Is Good Government bad for the Church?

I have recently spent a lot of hours over the course of 5 months working on a political campaign for a friend of mine who I believe will make a fantastic government leader if he is elected next Tuesday. I have always believed in the value of responsible citizens being involved in the American political process. As a youngster growing up in a homeschooler family in the 1980s and early 90s I saw the difference that can be made by activism and purposeful involvement. Through political leadership by countless homeschoolers and their supporters laws were changed, lives were changed and I believe America is better because of it. I do see it as the responsibility of every citizen and especially every Christian to be aware and involved in the governance of our country. Yet, I see around me a different America than has existed in the past. As I go door to door spreading the word about a visionary candidate I see a variety of types of people. I am sad to admit that many of them are simply different types of apathetic. I have seen a few motivated and interested people, but too few for America to claim, any longer, to be a healthy, vibrant democracy. However, these thoughts I am writing are not about America. At least not directly.

Rather, as I think about the government and apathy I can’t help making a mental transition to the church and apathy. Then I find myself asking a strange question. Could good government and religious freedom actually be bad for the church? Just as I believe our great political system has lulled many Americans into a lazy, comfortable cocoon of self-focused existence, perhaps our great political system has done the same thing to the members of Christ’s body living within it. A recent sermon I heard brought into focus for me the idea that in many cases the power of a Christian’s witness is directly correlated to their proximity to the threat of impending death. Basically, the more likely someone is to be martyred for their faith, or even to die in a different way, the stronger their witness for Christ can be. The Christian’s power comes from their lack of fear in the face of death. Death, as the end of our earthly life, is something most people spend their entire life trying to escape. To see a person unafraid in its very presence is astounding, unforgettable, inspiring.

The problem is that here in America, thanks to our great political system, Christians have not spent much time close enough to death to be such powerful witnesses. I won’t go into the differences between the church here in the states vs. the church in China or other countries where active persecution exists. I don’t think I need to. All we need to do is read the stories in Acts, in Revelation, and perhaps Hebrews 11 to see that America’s church does not present to the world the same kind of spiritual power that existed when the first century church was enduring persecution, and yet growing by leaps and bounds at the same time. I believe we in the American churches, like the American voters, are also apathetic. We seek first the kingdom of the American Dream, and hope that all the things we want will be added unto us. Sure we believe in God and want to go to heaven some day, but when God investigates the true motives of most hearts sitting in church pews, I doubt He finds too many that burn brightly enough with the fire of His Spirit to light the world on fire. I doubt this because the world is not yet burning with the passion for God that would be set free through the surrender of such hearts to His will.

It seems that a lazy church is brought about by a lack of difficulty, a lack of persecution, and a glut of things and possessions which lead us down a path different from that which is marked by the nail scarred footprints. Between the footprints on this pathway there are also other things; things which bear names like surrender, giving, testing, persecution. Yet that is not all! I hear its travelers experience unending gifts of eternal peace, love, and life in addition to the trials. Too few follow this path, though, for we are too happy in our own little worlds.

Fortunately, God is not happy with us in our own little worlds. I recently read Gene Edwards book, The Divine Romance, which illustrates powerfully, among other things, the lengths to which God will go to pursue His bride, His church. The prophets spoke of this passion, God the Father told of this passion through His acts of creation, through His acts of love and even His acts of vengeance, and then Jesus acted on this passion, pouring it out with His very life for us. Until we learn to pour out our lives for Him in response, I believe God will keep acting on His love, whether we like it or not. Why would we not like it? Because sometimes the love of God pushes us to give up the path of our choosing and seek the one He made us for. Sometimes this pushing hurts. I believe the church in America needs to be hurt. I can’t say I am praying for God to bring us persecution, but I fear that may be His only recourse to wake us up. My prayer is yet that He would find a way to light the fire in hearts without the pain of suffering for our faith. My hope is that it is still a productive activity to involve ourselves in government and seek to make our country better. I hope we may yet open our hearts to His flame, and enlivened by His power abandon the apathy that plagues our land. The reality is that the flame is coming. The only question is whether we give ourselves to its power and let God revive our hearts or whether we resist the flame until we are consumed by it. Either way we die. One way we receive back life again; life everlasting. May we choose wisely.

In Truth,
Stephen