Letter from America

Evangelism just got harder. Irrespective of the rights and wrongs (or should I say 'rights and lefts') of the recent election in America, biblical Christianity is now firmly associated in many people's minds with conservative Republican politics. These two sets overlap: there are moral issues that Republicans hold in common with Christians, there are Christians who are Republicans, etc. But they are not the same: there are Democrats who are Christians too.

Saying such things within biblical Christian circles in America is becoming a hard trick to pull off without being accused of being morally limp-wristed. Even more alarming, fringe Christians and 'seekers' are distancing themselves from biblical churches because they do not want to be told how to vote (nor do they want to be thought of as Republican). As I say, irrespective of the moral issues that may be at stake, this means that evangelism just got harder.

I have had two conversations in the last week along these lines. They were not the simple, 'Oh yes, well some think that but I don't', they were heart-felt expressions of disgust at the idea that becoming a Christian means associating politically with a certain party. All those years ago, Martyn Lloyd-Jones warned that Christianity must never become tied to a particular political party at the expense of the others. Constantine eat your heart out; it's happening again.

Of course George Bush is not Constantine and of course the Republican party is not exclusively Christian nor in any way seeking to establish a 'Christian' political unit. Think of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Rudolf Giuliani: both solidly Republican but you could hardly confuse that former body builder or former New York mayor with products from the Bible belt. What's more, the cry 'separation of church and state' is one that (British Christians take note) has often been used in anger against American Christians wishing to do such straightforward things as having a Bible study on a school campus.

Yet from a purely evangelistic perspective, there's no doubt that we now have a whole new set of hurdles to surmount. Perhaps not new; simply reaffirmed and more entrenched. As a minister in New England (one of those blue not red states) near Yale (sometimes affectionately dubbed as 'the people's republic of New Haven') I am acutely aware of the dangers of association. It's hard enough to get a New Englander to consider the biblical claims of Christ on their lives. If you've got to get them to be a Republican too we might as well all give up and go home.

So it is that the new challenge (if I may) is for the local Christian church to stay on message. We are gospel people not political people. Looks like that's a product that just got harder to sell.

The new challenge

Josh Moody