John Nantz: Christians Are Responsible for the State of American Politics

We can whine about the lackluster results of the 2022 mid-term election cycle — there’s plenty of blame to share. Certainly top Republicans like Senator Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy bear direct responsibility. 

McConnell is a statist dinosaur who only cares about the maintenance of his power, and, like so many other politicians, about filling his treasure chest by making merchandise of his fiduciary office. He’s a disgusting political creature whose corruption of soul is reflected in his pallor and weak, watery eyes. How this calcified bureaucrat continues to maintain his hold over the good citizens of Kentucky can only be explained in terms of pork-barrel spending, earmarked for key districts. His is an all too common story of corruption, greed, and compromise with China. 

Republicans seem poised to wrest power from the totalitarian Democrats in the House. This victory should not be discounted, despite the thinner than hoped for margin. No thanks to Kevin McCarthy, who has carried forward the establishment Republican strategy — accomplish nothing, defame the conservative Republican base, and hope that independents will vote merely in opposition to Democrat policies.

But it’s not enough to simply mimic Karl Rove’s blank whiteboard. Rove can posture with his silly board on Fox News until doomsday, but that won’t convince conservative constitutionalists that he’s anything more than a big state, crony-capitalist Republican like George W. Bush — what a profound disappointment he has become in his dotage.  

Once the disgraceful operation of our “elections” reaches the end of its purposefully convoluted process, Republicans will likely hold a majority position in the House. However, that’s small consolation given the gloom that casts its cold shadow over American life and politics. 

The phrase “American life and politics” may seem to describe two totally different realties. But they are, in fact, one and the same. American Christians have desperately tried to believe that politics can be left to secularists who besmirch themselves with temporal concerns — as good fundamental, Bible-believing Christians, we’ll just lock ourselves in our prayer closets, cloister ourselves in our sanctified communities, and pull up the draw-bridge in front of our Christian schools. 

At the risk of being branded a heretic, I must assert, good Christian, your prayers are not enough.  

For far too long we’ve whistled past the graveyard, dithering about the inconsequential virtues like skirts versus pants, blind to the reality that we’ve succumbed to the same sinful myopathy that possessed medieval scholasticists, who quarreled uselessly about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. 

All the while, the infernal forces of tyranny have marched forward, gobbling up the entire structure of American education, the arts, entertainment, and politics. 

This abdication isn’t particular to any single denomination. It affects all of Christendom. The definition of Christian is a simple one — any person who has been reconciled to God by Jesus Christ. That is, having appropriated the justification obtained by Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross for your sin, by faith alone, in His work alone. Outwardly, it results in a confession of and repentance for past sin before Christ — the only mediator between God and man.  

The Bible is replete with examples of men and women of what we would call political action. The Apostle Paul insinuated himself in the culture and, by extension, the politics of his time. He and the other disciples had “turned the world upside down” through their faithful adherence to The Great Commission. And, having arrived at Athens, Paul “disputed” with the Jews in their synagogues and “in the market daily with them that met with him.” (Acts 17:17) The Athens market would have been the equivalent of our public place of discourse. 

That means, if Paul were still walking the face of the earth, you just might see his Twitter feed.

Paul spoke to the men and women of Athens of the “Unknown God” who they worshiped in ignorance — just as modern man worships gods which he does not understand, gods of science falsely so called, and gods of government which promise utopia. 

He spoke of issues that ring true to the modern ear, addressing racism (17:26), and the hopelessness and purposelessness that pervades our society as the result of mechanistic, enlightenment thinking (17:28,29). And, Paul ended his public discourse with a call to the only remedy for the personal and social ills that faced ancient Athenians as well as modern Americans — repentance and faith. (17:30)  

A suit and tie are ennobling things, but they are mere rags if they are a substitute for a monk’s habit. Far too many Christians mistake arrogance for piety and cowardice for meekness. We are called to action — faith without works is dead. Christendom must rediscover the apostolic formula of prayer, piety, and action or watch liberty devolve into totalitarianism. Loosen your tie, hang up the frock, and become relevant again. 

Christians have lost the culture, in part by lionizing “full-time Christian service.” Anywhere a Christian is called, is his or her place of “full-time Christian service.” There is no inherent virtue in teaching at a Christian school. Virtue lies in obeying the call of God, and what is sorely needed are men and women of faith in the “secular vocations,” impacting culture at its source. A wise man once said that for the Christian, “there is no difference between the sacred and the secular.” 

It’s great knowing you’re on the winning side, but countless battles still rage wherein nations may rise or fall. Quit acting like you’ve won the war when the enemy still rages across the battlefield. Christians possess the most powerful weapon in cultural warfare, The Word of God. But, if you’re not engaged in the culture or in politics, you’ve no standing to complain about lousy results or cultural rot. In the end, you’ll have won nothing but the Master’s censure if all you’ve done is hide your talent in the ground.

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