Along with Eric Metaxas' Bonhoeffer biography, I am also reading Dr. Edwin Lutzer's "When A Nation Forgets God, Seven Lessons We Must Learn From Nazi Germany." Lutzer offers the proposition that when a nation "forgets" God, that is excludes Him from their public thinking, their descent into first moral and then political and economic decline is inevitable. And, if they do not repent, the literal wrath of God inevitably follows.
I am struck by the moral dullness of the German people during this era. Hitler promised them full bellies, good jobs and restored national pride. He was the lesser of evils, an alternative to communism. And, he delivered what he promised, with the minor exceptions of Jews, Gypsies, Evangelicals who would not convert the state approved Nazi church, homosexuals, the mentally ill, the chronically ill and any others who got in the way. One commentator noted that if he had died in 1939, Hitler would have been remembered not as a monster but rather as an economic genius who rebuilt Germany from the ashes of World War One. But, the nagging fact of history that prevents this is that he did not die in 1939, he "rebuilt" Germany without God, without a moral compass and without the stabilizing influence of the Holy Spirit through the Church and in so doing, literally bred a generation of monsters.
We are doing the same thing in America today. Christians are clamoring the that we must vote as our Christian duty for a candidate that is universally recognized as the lesser of two evils. Every time the politicians call upon the church and the body politic to do this, their souls are eroded a bit further and a little more scar tissue is added to their collective conscience. Every time the politicians use the lesser of evils argument to justify a vote, they introduce a larger dose of evil into the political and social bloodstream of the American people, effectively inoculating them from the conviction of the Holy Spirit on these issues.
Later this morning, in response to a national campaign, pastors across the nation who should know better will take to the pulpit and ask their congregations to vote for Mitt Romney. They are literally daring the government to try to enforce vague tax law pronouncements forbidding such activity. If they were simply challenging a wrongheaded public policy, I would agree that the move is courageous and long over due. But, literally, the devil is in the details and what are those details?
These pastors will be asking their congregations to vote for a man who, until he decided to run for president, was the governor of one of the most liberal states in the nation. He made a last minute, lukewarm, highly doubtful conversion to the pro-life cause when his name began appearing as possible presidential candidate after a life time of supporting abortion rights. During his term as governor of Massachusetts, he oversaw the implementation of the state socialized medicine program which is the model for Obama Care. And just recently, through his surrogate VP candidate Ryan, he sent a broad signal to the gay community that he "has no problem with gays in the military" and all of the so far successfully hidden upheaval that has caused among our armed forces. So, let's take a quick tally here. Of the three issues that are central to the church, life, socialized medicine and gay rights, Romney gets a flunking grade on all three. AND STILL, WE HAVE PASTORS PREACHING TO THEIR CONGREGATIONS IN HIS SUPPORT!!! Is Romney the lesser of two evils? Of course he is. But, is God calling His people to embrace the lighter shade of grey, the lesser degree of evil, when He has forbidden in the strongest possible terms the policies of both? I think not.
It is time for the American church to decide just exactly who will be their lord. If their lord will be their American citizenship, their naive loyalty to a political system that was once righteous but now is in desperate need of a return to morality, let it be so. Just do not call yourselves Christians in the process because you will have substituted your blind faith in American exceptionalism for God's truth which was but is no longer the basis for that exceptionalism. But, if you decide that Jesus Christ is your Lord and that you are first a citizen of His kingdom which is not of this earth, then you must follow the rules of THAT kingdom first and reject evil regardless of the political party presenting it.
For further thought:
Rush Limbaugh - Romney Is NOT A Conservative
Rick Santorum - Romney Is NOT A Conservative
Daily Standard - Romney Not Conservative At Heart, Has Trouble With Conservative Ideas
Baltimore Sun - The Conservative Case AGAINST Romney (VERY GOOD)
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