Self-Persecuting Christians
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/self-p...tians.html
After church a few months back, a friend told me he was headed out to Brooklyn to march in a protest by inner-city Christians who were no longer able to meet in their local school. The borough council had deemed it improper for a faith-based group to assemble on government property. I couldn't help but think that the folks protesting had voted these Democrat bureaucrats into office by a huge margin, and, come election day, by an equally huge margin these same people will vote them in again .
In a country like America, we actually do get the government we deserve. And if pulling the lever for the Dems is "tradition" in your family -- and that supersedes religious beliefs -- well, then "good luck with that."
Contrary to what Obama let slip out in the run-up to the election of 2008, that some folks "cling to their guns and religion," voting trends indicates that most of them are like those with no God-affiliation at all: they cling to their party affiliation. (If you're looking for gun-and-religion clingers, look to the Middle East.)
You would think that Christians, of all voting blocs, would be the most open to considering all issues and party pronouncements before casting their ballot. Then they'd vote according to what the Bible has to say about the important issues of the day.
One solid Catholic friend of mine told me he would not vote for either candidate because he refused to vote for "the lesser of two evils"...again. And when I remarked that America, for the sake of the world, not just the nation, needed to at least begin to turn back to its former greatness, he lamented that America has never been great. He pointed to the same old tired "slavery" argument to prove his point.
But the difference between America's slavery issue and most of the rest of the world is apparent even with today's headlines. America fought a war to free its slaves and make them citizens ; today, wars are being fought to enslave all citizens to a theocracy. And heaven help those who don't believe in that government's ideas of god or heaven.
My friend feels America still needs to be "punished" for real (and imagined) evils, and he'll be happy to sit back and let the chips fall where they may. However, not to vote is, of course, to vote. You're voting to "let it ride..."
In this same vein, consider a recent article Lloyd Marcus wrote for American Thinker . In " Obama versus Jesus : Black Christians Must Decide," Lloyd relates that his dad, a pastor, is upset over issues such as abortion and gay marriage, but that he still plans to vote for Obama because of the racism he personally endured in his youth. Apparently, abortion and gay marriage are bad, but hanging onto racial hatred is okay. If you can justify a sin (and yes, people can and do justify both abortion and homosexuality), then it makes it okay. But we're supposed to forgive our enemies and do good to those who persecute us. The change begins with us, not them. If we hold on to our sins, why shouldn't they hold on to theirs?
In W. Cleon Skousen's The Five Thousand Year Leap , the author states a couple dozen "principles" that were designed and infused into our nation by the Founders to keep America intact. The second of these is "A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong." That resonates with 2 Chronicles 7:14, which has become quite a popular verse leading up to the 2012 elections:
If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My Face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
We Christians need to get back to praying and doing what God does best through us -- completing the work He has given us, those "good works" which He has prepared in advance for us to do.
So is there any hope for the self-persecuting Christian? Like Lloyd's Dad, like my Catholic friend, like the inner-city Brooklyn parishioners, will they continue to complain that they are being treated unfairly and that the country is going downhill -- but not even consider voting differently?
All this brings to mind the creepy hazing scene from National Lampoon's Animal House . As the fraternity pledge (played by Kevin Bacon) is being whacked painfully on his backside, he earnestly begs, "Thank you, sir, may I have another?" Christians will keep voting for more and more restrictions to their free expression of biblical truths -- and painfully cry, "Thank you, sir, may I have another?"
Let's face it. Many Christians would much rather do that than even consider voting for "those evil Republicans."
Simon de Hundehutte is one of the creative minds behind www.SnarxBrothers.com.
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