For years I have heard about how religion shouldn't be involved in politics and how the framers weren't really Christian.
I have heard, on the other side, the 'Christian' duty to be totally involved and even incorporate the Bible into public policy.
Yet, being sick on and off over the past year has allowed me to have a different perspective.
My perspective began after being deployed to the desert.
When I returned, I found many of my fellow Southern Baptist pastors and state leaders talking about things that seemed ridiculous to me.
I mean, seriously, does it really matter where or even if we have a pastor's retreat after being accustomed to going through three levels of security gates to get outside and once you're outside the wire you hope there isn't an IED somewhere on the road?
The same is true for national politics in my mind.
Yesterday morning, I saw in the news that the Senate Intelligence Committee had released their report on the failings of the State Department and the Administration on the disaster and lies surrounding the attack on Benghazi.
While that was one report, as I worked out I caught a glimpse of what was important to most Americans - the nominations for the Oscars.
It isn't right.
But I digress.
The real issue for many Christians is about what role we are to play in the political system.
As I have encountered sickness over the past several months, the thought comes to me that people get way too bent out of shape over small things and let the big things just pass them by.
I have also found is that every time the church gets in bed with the state, the church always loses.
When it comes to politics and religion, there is always a trade of grace for power; that is a trade too many are willing to make.
Back in the day of the Founders, the Danbury Baptists had written President Jefferson about government intrusion into the Church. Jefferson replied that the Constitution had erected a 'wall of separation' between the two and the intrusion would be impossible.
Many take Jefferson's phrase out of context and it isn't in any law; the separation of Church and State is not the separation of God and government.
You see, the Baptists and Quakers had experienced persecution at the hands of the State religions in Europe; they didn't want that again.
In our time, Christian will gripe about church disunity, about godless leaders, about the lack of Christian influence in society - and all these things are true but they overlook one stunning fact:
In the Middle Ages, the complaint was the extreme opposite.
Who in the world would look back on that age with nostalgia and hope?
It was a time of Crusaders where priests were also warriors, a time
of moral police like in some modern Middle East nations.
All we have to do is look to modern Afghanistan to see what it would be like.
Do we really want to go back to that time?
I don't think so.
It was a time when the church set all the rules for society.
John Calvin is a spiritual hero of mine, but in Calvin's Geneva there were laws which covered the amount of dishes which could be used per meal and the length of a woman's hair. Adultery was punishable by death.
What I have found is that farmers who concentrate only on the pulling of weeds will usually destroy the crop as well.
You see, our place in society is as a witness to God's holiness; not as a police agent to enforce His holiness or His standard on people.
The Apostle Paul would rail against the immorality of the church members; but he was amazingly very quiet about the immorality of Rome.
For example, abortion and homosexuality are hot topics for Evangelical Christians today - but the New Testament doesn't really have much to say about it.
In fact, in Paul's time, as Rome practiced these two things, they were practiced in much worse forms.
Roman women did not go to a hospital and have a surgical procedure performed; they generally bore their children and then abandoned them next to the road for wild animals to eat.
As for homosexuality, the Greeks and Romans commonly used young boys as sex slaves.
In our time, both of these acts are absolutely criminal.
No civilized people or country allows its citizens to deliver babies only to be murdered; likewise, no civilized people approves of pedophilia.
And yet, Jesus Christ nor the Apostle Paul said anything about either of these practices.
As I've gotten older and reflected on life, given my health - I have come to the conclusion that politics on this earth mean very little in comparison to eternity.
Our lives are not so much about our activity in our pagan kingdoms nearly as much as it is about our involvement in His Kingdom - the Kingdom of God.
You see, Europe's empty cathedral demonstrate to churches today that those who live by power, these will also die by that same power.
And it will be regardless if that power is civil authority or denominational politics; power is always a bargaining chip to steal grace.
As Christians, within our churches and within our society, we must stand for truth without a withdrawal from culture and without killing grace by becoming the dragon.
We must love without judgment; show compassion, kindness and longsuffering because of our faith which ultimately is to glorify Christ Himself.
In my opinion, instead of arguing over whether or not the Ten Commandments ought to be posted on public walls - we as Christians would do much more good if we sought to live the Beatitudes.
Until next time, win one for the good guys.
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