How Evangelicals can lead the way now

After the 2012 elections, Franklin Graham stated on CNN that our nation is on a “path of destruction” due to the 2012 election results. In addition Graham said, “If we are allowed to go down this road in the path that this president wants us to go down, I think it will be to our peril end to the destruction of this nation.”

This is troubling talk from one of the most powerful Evangelicals. Millions of Christians regularly take Graham’s lead on matters of politics and moral issues.

This is not the way to lead Christians to reach out and bring about the Kingdom of God. Let me explain.

Graham’s comments on CNN were noble, but there is a better way to change the future of America. His ministry organizations actively block movements in states that try to legalize same sex marriage, fight for prayer to return to schools, and encourage legislation that forbids abortions. Graham’s ministry and organizations regularly court politicians to enact his biblical interpretation on certain issues as civil law. By doing this, Graham only alienates the very people we Christians are trying to reach.

Franklin Graham and I are fellow ministers, evangelicals, and preachers of the Gospel. I thank Graham for his service to our nation and to other nations around the world. His relief organizations continuing give aid to developing nations. I support a number of these organizations. Graham’s heart is for God’s and I commend him for that. He wants to see the world and our nation to come to know Jesus Christ. I agree. Graham wants for Christians to carry out the message of the Bible. I agree. He wants the world to know God. I agree.

However, Graham and I disagree about how to go about making these common Kingdom goals realities. The only way to turn others to Christ is not through our political process, but through a Kingdom Process.

Jesus did not come to lobby Rome, Paul didn’t appeal to political leaders in Athens, and Peter didn’t hold political fundraisers for kings. Christian leaders in the New Testament did not use a political system as a means to achieve moral and societal change. Instead, they ate, sat, discussed, lived, and created space for their detractors. They didn’t alienate those who they were preaching to with hateful speech or disdain.  People loved Jesus because he was the only rabbi that would give them to time of day and listen to them.

Tom McCrossan, another fellow minister, and life long Republican to add, provided a helpful perspective of what is occurring with Christians who want change through politics:

Instead of providing homosexuals with a loving and accepting community in which to encourage and attempt behavioral changes they professed could be made, Fundamentalist Christians condemned homosexuals as perverts and abominations…Instead, they use President Obama as the scapegoat for all they see wrong with the nation, while being in denial of their own responsibility in all this. No wonder conservative Christian values are under attack… No wonder there is such polarization and demonization in politics and society. It will not stop until fundamental, conservative Christian Republicans repent of their own sins of fear mongering, distortion of the truth, demonization of opponents and harsh judgementalism of those with whom they disagree.

The time has come to stop thinking and believing that Kingdom change can be achieved through ballots, politicians, or civil displays of religion. Ancient Rome or modern day Maryland are not nor were ever keepers of marriage — God is. States issue licenses to be married, but to Christians, true marriage is ordained by God and not a judge or a court. If we want to achieve Kingdom goals then we must change hearts, not laws.

The only way for Evangelicals to establish any kind of Kingdom change is to change people from the ground up. Not from the top down. Jesus didn’t legislate his teaching. Rather, he traveled from town to town (much like Billy Graham did) and loved people. Listening to them. Eating with them. Praying with them. Giving them the Good News. Jesus only had his harshest words for hypocritical religious leaders and not the moral “sinners”. Jesus, Paul, or Peter  didn’t blame Rome, Athens, or Corinth for the world’s problems or for three or four key moral issues.

Evangelicals must work together and not think that we can use the government or politics to change the world. We must meet people face to face — not with protest signs but with mutual respect and love of Christ in order to give them God’s message.