Religion and Politics Part 1

 Religion and Politics Part 1

How often we have heard that… “Religion and politics don’t mix.”

We have heard it so long, that many people have come to believe it without question.With the presidential election so near, this week I've spent a lot of time thinking, praying, and researching that idea. And you know what I discovered that religion and politics have the same source…God.

"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." Romans 13:1 NIV

In other words, God is the source of political governments and because God was the source of government, the early Christians were to treat government and its leaders with respect and obedience.

  "Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, ¹⁴ or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right." 1 Peter 2:13,14 NIV

Governmental authorities are to be obeyed not because they are always right…or because it will be easier for you…but because God “appointed” them.

Why did God call these early Christians to such a response?  Better yet, why is God calling us to a Christian Response to our elected officials today?  I think the reason is, and this is very important, are you ready?

Government just doesn’t happen, God orchestrates and establishes it.

 So to say “religion and politics don’t mix” is to deny the divine origin of government is God.

Our founding fathers understood this.  The very people, who formed this country and lead it in its infantry, believe that it was God that brought us together. As a result, God must be remembered above everything else.

Patrick Henry wrote;

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!"

 In his own memoirs, The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, John Jay wrote these words,

"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." (John Jay, , The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, Henry P. Johnston, ed. (New York: G.P. Putnams Sons, 1890), Vol. IV, p. 365.

Doesn’t sound like John Jay believed that politics and religion weren’t to mix. By the way, does anyone know who John Jay was? He was the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

During the War of 1812, the House and Senate passed this resolution requesting that the President James Madison recommend a day of national public humiliation (repentance) and prayer, which President Madison passed on July 9, 1812.

"Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the two Houses have signified a request, that a day may be recommended, to be observed by the people of the United States, with religious solemnity, as a day of public humiliation and prayer…"

Can you imagine a bipartisan Congress putting aside their political differences and calling on the president to proclaim a national day of repentance and prayer? In fact in our self-centered arrogance, we  have moved so far from the truth that repentance in no longer tolerated.

The evidence of this arrogance is seen in the response to a prayer delivered by Rev. Joe Wright before the Kansas House of Representatives January  23, 1996

“Heavenly Father, we come before you to ask your forgiveness. We seek your direction and your guidance. We know your word says, "Woe to those who call evil good." But that's what we've done. We've lost our spiritual equilibrium. We have inverted our values. We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word in the name of moral pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism. We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle. We've exploited the poor and called it a lottery. We've neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. In the name of choice, we have killed our unborn. In the name of right to life, we have killed abortionists. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it taxes. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, oh, God, and know our hearts today. Try us. Show us any wickedness within us. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of the State of Kansas, and that they have been ordained by you to govern this great state. Grant them your wisdom to rule. May their decisions direct us to the center of your will. And, as we continue our prayer and as we come in out of the fog, give us clear minds to accomplish our goals as we begin this Legislature. For we pray in Jesus' name, Amen."

Rep. Anthony Powell, a Wichita Republican, invited the Senior Pastor from his church, the 2,500-member Central Christian Church in Wichita, to serve as the House's guest chaplain, offering the opening prayer at a session of the Kansas House of Representatives.   Rev. Joe Wright composed a prayer, reading it at the opening of the legislature on January 23.   Having departed he receive a call on his car phone from his secretary asking him what he had done.  He was unaware of the ensuing controversy he had caused.  One Democrat member walked out in protest, and three speeches criticizing the prayer were delivered by three other democrats, and one more claimed it a "message of intolerance".  Tom Sawyer, House Minority Leader (also a Democrat) asserted that the prayer "reflects the extreme, radical views that continue to dominate the House Republican agenda since right-wing extremists seized control of the House Republican caucus last year." 

Quite a difference from what a bipartisan congress asked the president to do on July 9, 1812. Here’s a little more of that proclamation back in 1812

“I do therefore recommend a convenient day to be set apart, for the devout purposes of rendering the Sovereign of the Universe, and the Benefactor of Mankind. The public homage due to His holy attributes; of acknowledging the transgressions which might justly provoke the manifestations of His divine displeasure; of seeking his merciful forgiveness, and His assistance in the great duties of repentance and amendment; and, especially, of offering fervent supplications, that, in the present season of calamity and war, He would take the American people under His peculiar care and protection; that He would guide their public councils, animate their patriotism, and bestow His blessing on their arms; that He would inspire all nations with a love of justice and of concord, and with a reverence for the unerring precept of our holy religion, to do to others as they would require that others should do to them; and, finally, that turning the hearts of our enemies from the violence and injustice which sway their councils against us, He would hasten a restoration of the blessings of peace.”Given at Washington, the 9th day of July, A. D. 1812   James Madison --[Source: James D. Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents (Washington: Bureau of National Literature, 1897), Vol. II, p. 498]

Sounds like President James Madison and the Congress of his day believed that religion and politics should exist together.

In the first farewell address of any president, George Washington wrote;

“Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness—these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, "where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?"…forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

We have been fed a lie that faith and politics should not mix And we have believed it even though the Bible and our founding fathers said otherwise.

  

 Look at what President John Adams said;
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people...it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Some, like Daniel Webster (known as the defender of the Constitution) believed that a prerequisite for all judges be that be Christians of high esteem;

"The last hope of the innocent, under accusation and in distress, is in the integrity of his judges. If this fail, all fails; and there is no remedy on this side the bar of Heaven. Of all places, therefore, there is none, which so imperatively demands that he who occupies it should be under the fear of God, and above all other fear, as the situation of a judge. For these reasons, perhaps, it might be thought that the constitution has not gone far enough if the provisions already in it were deemed necessary to the public security."(Source: Daniel Webster, The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster, (Boston: Little, Brown, & Company, 1903), Vol. III, pp. 3-7.)

Read what they wrote and you’ll discover that most of our founding fathers would laugh at the very idea that politics and religion don’t mix.  They believed that our nation was established with the help of God. And they expressed their conviction that as believers, they needed to be involved in the working of their nation.

Be looking for my next Blog.  Election 2012, A Christian Response Part 2.  if you would like to listen to this sermon in its entirety, visit http://www.mycornerstonecc.org/sermons.html