction to care for the sick and minister to the downtrodden?

A number of authors and essayists — both liberal and conservative — now are calling on Christians to form a biblically based, big-picture vision of how America should look.

And they are finding an audience.