The legacy of the gospel

If you want to see how leftist someone is, use the term “American exceptionalism” in his presence and see how red his face becomes. The term refers to unique aspects of our nation that cause us to be successful and often laudable when compared to other countries. Sure, there’s a bit of bluster in the way the term is used—the United States is beneficiary to great ideas from many sources. I do think we can see places and events where the particular mix of ideas and application in our country is notable in the flow of human history. 

I had this sense last week as I walked the halls of the Texas capitol and met and prayed with several lawmakers. It’s a dynamic place, full of activists, lobbyists, reporters and a few befuddled Baptist preachers. The days that our Texas Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee was there, we saw groups of school children, 4-H clubbers, scores if not hundreds of Catholics gathered for their own lobby day and a large number of pro-family activists who came for a marriage rally on Monday. There were areas of agreement with those diverse groups, but they certainly represented different agendas. None of those groups heckled one another, shoved or threw things at one another. No one was afraid to tout his own cause, regardless of who sits in the governor’s office. Some of the leaders we met were forward with their Christian faith and knew more than just a little of God’s Word. They weren’t even mildly concerned about who might hear them quoting Scripture. 

Many of you know countries where this isn’t true. I’ve worshipped with believers who snuck into their meeting places and have myself walked for blocks so my informer cab driver wouldn’t know where Christians were gathering. You know there are places like that, but you should also know that some Western countries, those that contributed much to our own culture, restrict religious and political speech in a way not constitutional in the U.S. Some of what I heard and saw in Austin would have been illegal in even some “civilized” countries. 

The liberty I saw being exercised at our state capitol is repeated in 50 states as well as in our nation’s capitol. As I said in our April TEXAN, religious liberty—specifically that growing out of the Christian view of man and God—is foundational to other liberties. A personal relationship between an individual and God is the basic story in the Christian Bible. Yes, God dealt with nations and churches and families, but in the midst of that it was kings and priests and pastors and soldiers and shepherds God judged as individually obedient or disobedient servants. Individuals stand before God to answer for their deeds, not communities or political parties. In this life that means that an individual believer communes with God without a human priest or magistrate as intermediary. 

The most significant threat to our liberty is not a political party or another theistic religion; it is a growing antipathy for the exercise of any non-Naturalist religion. Many consider the idea that a person owes his first allegiance to God to be against the common good. The threat to those who crowd the halls of our state house in support of a conviction, and to the diversity of our lawmakers, comes from the same mind that persecutes Navy chaplains and Christian florists. If our cultural majority attempts to compel by force the religious consciences of chaplains and business owners, why would anyone think that his opinion about gambling, farm subsidies or pre-K education will remain sacrosanct? 

Our freedom to petition our leaders and to rally on the capitol steps is then a legacy of the Christian faith that influenced our founders, and our founding documents. The residue of that gospel legacy is stronger in some places than others. But we must struggle to avoid being cynical, even as it fades. The influence of Christians is still present, even in the lives of those who are not believers. Everywhere there are leaders who are genuinely trying to do the right things as they represent us at various levels of government. Some are believers and some are not; some are sincerely wrong and some are right more often than not. Don’t let the most outrageous examples of corruption and mediocrity make you despair. Some of our leaders are believers who themselves seek God’s will. And of course the Lord is not powerless before those even who care nothing for his will. Pray for our Texas leadership as they move into the last weeks of their biennial session. It’s godly to do so, and many are people for whom the gospel is more than a memory.