Separation of Church and State

Posted by Lorren on November 7, 2008

I was listening to the Way of the Master Radio podcast the other day, and they were talking about the elections. Although Barack Obama won, Proposition 102 in Arizona passed, as well as Proposition 8 in California.

Christians spent a lot of time and effort working to pass Proposition 8 and Proposition 102 in Arizona. We spend a lot of time in general trying to fight abortion laws, indecency laws, etc.

They mentioned how early in his career, Jerry Falwell was against getting into politics. Of course, he changed his mind, because he later crusaded against Larry Flynt and other causes. On the Way of the Master Radio, they argued that perhaps we should spend more time preaching the gospel rather than advocating Christian causes.

Most American Christians spend more of their efforts on social causes than they do about preaching the Gospel and trying to reach people for Christ. Do we have it backwards? Attacking the symptoms of a lost society, even by entering into worthy crusades against abortion, indecency, gay marriage, and the like, does not address the causes.

If you read about revivals of the past, like the Fulton Street Revival, you might notice that when people get saved, social change follows. During the Fulton Street Revival, they had to lay off police officers because there was not enough work for them. Bars had to close because of a lack of patronage.

When people truly get saved… when they repent and put their trust in Jesus, when they put Jesus at the forefront of their lives, rather than say a prayer for “fire insurance,” their lives change. God will give them the power to fight against pornography and drunkenness, adultery, abortion in their own lives. When people get saved, they don’t do the things that the lost people like to do. They want to do the things of God instead.

Similarly, lost people do not see things the way that Christians do. They don’t have a problem with gay marriage because they don’t recognize the authority of the God who says that homosexuality is a sin. Of course the lost people are going to think that homosexuality is okay… without God they don’t see it the way that Christians do. Why should Christians expect the lost people to see eye to eye with Christians on any number of subjects, from drunkenness to gambling to pornography… in the eyes of the world, that stuff feels good, and they don’t think that it hurts anybody, so why would it be wrong? The Christians are only out to destroy the fun of others.

The early church believed in the separation of church and state. People were changed when they were converted, not when the state told them that they couldn’t do something. Perhaps we should begin to emphasize salvation over social change as well.