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Is your local minister preaching every Sunday about Obamacare and Global Warming? If so, probably not many are attending your church!
But many national church bureaucrats think that politics, specifically liberal political advocacy, is THE focus of the Gospel. Sadly, over the decades many seminary trained clergy and church bureaucrats have stopped believing in the need for personal salvation and personal holiness, available through a wonder-working Savior who was born of a blessed Virgin and who rose miraculously from the grave, to sit for eternity in Glory next to God the Father. No longer believing in these magnificent promises, liberal church officials and ministers tragically tried to fill the void left by collapsed faith. They proposed that God’s Kingdom is almost entirely a political kingdom, built by human hands, and achieved through endless expansion of government in an unending drive to meet every possible physical human need.
As an example, here’s a fresh report from my assistant Connor Ewing about a United Methodist gathering at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, where the chief United Methodist lobbyist from Capitol Hill demanded church support for government controlled health care and for climate change legislation. Please keep in mind that Jim Winkler’s salary, and his $5 million United Methodist lobby operation, are paid for by largely unknowing local church members. Should collection plate money support such routine political lobbying for issues on which Christians can and do disagree?
Methodism’s founder famously declared that Christians should be agreed on essential doctrines about God’s identity and salvation, as well as our personal conduct toward each other. But on issues to which the Scriptures do not speak directly, he said: “We think and let think.” Church membership should entail a common faith in Christ. It should not require mandatory support for a complex and often radical political agenda, such as Mr. Winkler espouses.
If you are a Presbyterian (USA), Episcopalian, Evangelical Lutheran, UCC, or American Baptist, then you too have an official church lobby office in Washington, D.C. pushing causes like Mr. Winkler’s. And many of these church lobbies are actually located in The Methodist Building on Capitol Hill. Find out what they’re up to, in your church’s name!
We at IRD urge our churches, rather than promoting ever larger government programs without regard to effectiveness, should instead speak out robustly for the persecuted around the world, especially for brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer for their faith. If the Scriptures are clear on any issue, it is that God’s ordains each person, made in His image, with an innate dignity that merits human rights. Bewilderingly, liberal church lobbyists are not much interested in defending the persecuted overseas. They prefer to condemn America.
But IRD’s Religious Liberty Director Faith McDonnell is a tireless advocate for the persecuted, especially in Sudan, where an often vicious Islamist regime torments Christians and non-Arab, moderate Muslims. Many in the U.S. would prefer to ignore the crimes of the Sudanese government and instead pretend that easy accommodation can be reached with its radical Muslim rulers, with the understanding that we should not create unnecessary trouble by defending the persecuted. Faith thinks otherwise. Here’s her latest article.
Does your local church ever discuss persecuted Christians overseas? Do most in your church realize that millions of Christians around the world live with the daily reality of possible job loss, property destruction, imprisonment or death? What if a government or angry mob tried to shut down or destroy your local church? Get your congregation informed about, praying for, and working on behalf of persecuted Christians! Check our website for materials, or contact Faith directly at fmcdonnell@theird.org.
And please remember that IRD, unlike official church agencies, depends on your voluntary donations.Please donate here.
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