Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

Leftism pretends that Christian political action is only acceptable when it advances the Leftist worldview, but is wrong and uniquely dangerous if it preserves the Christian worldview. It’s time for Christians to stop believing such a silly lie.

I recently compiled 30 quotes to inspire Christians to political action. That list included brilliant sayings like:

“If the Church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We are sent to make war and to stop short of nothing but the subjugation of the world to the sway of the Lord Jesus.” — William Booth

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“I long for the day when the precepts of the Christian religion shall be the rule among all classes of men, in all transactions!” — Charles H. Spurgeon

Is All Christian Political Action Created Equal?

I have noticed, however, that certain forms of Christian political involvement are regularly praised by our culture’s powerbrokers while others are disdained.

For instance, if Christians appeal to the Bible to advocate for causes like mass migration, queer rights, climate ideology or race politics, they will be celebrated by secular leaders for letting their faith shape public policy.

Increasingly, even the large denominations and well-known evangelical bodies support this kind of Christian political involvement.

By contrast, as soon as Christians argue from Scripture that abortion is wrong, marriage is between one man and one woman, family and private property should be shielded from the government, or the West’s Christian heritage and values should be elevated, all hell breaks loose.

Suddenly, we are accused of imposing our beliefs on others, violating the separation of church and state, and engaging in political extremism. In a word, we are labelled “Christian Nationalists”.

We’re All ‘Christian Nationalists’

The double standards couldn’t be more obvious.

In truth, as my friend Jamie Bambrick (of Clear Truth Media) recently pointed out, “Every Christian is some sort of Christian nationalist. They believe that God has principles regarding how nations are to be governed and that nations are obligated to follow them.”

“The question is whether they are honest about this, and willing to look at the Bible for how this is to be done.”

Every Christian is some sort of Christian nationalist. They believe that God has principles regarding how nations are to be governed and that nations are obligated to follow them.

The question is whether they are honest about this, and willing to look at the Bible for how this… https://t.co/JpUuCGdraU

— Jamie Bambrick (@j_bambrick) January 11, 2025

Jamie was responding to another thoughtful post by Center for Baptist Leadership Executive Director William Wolfe, who was even more to the point.

Wolfe observed that people who condone the first kind of Christian political action while condemning the second “have no problem with ‘Christian nationalism’ at all”.

“They just have a problem with *conservative* Christian nationalism.”

Once you see this, you can’t unsee it:

If someone wrote a book arguing that “Christian nationalism” meant:

—Socialized medicine
—Infinite mass migration
—Reparations
—Taxing the rich
—“Trans” rights
—Overturning the Second Amendment
—Carbon taxes
—etc.

And grounded…

— William Wolfe 🇺🇸 (@William_E_Wolfe) January 11, 2025

Equal Weights and Measures

Here is where Christians must be discerning.

While Christians instinctively use language to convey thoughts and ideas truthfully, Leftism does the opposite. Also known as Cultural Marxism, Leftism employs language to hide the truth. In this instance, the lie being told is that Christian political action is only acceptable when it advances the Leftist worldview, but is wrong and uniquely dangerous if it preserves the Christian worldview.

Fortunately, most Christians can see the dishonesty and hypocrisy once it has been pointed out.

Of course, Christians should be encouraged to influence both sides of politics, and we won’t always agree on every policy.

But the unequal weights and measures behind the “Christian nationalism” label must be abandoned (see Proverbs 11:1, Proverbs 20:10, Proverbs 20:23, Leviticus 19:35-36, Deuteronomy 25:13-16).

No longer should we pretend that Christian political involvement that moves the needle leftward is sacrosanct, while any action that upholds conservative values is somehow evil or dangerous. These lies come from the father of lies (John 8:44), and they are rooted in the fear of man.

May the causes we stand for not derive from the world’s values and priorities, but from the heart of God and His revelation in Scripture.

___

Image courtesy of Pexels.