My latest letter to the editor: Too many Christians worship political might

2009 is only a few scant hours old and it's already seen my first published work for the new year. In today's News & Record (the big paper serving this region) out of Greensboro there's this letter, "Political power presents a false god for Christians", written by Yours Truly.

Here's the full text of it...

My thoughts regarding the recent election were confirmed when the son of a prominent local minister told me, "Why can I not have both?" when I remarked that the Christians of America can pursue Christ or pursue power, but they cannot pursue them together.

Who is to blame most for the election of Barack Obama? The self-professed "conservative Christians." The ones who have for many years made an idol of political influence. Instead of the God of heaven, they have turned to worshiping a "god of fortresses" bereft of sincere love, mercy and grace.

These are the people who most claim that they are doing "the work of the Lord." But in reality they show the lost of this world anything but why Christ came to us. Their lust for power does not demonstrate anything different than what the people of this world have seen already.

My fellow Christians: You are worried about the outcome of a mere election? Then you are not worried about what truly matters at all. Stop sheepishly following the hucksters like James Dobson and Pat Robertson. God cannot bless our lust for political power. It is time to let it fall away and die.

Christopher Knight
Reidsville

And in case anyone's wondering, here's the post on this blog where the exchange with Jeff Baity of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem took place, where I told him that he and the other Christians of this nation must choose between "saving the lost from a dying world or saving a dying world from the lost" but they cannot have both.

What do y'all think? Feel free to leave comments here or on the letter's own page at the News & Record website.

On another note, it was announced in the News & Record this past week that Elma Sabo and Becky Layton are retiring from the editorial department of the newspaper. I've been reading Elma for many years and had the pleasure of talking to her a few times, and I certainly wish her all the best in her future projects. And as for Becky Layton: hers was the voice that I heard on the phone, back in 1991, regarding the first piece of writing that I ever submitted for publication. Since then we have wound up chatting more times than I can remember, not just about the letters and other pieces that I was turning in but about other stuff too. She has been a fine front lady for the News & Record editorial department, and a very neat person through and through. And it is sad to know that I won't be hearing her voice on the other end anymore but I also wish her only the best in whatever she winds up doing from here on out :-)

Ladies, my hat's off to ya!

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Cal Thomas sez: The Religious Right is dead (AMEN to that!)

A few days ago on this blog I wrote about how conservative Christians bore much of the blame for the election of Barack Obama. That they had let their pursuit of power blind them so much that they failed to see Christ and what He stood for anymore.

And now, writing in Jewish World Review (a very good publication, I might add), Cal Thomas doesn't just echo those same sentiments, he articulates them far better than I could.

From his essay "The Religious Right, R.I.P."...

Thirty years of trying to use government to stop abortion, preserve opposite-sex marriage, improve television and movie content and transform culture into the conservative Evangelical image has failed. The question now becomes: should conservative Christians redouble their efforts, contributing more millions to radio and TV preachers and activists, or would they be wise to try something else?

I opt for trying something else...

Too many conservative Evangelicals have put too much faith in the power of government to transform culture. The futility inherent in such misplaced faith can be demonstrated by asking these activists a simple question: Does the secular left, when it holds power, persuade conservatives to live by their standards? Of course they do not. Why, then, would conservative Evangelicals expect people who do not share their worldview and view of God to accept their beliefs when they control government?

The essence of Thomas's piece is of such brilliance, that I sincerely believe that every self-declared "evangelical"/"conservative" church in America would do well to read it from the pulpit... and take his wisdom to heart. Click here to read the rest of his column.

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Obama won... because conservative Christians prostituted their principles

I originally had much more to say about this, but I'm going to dispense with the flowery rhetoric and cut to the heart of the matter...

The so-called "evangelical conservative Christians" had damned well better look in a mirror if they want to see who is most responsible for Barack Obama winning the race for President on Tuesday.

And now there is no reason to be angry, and no rationale for "blaming God" for Obama's victory, as I have seen too many Christians seriously doing. God had nothing to do with Obama winning. If anything, He let the people of America have what they wanted... and He absolutely played fair with many of those who profess Him as Lord.

"Christian conservatives" paved the way to Obama's historic win because they sold out their values for sake of worldly power.

People like James Dobson and the Focus on the Family crowd: they are the some of the ones most at fault. So too are many of the "preachers" that I have read and found myself listening to on the radio (like WPIP and Ron Baity of Berean Baptist Church out of Winston-Salem). They decided long ago that reaching the lost of this world wasn't their biggest priority. Instead they wanted to "sit at the king's table". Websites like Free Republic (yeah I'm looking at you Jim Robinson, ya first-order hypocrite) became too fixated on obtaining power. They lusted for the power they thought they could have so much, that they didn't bother to ask themselves if they should have had it to begin with. And still others, like Presidential Prayer Team, turned the office of President into a high priesthood of material might: something that would have horrified the Founding Fathers. So it is that in the past eight years George W. Bush - a man of weak character and no sincere Christ-like qualities - became such a paragon of virtue that it became on par with blasphemy to object to his "wisdom".

These and many others became so obsessed with destroying the enemy (like "liberals") that they became the enemy.

They rejected the God of Heaven and instead chose to worship a god of fortresses. They, quite honestly, chose the god of this world and what he was offering them.

They chose against putting their faith in the God of Jesus Christ.

That's not to make a judgment against Obama's spiritual condition at all. But because of the spiritual condition of many of his enemies, Barack Obama is now going to be their President.

They brought this on themselves. And if they have any shred of conscience, the self-proclaimed "Christian leaders" like James Dobson and Pat Roberton and their ilk will stop looking for excuses and already trying to regain power in 2012, and turn their own hearts toward repentance instead. Not for sake of temporal advantage, but purely because they desire God's will... without trying to bend Him to their wishes.

Pastor Chuck Baldwin also has similar sentiments about his fellow Christians...

Across the country, rather than stand on principle, hundreds of thousands of pastors, Christians, and pro-life conservatives capitulated and groveled before John McCain's neocon agenda. In doing so, they forfeited any claim to truth, and they abandoned any and all fidelity to constitutional government. They should rip the stories of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego out of their Bibles. They should never again tell their children, parishioners, and radio audiences the importance of standing for truth and principle. They have made a mockery of Christian virtue. No wonder a majority of the voting electorate laughs at us Christians. No wonder the GOP crashed and burned last Tuesday.

Again, it wasn't Barack Obama who destroyed conservatism; it was George W. Bush, John McCain, and the millions of evangelical Christians who supported them. And until conservatives find their backbone and their convictions, they deserve to remain a burnt-out, has-been political force. They have no one to blame but themselves.

Click here for more of Baldwin's thoughts.

I have said it many times over the past several months: there is no faith to be had in politics. The Christians of this land would do well to understand that, if they want there to be anything of America at all to bestow to their children.

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Baptist preacher on WPIP "conservative Christian" radio claims Obama is "Antichrist" and going to Hell

I've a nasty suspicion that this is only a taste of what's barreling toward us...

So I was headed west down I-40 from a day trip to Raleigh (which I'll be posting about tomorrow) this afternoon and around Burlington, I started flicking through radio stations.

And as I was going across the AM dial just after 5 p.m. I happened to catch some pastor preaching with all due exuberance and conviction that Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama is "the Antichrist". This pastor also added that just as the Antichrist does not have "a single Christian ounce in his body" that Obama is going to Hell.

I checked the frequency. It was 880 AM. Which means it was a broadcast of WPIP, a radio ministry out of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem.

Not that this really surprises me.

Apart from sporadic music, from sunrise to sunset WPIP's broadcasting is pretty much wall-to-wall a network of "good ol' boys" who like to preach variations on (1) the King James Version is the only Bible and any other translation is a work of Satan, (2) independent fundamentalist conservative Baptist churches are the only real churches (similar to the local "Church Of Christ In Name Only" that's been talked about here lately) and (3) Democrats and "liberals" are evil and are all Hell-bound sinners.

You can get a sense of what WPIP stands for just from its bumpers. WPIP's staff likes to call it the "conservative Christian radio voice". Berean Baptist's head pastor Ron Baity is often heard proclaiming that WPIP is "the way radio ought to be": apparently holding to the notion that to contend for the faith means aping Rush Limbaugh. And then sometimes I hear this station boast that it sticks to the "old paths".

Yeah, they're "old paths" all right: as old as Babylon.

Any Christians that obsess on the American flag, American military might, love of George W. Bush, hatred toward "liberals", and electing Republican candidates far more than they do with serving Christ in love and humility, are not Christians that God can possibly bless the work of. I'm hard-pressed to believe that these "Christians" worship anything but power.

And part of me has to wonder how many of these preachers have truly experienced the salvation that can only come with the grace of God. Think about it: How can so many professed "Christians" in America be free from sin if they can't even be free from the Republican Party?

But then, any "Christian radio station" that sincerely believes the world needs to listen to a cult leader like the late Lester Roloff is hard to take seriously, anyway.

According to WPIP's program log for Monday through Friday, this would make the program that I heard this afternoon that of Meadowview Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. I found the church's website. If this is indeed the same show that I heard this afternoon - although this being AM radio and how lax WPIP seems to be in maintaining its website, this is not a confirmed certainty - then its pastor Robert Hutchens is apparently the one who's already consigning Barack Obama to Hell.

If you're a longtime reader of this blog, then you know where I'm coming from. I don't call myself a "liberal" any more than I call myself a "conservative". I don't profess to being an active supporter of any political party. I'm just a guy trying to do what's right and what God would have me to do. So nobody can claim that I'm trying to pursue a "political agenda" by taking these supposedly "God-called pastors" to task for their un-Christlike motives and methods.

First of all, it's not this preacher's place to already condemn someone to Hell. As long as anyone... any person... has breath in his or her lungs, he or she is free to call upon God for forgiveness. In rashly stating that Obama deserves Hell, this minister is forgetting that he himself deserves Hell also, just as we all do.

And it's a much worse thing to practically be gloating about Obama or anyone else going to Hell. Especially if the basis of that condemnation is something so silly as a political dispute.

But what bothered me especially is that this preacher, whoever he is, is way too consumed with the patterns and politics of this world. Now, I do believe that we as Christians should be fully active wherever it is that God puts us, and that if they happen to live in America then this means living up to the stewardship that God has charged us with over this land. But that means taking our roles as citizens seriously... and that's not something that's possible by blindly following a political party! And these "men of God" are trying to goad us into doing just that, when they seek to rile up our emotions.

For someone who claims to be a "man of God", this kind of vitriol is symptomatic of an unregenerate mind. A mind that is yet carnal and has not been transformed like unto that of Christ.

It's a shame that these "conservative Christians" are scouring the gutter. As it is, they show nothing in their actions that could convince the lost of the existence of a real and loving God. Not when they focus more on this world than they do on Heaven.

And I think we can expect worse from some of them as the months progress.

Maybe if they would repent of their own arrogance, their prayers that America as a nation might repent could come true.

Will that happen? Could these people do that?

Let's put it this way: I have faith in God. I do not have faith in too many of my fellow Christians.

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