Not Political, Social, or Economic

I received a political comment about one of my faith based Facebook posts this month.  The post was based on Proverbs 17:17 so I was a bit surprised to get a comment that was political in nature. 

Here’s the post which included both the Bible verse and my comments:

This was one of my #WednesdayWisdom posts I’ve been doing this year in which I share a Proverb each week along with some insights. I post them in my blog, on Facebook, and I also share them with my grandchildren.

My faith based posts are simply expressions of my faith. My goal is to glorify God and to point people to Christ. My focus on Proverbs 17:17 on this particular day was about lasting friendship and unconditional love but it was especially directed toward the amazing unconditional love of Christ.

The person that made the comment was an old friend who basically stated that he felt that ICE (Immigration Control and Enforcement) is doing the complete opposite of this Proverb. He suggested that they were not doing what I spoke of in my first line (unconditional love) and that they should read my post. 

To be clear, the unconditional love I spoke of in my first line was with regard to friendships and that this type of love is key to lasting relationships; to love one another regardless of differences or difficulties. It was not directed to enforcement officers who are doing their job; they’re not seeking a lasting friendship.

So, I replied and told him that as far as ICE is concerned, I believe the agents are doing what they took an oath to do when they signed up to be an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agent: they’re enforcing federal laws governing border control, customs, trade, and immigration. In other words, they’re doing their job. 

My best guess is that he was focused on John 15:12, to “Love each other as I have loved you.” which I concluded my post with. However, using this scenario involving ICE agents, the Bible also tells us that we are to “Obey the government, for God is the One who has put it there. There is no government anywhere that God has not placed in power. So those who refuse to obey the law of the land are refusing to obey God, and punishment will follow.” Romans 13:1-2

I did appreciate his input though because it inspired me to to sit down and write about something similar that’s been bothering me for the past few years concerning a growing trend to connect politics and social issues with Christianity. 

In general, I don’t particularly like politics (or political parties, candidates, or those in office) and try not to spend very much energy or time on these issues. I do vote however my vote is typically based more upon the lesser of two evils. 

Nor am I in any way a part of the emerging sect of progressive Christianity that has invaded the SBC, the Gospel Coalition, the ERLC, Christianity Today, and numerous denominations; many of which try to blur the line between Christianity and political, social, and economic issues. Specifically, people such as David French, Russell Moore, the late Tim Keller, Rick Warren, JD Greear, Brent Leatherwood, Ed Stetzer, and Matt Chandler, to name a few. The likes of which who joined the social justice band wagon that gained popularity in 2019 with the SBC’s Resolution 9. It spread to other denominations as well. Social Justice, Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, Liberation Theology, Standpoint Epistemology, and Egalitarianism became their mantra. Fast forward to today, complete with all of it’s current social justice issues, we have churches who have veered so far from the word of God that they’re actually preaching “another gospel” now. 

Somehow over the past few years, the progressive left church and its leaders have filled their pews with people who liken their social, political, and economic issues as gospel issues. Complete with contemporary “Christian” music with lyrics that rival something between a “Me, Myself, and I Convention” and a typical NPR radio broadcast. (My feeble attempt at sarcasm.) 

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Timothy 3-4

Whereas, I believe the calling of the church is to proclaim the gospel, and that politics and social issues have no place in the pulpit. Likewise, I believe Christ calls Christians to share the gospel.  In this one-minute clip that is shared from Wretched Radio, it captures Alistair Begg’s position on this subject with which I totally agree. 

“We are not in the world today to reform the world. Our mandate in the world is not political, it’s not social, and it’s not economic. The fact that many of us have lived through a period of time in the United States whereby the social, political, and economic concerns have increasingly encroached upon the minds of those who should know better and have begun to  take on virtually a life of their own, whereby we have begun to be seduced by the idea that these really are the issues—that if we could fix this and fix this and fix this, then we would be fine. But we were never invited to fix this and this and this. The calling of the church is to proclaim the gospel. And whenever that which is central, namely the gospel, becomes peripheral, then that which is peripheral inevitably becomes central.”

I also like this quote from a writer I follow on Substack: “Jesus didn’t die for a tax bracket or a constitutional republic. He died for His sheep. And like it or not, He didn’t rise again to endorse a particular immigration policy or rescue a stock market. He rose to crush death and the devil, redeem a people, and build a Kingdom not made with hands.”

I believe that social, political, and economic issues come and go as the culture goes. However, the message of the cross stands on its own, and the gospel should not be tainted or watered down with the addition of a social, political, or economic issue. 

And to be clear, my faith based posts are simply expressions of my faith. My goal is to glorify God and to point people to Christ.