The Fruits of the Partisan Spirit

The self righteous religious - right (Falwell, Land, etc.) appear to be falling all over themselves these days seeking to lay claim to their political bounty. It seems that no Christian in a red state can dare to be both a follower of Christ and anything other than a Republican. If that isn’t an Orwellian/Rovian fallacy I don’t know what is but it doesn’t seem to stop them from advocating their blasphemous theology. History teaches that partisan politics inevitably corrupts religion and divides the church. Look no further than the Southern Baptist Convention and now other denominations. The conservatives continue to push to ignore one of our great founding principles of separation of Church and State. With the wall of separation removed will come the shackles of government interference. Not only do churches risk losing their autonomy and tax exemption, they risk losing their prophetic witness. When the Church compromises itself with partisan politicians it can no longer be an independent arbiter of government wrongs and hold them accountable for their failures and lies because they are part of it. This entanglement is exactly what James Madison warned about early in our country’s infancy. He said that after almost fifteen centuries of the legal establishment of Christianity in Europe, “the fruits of it had yielded pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, superstition, bigotry and persecution in both.” How true that is today. Madison and most of our founders certainly understood what today’s leaders don’t: When the Church joins forces with the State they trade the authentic power of faith for the fleeting rewards of worldly power and pride. It is interesting how most of these Christians put more faith in political power than they do in the power of God by insisting on legislating their religion. Rather than following the false teachings of these I refer you to the words of Jesus: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”