“Putting the 10 Commandments in school isn’t going to stop children from misbehaving anymore than placing Gideon Bibles in hotel rooms is going to stop people from committing adultery.”

That accurate quote comes from the world’s most famous atheist, Richard Dawkins. His quote is true, because as much as we would like to, we can’t legislate morality. I’m often dismayed at how up-in-arms Christians become when our country does something sinful or abandon’s it’s “Christian roots.”

Several years ago a prominant Christian ministry was outraged that Senator Elliot Spitzer didn’t partake the National Day of Prayer. They encouraged people to actually call his office and complain. But, Elliot Spitzer isn’t a Chrisitian–why would he put a premium on prayer? And why in the world would a Christian ministry be upset and surprised that a non-Christian would act like a non-Christian?

Or how about the “Happy Holidays” debate? I agree that the political correctness in our country is way out of control, but so what if a non-Christian doesn’t want to say “Merry Christmas”? Why are we getting angry at non-Christians for acting like non-Christians?

There is only one way that individuals and countries are changed. It goes like this:

The gospel is preached –> God makes that person a new creation–> Which results in Christian morals and ethics

Unfortunately, many Christian’s think the process goes like this:

Christians enforce their morality and ethics on non-Christians–> Non-Christians act like new creations (without the Holy Spirit, of course)–> Then preach the gospel to them

Try as I might, I can’t find one single passage of Scripture where Peter or Paul encourages early Christians to boycott, protest or march against the godless society of the Roman Empire. I DO find passages that command us to rejoice when we are persecuted and continue to live as salt and light in our culture. We’re to bring about change by showing non-Christians what a kingdom life-style looks like, not by requiring them to act like Christians before they’ve even been regenerated.

Something’s out of whack in evangelicalism today…

Thoughts?

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