Some people--even within my own camp of conservative Christianity--fault me for being too "combative" and "offensive" in the public arena.
While I understand where they're coming from, and acknowledge that I must be on guard against crossing the line, there is a reason why I approach issues in a bold, unapologetic manner: you don't win by taking a defensive strategy. Another way of putting it might be that you won't win people over if you act like you don't even have some passion about what you're saying. (Besides, there's no need to slink around like a scared puppy when the truth is on your side).
Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily has a piece on conservatism yesterday that examines this truth.
First, one must understand that conservatism is, by definition, a defensive agenda. When one's goal is simply to "conserve," or preserve, or to hold onto what is good and right, you have abandoned the idea of advancing. In military terms, your objective would be holding on to turf, rather than attacking, defeating the enemy, taking new ground.
That is essentially what happened after Reagan was gone. Reagan, despite his embrace of the "conservative" cause, intuitively understood that defeat was certain if your fight is limited to defending. To give you a contemporary illustration of how this works in the real world of conflict, the U.S. won the first part of the war in Iraq, when it fought aggressively to defeat the defined enemy. After that, the focus shifted to defending. And the result should be obvious to all.
Reagan was on offense – in his domestic agenda and, especially, in his foreign policies.
Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against his church. Now I admit that until a few years ago, somehow I had this picture in my mind every time I heard that phrase which was very conflicted and contradictory (I'd be willing to bet that many other Christians have this same image). I always saw these iron gates flying through the air and hitting a church building. Though I always saw this image in my mind, at the same time I was always struck by the thought that there was something wrong with that picture.
I can't remember what caused the light to come on for me, but a few years ago it finally dawned on me that the gates of some stronghold don't normally go flying through the air and hit something else. Gates are, after all, a defensive instrument, but I was seeing the gates of hell in an offensive mode and the church in a defensive mode of being the one under attack. And on the heels of this revelation was the greatest revelation: Christ's church isn't supposed to be a defensive institution.
Jesus was as kind as he could be in the appropriate circumstances. But he pulled no punches when confronted by evil or evil people. Look up some of the "name calling" Jesus and his apostles did, if you don't think behavior should be named what it is and people called what they are.
Jesus intended his Church to go on the offensive, to attack the strongholds of evil in the world, to break down the gates of lies, deception and spiritual slavery to "rescue the captives" and help people into the Light.
You can't go on the offensive by huddling behind your stained-glass windows and hunkering down on your pews on Sunday. You can't go on the offensive if you're too afraid of offending someone else's "value system." You can't go on the offensive if you're busy compromising with evil. You can't go on the offensive if you're accepting the lie that church and state are separate, or that religion and science don't mix, or that faith and the real world have nothing to do with each other.
Farah, in talking about conservatism, also points out the same span of the battlefield for the conservative Christian (hint: it's borders don't end at the exit sign on the way out of church on Sunday):
Conservatism is also hopelessly inadequate as an agenda because of its near total reliance on "politics" as the battle ground. The real battle for the hearts and minds of the people doesn't take place in election cycles. It takes place every day when they watch television, when they read their newspapers, when they go to church, when they go the movies, when they send their children to school, when they listen to music, when they go to college.
Until Christians--and conservatives--get it through their head that playing "puppy dog politics" is always going to keep them on the defensive, they're going to continue to lose ground. If you Christians and conservatives WANT to lose ground, to look like a bunch of losers, a bunch of timid idiots, then just keep it up, because you're on the right track. But if you really believe in the ideals you're mumbling about, then quit mumbling, speak them clearly and fight for them!
While conservative Christians shouldn't be offensive just for the sake of it, or out of casual disregard, neither should we shrink from taking the fight to the enemy (the enemy isn't so much the people on the other side as it is the ideology and spiritual strongholds). And just like Jesus and a number of the people who worked for him weren't shy about calling evil for what it is, neither should we.
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