Maybe "Polite" People Don't Talk About Politics & Religion But Disciples Do

As Christians we rarely, if at all, talk about religion outside of our immediate families or church.  We talk about politics even less.  We've obeyed the social rule of not discussing these subjects for decades now.  So how's that working for us?

It's not.

A recent news broadcast sited that single family homes are up to 11 million in America.  Crime and poverty rates are at an all-time high.  Educational institutions introduce our children to pornographic reading material and a world view that celebrates and indoctrinates our children into every kind of sexual deviance.  Prisons are filled beyond capacity, with the rates of women inmates increasing at a faster rate than men.  The lack of value we have for human life is demonstrated in the rise of human trafficking and abortion rates.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

It's hard to nail down a solid number of churches in the US- one source says approximately 100,000 churches.  According to the Christian Post, we have a net of 3,500 being added every year.   My current city of residence, Jackson, Tennessee has approximately 225 churches in a city of 67,000 people.

With all these churches, why is our culture in such a mess?

The answer is complex, to be sure.  But it is not as complex as we would like to think.  May I suggest that two of the reasons are that members of the body of Christ have stopped:

1.  Talking about religion.
2.  Talking about politics.

The two arenas that absolutely make the most difference between human flourishing or floundering, biblically and historically are the two things we don't talk about:  Religion (how God and man relate to one another) and politics (how man relates to man).  Consider how a silent church during the rise of the Nazi party effected millions in less than a decade.

This is a time when I think it's appropriate to ask, "Did God really say I shouldn't talk about religion or politics?"  Just as you won't find "Trinity" in a Bible word-search, you won't find "command to talk about religion or politics."  But you absolutely will find God's will for every facet of life from caring for the poor and the fatherless, personal responsibility, education of our children, sexual morality, and the sanctity of all human life.

In our ordered culture, the way we effect these areas is not through warfare, but through- you guessed it- politics.

The problems are so deeply rooted in our communities.  In order to be effective in restoring our culture for Christ, we need to minister to the needs of those most directly affected, Biblically.

But that's not all.

We need to raise up and send missionaries into the spheres of our society that directly affect change.  Imagine commissioning a generation of local, state and national public servants from school-board members and  county commissioners to governors and legislators who were called primarily as missionaries.  How would our communities look after a generation of their influence?

In our effort to limit the barriers to presenting the Gospel to the lost by staying away from potentially controversial conversations, we've sacrificed the saved AND the lost on the alter of political correctness and missed the fullest meaning of the Gospel.  Jesus is Lord over all and he plans to redeem IT ALL.

For every human being and especially for our Christ, let us repent of whatever has kept us silent.  With the courage of our Christ, let's stand, speak, and show the truth in love in every sphere of God's creation.