I think Christians are needed in the political process to stand against two great pressures – the obvious “legislate evil” camp, and the more subtle “oppress for our own good” camp. These movements cooperate to draw our society away from God, and the praying voting church is the only real bulwark against this flow.

Sometimes the church, in its zeal for outreach in love, becomes an unwitting accomplice to “oppress for our own good” efforts. What Christian person would not advocate a government program to materially improve the lives of the poor by providing food, for example. But wait, if the poor came to the church for food, would they not be helped more thoroughly by receiving from the hands of loving servants of Gods Kingdom? When the poor receive from a government program, they are not being served in love – instead, they become dependent on the state whose purposes are served better by keeping people poor, and dependent, and cannot by law minister to their spiritual neediness.

Why is Hezbollah so entrenched in Lebanon? When Hezbollah is not busy launching rockets at Isreal and kidnapping soldiers, they run schools, and hospitals, and offer charity to the poor in return for allegiance. They get it.

Many American churches suffer problems with being relevant – part of the problem is that the charitable works God intends for His body, offering a cup of water in Jesus’ name, have been handed to, or seized by, the government in the hopes of acheiving “our own good” (paid for by taxes on others). It is in loving each other that the love of God shines most brightly, but when charity gets filtered through the government, it doesn’t feel so much like love…

I think the church, and our country, needs the voices of Christians expressed as effectively and as often as possible. If not us, who?

[standing down from my soap box. sorry]

As long as you are praying, it works… it’s voting in the spirit. I think the really fun part is that everybody is “them” to “those people”.