A Sad Consequence

Last week I was all around Kentucky and Indiana meeting with folks about bringing Workcamps and 1 By Youth to their towns. It's always exciting to share the possibility of partnering to bring 400 or more teens and adults to repair 60 to 70 homes in a week with Workcamps. Or the chance to see over 1000 volunteers transform a single neighborhood in a single day through 1 By Youth. I get the privilege of talking with many interesting people. One conversation I had last week, though, made me sad.

One lady in Louisville shared with me that the people she works with are reluctant...even hostile...about inviting Christians from outside the neighborhood (read the suburbs) to come in for the day and help. Their resistance, in her opinion, is political. Many of the neediest neighborhoods are populated most heavily by those who identify themselves as Democrats. They see many Christians, especially suburban Christians, as Republicans. In our current political climate they see Republicans as angry, hostile enemies working hard to take away all that the current Democratic leadership has finally given them. It is a sad consequence of a deeply polarized nation.

What makes me truly sad is that over the last 30 years or more the Evangelical Christian Church has been so co-opted by Republican politicians...and willingly so with the work of the Moral Majority, Focus on the Family and other entities...that we may have done irreparable damage to our ability to effectively be the hands and feet of Jesus to those in need. Here is yet another reason why the church must operate completely above the political fray.

While Christians should, and must, participate in the political process by voting, advocating and holding elected office, the church must remain neutral. Christians gathered as bodies of believers align politically on one side or the other at their own peril. Whether it's Jim Wallis and Christians like him that run to the political left or James Dobson and the late Jerry Falwell who run to the political right all are doing a grave disservice to the name of Christ by lowering His Body into the mud of political gamesmanship.

When people in need refuse the help of loving Christians citing politics as the reason for their refusal that should be a major wake up call. We need to exercise our love, our values, our compassion and our concern through acts of service that have no root or reference to a political bent. We have not accomplished this and it seems it is bearing rotten fruit. My fear is it may be too late for us to reclaim higher ground.