Lux Lucet

Now that convention season is upon us and the thoughts of many are tuned politics, specifically to the party conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia, it seemed good to discuss the relationship between Evangelical Christians and the political process.

For some time now, really since the end of WWII and the rise of the neo-evangelicalism, American Evangelicals have worked assiduously to influence the culture, oftentimes through the political process.

Growing up, I recall the rise of the Christian right during the 1970’s. Led by such figures as the Moral Majority’s Jerry Falwell and Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum, the Christian right promised to push back on the radical cultural changes that had rocked the nation during the 1960’s.

And now after several decades of Evangelical politicking by these and other groups, it’s fair to ask, Just what have they accomplished? Is our nation more moral, or better still, is America more Christian than it was forty years ago? Is there greater respect in 2016 for the rule of law, for private property, for public morality than before the rise of the Christian right?

The answer to these questions is, I believe, obviously no. In fact, it seems to me, that not only has the religious right failed to reverse the tide of national decline – and make no mistake about it, the US and the entirety of Western Civilization is in the midst of what appears to be terminal decline – but that things actually are far worse now than they were before the term “religious right” entered the mainstream of public discourse.

Nothing to Show for It

Commenting on the abject failure of conservatives and libertarians to do anything to impede the progress of the liberal agenda, John Robbins said,

Over the past fifty years, conservatives and libertarians have spent tens of billions of dollars lobbying, trying to elect candidates, trying to organize in various ways.

Now when I was a kid, I was out passing out literature for Barry Goldwater back in 1964. Maybe some of you did as well if you remember back that far. And what has it gained? Are we better off, to use a campaign slogan, are we better off today than we were fifty years ago, or in 1964? What have all the conservatives and libertarians done with those tens of billions of dollars that have shown any improvement in the political, the moral climate of the country?

Now if that money had been put into the preaching of the gospel, the uncompromised, unvarnished, pure gospel, perhaps there would be something completely different to show for it. But it was put into compromised political action, and there’s nothing to show for it. Absolutely nothing. Tens of billions of dollars.

When you think of all the campaigns, all the organizations – and I’ve been involved in, my degree is in political theory, political philosophy, I’ve been interested in politics all my life, and have been involved from time to time working on Capitol Hill. And I learned a very good lesson on Capitol Hill, that what happens there is of very little consequence. That if one is interested in changing society, you don’t go to Capitol Hill, you preach the gospel. Now you can preach it on Capitol Hill, I not saying you shouldn’t preach it on Capitol Hill, they need to hear it too. But if anybody is operating under the illusion that political action is going to make a significant change in society apart from a sea change in the beliefs of American people, then they’re condemned to futility. They will waste their lives (Lecture, The
Religious Wars of the 21st Century, please see comments at the 31:50 mark).

And there is no better example of the enormous waste of time and treasure by conservatives and Christians than meteoric rise of the ungodly LGBT movement. On May 17, 2004 Massachusetts residents Tanya McCloskey and Marcia Kadish became the first same-sex married couple in the US. Just over eleven years later, the US Supreme court declared same-sex marriage a Constitutional right in all fifty states.

In Indiana, Georgia, and Arkansas, religious freedom bills designed to provide legal protection for persons and organizations that objected to the homosexual agenda on religious grounds have been severely weakened.

North Carolina, which earlier this year passed what has come to be known as the “bathroom bill,” finds itself under siege, not only by homosexual activists themselves, but also by their fellow travelers in the business, sports and entertainment communities who insist and calling good evil and evil good.

The bill, formally known as the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, among other things requires, “bathrooms in public facilities to be used by people based on the gender listed on their birth certificate.” In other words, biological men must use the men’s room, and biological women the women’s room.

Back when the Moral Majority was in its heyday, hardly anyone would have imagined the need for such a law. But after forty years of leadership from the religious right, society has collapsed to the point where state legislatures see the need to step in.

Why all the Failure?

How is it that after Evangelical’s have poured decades’ worth of time, energy and money into “reclaiming America for Christ” as D. James Kennedy’s organization would put it, America finds itself farther outside the prescriptive will of God than at any time in her history?

The short answer is that much of the blame can laid directly at the feet of the Evangelical culture warriors themselves, who, instead of fighting the good fight of faith as Christians first by preaching the Gospel of Justification by Faith Alone, instead have hastened to yoke themselves in ecumenical political alliances with unbelievers – Romanists, Jews, Mormons, Orthodoxists – thinking that by doing so they will have a better chance of winning the culture war. All such activities represent an enormous betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ.

By issuing joint religious Declarations on political issues with unbelievers, Christians show that they esteem making ecumenical political statements more important than proclaiming the Gospel to those unbelievers…This inversion of Christian priorities has been a persistent and prevalent error of the twentieth century…Can the reader imagine the Apostle Paul signing a joint religious Declaration with Jews, Judaizers – who apparently believed the “fundamentals of the faith” (but no justification by faith alone, for teaching that unbelief Paul damned them) – and dissident Pagans against the policies of the Roman Empire? (John W. Robbins, The Sin of Signing Ecumenical Declarations).

Moral Majority Founder and Baptist Minister Jerry Falwell.

Despite James’ warning that friendship with the world makes one an enemy of God, Jerry Falwell seemed to go out of his way to work arm-in-arm with those who denied the Gospel of Justification by Faith Alone.

According to Falwell’s biographer Michael Sean Winters, “the controversial preacher and Christian Right leader helped remove the stigma conservative Protestants had working alongside Roman Catholics and Mormons for common political goals…”He [Falwell] dispensed with this idea that you could not be yoked with nonbelievers or non-fundamentalists”…”[Falwell] was very proud of the fact that even in the early years of the Moral Majority it was 30 percent conservative Roman Catholic..Winters believes Falwell would have welcomed partnering with Mormons, as they were part of his political movement back in the 1970s and 1980s.”

Of course, when one ignores the Bible’s clear warnings against yoking in ministry with unbelievers, one also must jettison other “awkward” Biblical teachings lest they become a cause for embarrassment within the ranks of the ecumenical moralists. When asked by Policy Review [Policy Review is a journal of opinion published by conservative Washington D.C. think tank the Heritage Foundation] in 1984, “What explains the sudden prevalence of overt homosexuality?,” Falwell responded,

I don’t believe that state punishment of homosexuals provides any answer whatever. I personally believe that homosexuals should be afforded total civil rights like all other Americans. Equal access to housing accommodations and job opportunities is guaranteed to all Americans in the Constitution. The problem with homosexuality is that most people look on this sin in a different way than all other sins. Most Americans look with great contempt on the homosexual. That is why we cannot help homosexuals. They immediately perceive this contempt and realize there is no love or reaching out there.

As long as the homosexual is not flaunting his or her behavior as an acceptable lifestyle, and is not recruiting students, there is no supportable reason for not allowing him to teach in public school (John Robbins, From the Horror File).

Here, Falwell essentially agrees with the US Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges where it ruled that the Constitution does too imply the right of same-sex marriage (“I personally believe that homosexuals should be afforded total civil rights like all other Americans”).

And at the same time as he’s defending sodomy, this conservative paladin pours contempt on Christians whose views on homosexuality are informed, not by political expedience, but by the Bible. In Falwell’s way of thinking, apparently Kim Davis, Jack Phillips, and Barronelle Stutzman all got was they deserved.

In what likely would come as a surprise to many of today’s Evangelicals, the leaders of the religious right essentially conceded defeat in the same-sex marriage battle over thirty years ago. That being the case, is there any reason to be surprised that American Christians today find themselves almost totally on the defensive in the culture war? With help like Falwell’s, the only real wonder is that it took the gay rights movement so long to close the deal.

If we Christians are going to have any chance at all of winning the spiritual battles of the 21st century, we are going to have to repent of our past mistakes and fight the good fight of faith, not as easily embarrassed ecumenists, not as double-minded men who will receive nothing from the Lord, but as Christians clad in the whole armor of God, first preaching of Gospel Justification by Belief Alone followed by all its political and economic implications.  To do otherwise is to betray all that we claim to believe.