One Person at a Time

      Over the past few weeks I have heard about lawsuits regarding teaching evolution vs. intelligent design in our public schools. I have heard about boycotts of certain companies because somewhere along the line some of the money might possibly end up supporting the homosexual agenda. I have heard of abortion protests at schools and the fallout that ensued.

      I can only imagine how many more religio-political issues will come up over the next three years as we get to another presidential election in 2008. Sadly, I think the devil is happy with the state of our nation. Yes, I am positive he is happy that our nation increasingly accepts evolution, homosexuality, immorality and abortion. I think he is equally happy that most of the religious people in the U.S. aren’t doing anything substantive to actually combat these issues.

      “What?!” some will cry. “You just mentioned protests, boycotts, lawsuits and legislation. How can you say most religious people are not doing anything substantive?” I will tell you how.

      Most people who are doing anything are not approaching it God’s way. We have people that are trying to organize churches to wield political clout. They want churches to hand out “political stance” flyers. They want churches to announce boycotts and demonstrations.

      What I find most interesting is that I have read my New Testament from cover to cover and not once do I read of any of those Christians doing any of these things. If you think our government and society are increasingly opposed to God, go back and read your Roman histories.

      Christians didn’t stage boycotts. They did not have political rallies. They did not try to push through legislation. They didn’t host demonstrations. They did two things.

      First, they prayed. In Acts 4:29-30, they prayed God would work to protect them from the governmental threats and testify to their work.

      Second, they taught the gospel message, one person at a time. Why did it matter if homosexuality or abortion were legal in their culture, if through the gospel they could teach people to do things God’s way? Why did it matter what stance their political leaders took, if they could spread the gospel message throughout society one person at a time?

      I love democracy. I expect you to vote your conscience. I do and I always will. However, I am afraid democracy has made us lose sight of what our job is. Our job is not to make America a Christian nation. Our job is to help Americans become Christians. We do that through prayer and through teaching one person at a time.

Edwin L. Crozier