The death of Jerry Falwell last week underscores a change taking place among conservative Christians and their involvement in politics.
Falwell convinced evangelicals that they could exercise influence through political action when he founded “The Moral Majority” in 1978.
This organization was made up of conservative Christian political action groups campaigning against things like abortion and homosexuality and for things like school prayer and the traditional family.
During the heyday of the Moral Majority, the “religious right” was seen as a single political group with a single agenda, and it indeed exerted its political influence.
History will judge how far-reaching and long-lasting was that influence.
But times have changed. Conservative Christians still vote, but the “religious right” is no longer one voice with one religious leader. Christians are still very concerned with social issues, but they aren't all focusing on the same social issues. Witness the emphasis of men like Rick Warren and Bill Hybels, for example, on the AIDS epidemic in Africa. No one can honestly accuse these guys of not emphasizing evangelism for the sake of social issues.
Joel Hunter is another example. Hunter works with several evangelical organizations, and he was selected as the president of the Christian Coalition, the conservative group that inherited the mantle of the Moral Majority. But Hunter declined the job because he wanted to focus on social issues other than abortion and same-sex marriage… issues like poverty and environmental protection. So Hunter represents the “greening of the religious right,” saying “Our first order in the Garden was to take care of the Earth.”
Poverty is a social issue. So is health care. So is the AIDS epidemic. For many of the so-called “new evangelicals,” it is just as clear as where Jesus would stand on these issues as on those staked out in the 70’s by the Moral Majority. Conservative theology and more moderate and liberal politics can exist consistently within the same value system. We must be very careful not to assume that agreement on the gospel means we must stand in the same place politically.
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Patience is one of the keys. Patience means putting up with one another when we’d rather lose our temper; it means forgiving one another when we’d rather hold a grudge. It is love in action. Rom 14:1 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. We should welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do; even when it seems that they are strong on opinions. With patience ruling the day, we become stronger through our differences and we develop a godly diversity in our relationships. We no longer require that everyone act and look and think exactly the same way. Colossians 3:14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. If we let love guide our life, it would be possible for the whole church to stay together in perfect harmony, no matter what our political beliefs. Even when our complaints are justified, with love guiding, patience pushes and pulls us toward forgiving and forgetting, to the Glory of the Lord.
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