The Gospel is not a political platform

Interesting essay from USA Today written by Carrie Sheffield, Why the GOP needs non-believers. Ms. Sheffield argues that the GOP risks alienating non-religious political conservatives.

I think she has a point in that clearly the proportion of “church going” Americans is shrinking. America clearly has a more secular future. Church attendance or the lack thereof is no longer a requirement for entrance into polite society. So you can see as a political strategy that the GOP becoming the party of Christians and the Democrats becoming the party of minorities that will someday soon be majorities is a winning one long term for the Democrats.

It is an interesting question that she answers, Why the GOP needs non-believers. I think a more pertinent one is: why do believers need the GOP? There is nothing especially Christian about lower taxes, about border security, about how the secular government defines secular marriage, about national defense and winning the war on terror. Of course there is nothing especially Christian about income redistribution policies, or environmental regulations, or promoting homosexual “marriage”, or whatever other drivel the left is promoting these days. Christianity is apolitical although Christians individually might be quite politically inclined. Christianity is not a political movement, although you would be hard pressed to recognize that in America.

That is why I segregated my blogs and carved out my political thoughts and also why I so rarely write on these topics. They just aren’t as important to me. Not one sinner is going to be saved because the southern border of the United States is secure. Nor are sinners going to be saved by taking money away from one person and giving it to another. There are no political solutions to the one and only problem that faces mankind, i.e. sin. You can try to make people act more morally but their sin will simply go “underground”. What America needs is irrelevant to Christians, what Americans need is the Gospel and that is completely relevant.

Frankly, secular conservatives need religious ones far more than religious political conservatives need them. Secular conservatives flat out cannot win most elections without the backing of religious conservatives. The GOP has invested a lot in wooing religious conservatives and that is where they have hung their hat, like it or not. The GOP has placed all of its hopes in the religious right. Conversely, the mission of Christians has nothing to do with the outcome of elections. Somewhere along the line this message has been lost among Christians living in America and we have hung all of our hopes on the next election cycle.

Whether the next President is a reelected Barack Obama or someone like Sarah Palin will be largely dependent on the votes of Christians but as Christians we need to realize that there is nothing in the party platform of either party that has much to do with the Gospel.