I like to read both liberal and conservative stories to gain my information, because I have found that if you read just conservative or just liberal sources, then you will only have partial information. So I read the The New Republic, which is slightly left of the center, but they did support Kerry in the election. On the cover of one of the most recent The New Republic was a girl who was crying and had a Kerry/Edwards sticker on her face with a Kerry/Edwards t-shirt on. All I could think for the next couple of hours is that she needs a relationship with God. How sorry I feel for this girl, because the candidate that she was supporting didn't get into office she was devastated. I realize that if Bush/Cheney would have lost the roles would have been reversed, and unfortunately I think that many so-called evangelicals would have been devastated also. I can't imagine the despair and lack of hope that these people have - how small is their world. To be so upset that one man doesn't take control over another - A MAN - and a fallen man at that, an imperfect man, a sinful man, a lying man, an egotistical man. You can put in all the adjectives that you want, but I really felt bad for this girl because it seems that her life is without true meaning. This leads me to my biggest concern, I'm afraid that at the end of the day, more evangelicals put their hope in George Bush than in God. I really think that this is true. For many people, God is getting a good job, having a moral family, and living a quiet life. We pay tribute to God to appease Him so that He'll leave us alone. I really think that this is how many evangelicals view God. Now I believe that we ought to vote our morals. I am decidedly against abortion, more so than any other issue, I'm glad that Bush won and I hope that Roe v. Wade gets overturned. If Kerry would have won my life would have gone on. I would still serve God, and possibly it would be easier to serve God because Christians would realize that they live in a post-Christian society. Now I'm worried that these so-called votes for values will confuse the Christians into equivocated between Christianity and values. Just because you're against homosexual marriage or against abortion doesn't mean that you're a Christian, for that matter, just because you're a Republican doesn't mean that you're a Christian. Sadly though, many evangelicals feel this way. I'm going to leave with a quote from Francis Schaeffer (He's reformed Di, so you need to read him.)
In the United States many churches display the American flag. The Christian flag is usually put on one side and the American flag on the other. Does having the two flags in your church mean that Christianity and the American establishment are equal? If it does, you are really in trouble. These are not two equal loyalties. The state is also under the norm of thw Word of God. So if by having the American flag in your church you are indicating to you young people that there are two equal loyalties or two intertwined loyalties, you had better find some way out of it. The establishment may easily become the church's enemy. Before the pressure comes, you young people (from kindergarten on), our older people, and our officers must understand this well: there are not two equal loyalties; Caesar is second to God. This must be preached and taught in sermons, Sunday school classes, and young people's groups.
It must be taught that patriotic loyalty must not be identified with Christianity. As Christians we are responsible, under the Lordship of Christ in all of life, to carry the Christian principles into our relationship to the state. But we must not make oure country and Christianity be synonymous.
This has always been important, but should certainly be so today. If a pastor stands in the pulpit and preaches this way, and the people come in and hear him making plain that he is not confusing the two loyalties, then even if they differ on certian specific questions, at least the pastor has maintained credibility with them. But the really important thing is not our credibility with other men, but our rightness with God. Equating any other loyalty with our loyalty to God is sin. An we had better get our priorities straight now before the pressures in our society overwhelms both us and society as we have known it. If the pressures are great now, there is every reason to be sure they will get greater.
--Francis Schaeffer, The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century
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