As I have said before, an eagle needs both a right wing and a left wing to fly. I am personally a conservative, but I am just as concerned about right wing extremists as I am left wing extremists. Someone said in a recent summit of Christian leaders we hosted that as Christians our allegiance is not to the party of the donkey or the elephant, but to the Lamb. My first allegiance is to the holy nation, the kingdom of God, far more so than any other allegiance. However, I do have some allegiance to my country, the party I belong to, and other associations I have.
I also only have other associations that I believe embrace biblical standards of righteousness and justice, which is why I was once a member of the Democratic Party, but felt I had to leave as the basic platform of the party started to conflict with basic biblical standards of morality. I also felt that the Democratic Party actually crossed the line to make one of the most basic affronts to God as stated in Scripture, which is to “call evil good, and good evil” (see Isaiah 5:20). Even so, I would leave the Republican Party just as fast if it started to do that for the sake of political expediency.
As a member of the Republican Party, I also confess to being disappointed by the party of Lincoln that failed to lead the cause of civil rights and for the party of Teddy Roosevelt that fell far behind in taking up the legitimate need to protect the environment. I have been just as grieved by the leaders of the party, even Presidents who said one thing but did another when they got in office. Even so, when the basic platform is something that I can conscientiously agree to, I will stay and work to see the message and actions agree.
I also agree that it is a biblical mandate in the teachings of Scripture on righteousness for us to be good stewards. I believe that waste is sin, and presently our government is the worst sinner in this, probably on the planet. With sound management principles, our government could be accomplishing several times what it is doing now while being a fraction of its size. I believe it would be an easy thing to balance the federal budget and have the federal government doing much more for people, not less, with some good basic management principles.
If the trillions of dollars that are now being consumed by the federal deficit in the issuing of bonds were directed to business, we would quickly become an economic powerhouse like never before and have enough to begin pulling the whole world out of the prison of chronic poverty. There are other factors keeping so much of the world in poverty, such as unstable governments and corrupt leaders, but this is a management problem also. Our government feeds and keeps many of these evil regimes in power by having such short-term foreign policy strategies. It was actually America that provided much of the financing for the development of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, which have used many of the weapons we gave them against our own soldiers.
The federal government is the worst environmental violator. Just cutting out unnecessary paperwork would certainly save tens of millions of trees a year. Why hasn’t the environmental movement ever addressed the waste and excesses of government? Certainly there have been corporate violators, and these need to be judged when they destroy that which belongs to us all—the earth. The Lord even said that He would destroy those who destroy the earth (see Revelation 11:18). Christians should be on the forefront of the cause of the environment, but it must be done with integrity and truth. I agree that if we are truly pro-life, we should be for all life, including every species that man was given the mandate to rule over, but I also agree that environmentalists who are not pro-life for humans are very basic hypocrites.
As a prophetic voice, the church should always be at the front of the important causes and issues of the times. If the church does not take its responsibility to do this, then these issues and causes will be championed by those who will often hijack them for less than righteous purposes and can even use them for evil. This, too, is a matter of stewardship—burying our talents by not using them to be the salt and light that we are called to be.
Many are becoming increasingly shocked by how a government so extremely leftist got into power in the U.S., which is and continues to be a “right of center” population. As stated, it is not uncommon for even tiny minorities to seize political power in a crisis, as we see with both Germany and Russia in the twentieth century. This happens when the majority becomes silent or passive. In history, whenever such a shift has happened the consequences have been devastating. This, too, is the result of those burying the light. We are warned in Scripture that such will incur a worse judgment.
If the church in America awakens and takes its responsibility to be the salt and light that she is called to be, a recovery of all of our lost freedoms and economic strength can be achieved. If we continue to sleep, America will continue to fall from its heights of strength and greatness, likely at an increasing pace.
Either way the kingdom is going to come. Many think that the kingdom will come faster if America collapses. I can understand some of the merits of this argument, but it will be much easier and better if America returned to its godly foundations and became the force that it is called to be—to help proclaim and prepare the way for the Lord.
Do we want such a great nation to be lost on our watch? She is falling fast, and without bold, courageous leadership by those who have the light, she will be lost. It is up to those who have the light to stand with boldness and courage for the light.