Speaker for the Living

The dangers of religious political activism

via HotAir.com

I'll admit: I couldn't watch through the whole thing. I stopped the video at 2:05. I couldn't watch through a demagogue deliberately and selfishly tear down and misinterpret a religion.

This is why the Bible tells us to follow the law of the land. Even Jesus himself said "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is His" (paraphrased). This is not too far from the spirit of "friendship with all but entangling alliances with none" that our founding fathers espoused.

Christians (I can't speak for other religions, not having studied them) should not inject themselves into political debate. Except where the proposed (or established) secular law may force them to go against the spiritual laws—but that overlap is very small, and definitely does not extend to health care. Jesus healed the sick and gave his disciples the power to heal the sick as part of their ministry: he did not set up an HMO.

But, because Christians have been active in other issues, when they are silent on issues that they should really be silent on, they are criticized for their silence.

And this is the danger of religious political activism. Religion is often self-contradictory and very much open to interpretation on many, many issues, as we can see in the existence of so many sects and denominations in the three branches of Abrahamic faiths. Unless the pious people stick to the core values on which there is little controversy within the religion, one day, they will be undeservedly accused of hypocrisy because of some perceived contradiction in their position by demagogues and sophists—and when the congregation is misled by these critics, it can divide it so much deeper than any differing scriptural interpretation can.