According to exit polling, the number one issue on voters' minds in November's election was not terrorism, the war in Iraq or the economy. Instead, much to the consternation of pundits, politicians and the press, it was values. Despite the repeated attempts of the media and academia to explain away this anomaly of the 2004 election, the fact remains that a plurality of American voters went to the polls in the hope of restoring some semblance of moral sanity to our nation. That so many God-fearing, values voters cast their ballot against the moral degeneracy of our times facilitates a cautious optimism for the future of our country. It does not, however, signal victory in the culture war for the values crowd. Though we may have won a small skirmish, the culture war rages on.

Contrary to the revisionist history being taught in today's public schools and to the mythical wall of separation between church and state being propagandized by today's secularists, Christians are not constitutionally prohibited from being involved in politics. Neither do we have to take off and lay aside our Christian convictions before casting a ballot or running for political office. John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, once said, "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." If all people of faith are constitutionally barred from serving on the bench, in the legislature, or in the executive office, as today's secularists contend, then John Jay, one of the three men most responsible for our constitution, was wrong.

To suggest that atheism or the renunciation of religious beliefs is prerequisite to political involvement in this country is preposterous. It flies in the face of all that our Founding Fathers advocated. For instance, John Adams, our nation's second president, said, "Our constitution was made for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." To believe otherwise, especially to argue for the disqualification of people of faith from the political process, will inevitably lead to our nation's ruin at the hands of faithless, godless and valueless politicians. To fall for such a ruse will result in catastrophe for our country, as Solomon warns in Proverbs 29:2, "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn."

Charles Finney, the famous evangelist and central figure of America's Second Great Awakening, once said, "The time has come that Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics or the Lord will curse them. God cannot sustain this free and blessed country which we love and pray for unless the Church will take right ground." I wholeheartedly concur with these sentiments of the great revivalist. Today's church must stop giving political ground and start taking it. We must stop giving ground to despotic judges who profane our culture, legitimize same-sex marriage and dehumanize the unborn and infirm by judicial fiat. We must stop giving ground to liberal legislators who want to remove all signs of the Christian faith from public view, outlaw the name of Christ from being spoken in public discourse, banish the church from the public square, and relegate all religious expression to public houses of worship on Sunday and to the privacy of our homes during the week. We must stop giving ground to public schools that undermine our Christian beliefs, beliefs that we as parents have painstakingly instilled within our children. And we must stop giving ground to the mass media and its incessant misrepresentation of us as buffoons, bigots and barriers to peace on earth and worldwide utopia. 

According to Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, America is "on the verge of self-destruction." However, "God has given us a reprieve," thanks to "prayer" and the tremendous turnout at the polls in November of "millions of evangelicals, mainline Protestants and Catholics." I agree with Dr. Dobson that our country has been given a short reprieve. I also believe that our failure to take advantage of this small window of opportunity will result in it closing never to be opened again. It is needless to say, therefore, that these crucial days in which we find ourselves will prove determinative of whether or not our nation shall much longer endure.

As important as it is for the church in America to awake and enter into the political fray, political activism alone will never turn the tide. Our nation's only hope of survival is revival, and according to 2 Chronicles 7:14, revival doesn't begin in the White House, state house or courthouse. Revival begins in the house of God! It only occurs when God's "people, which are called by [His] name...humble themselves...pray...seek [His] face, and turn from their wicked ways." Until then, we needn't expect God to "hear from heaven, forgive [our] sin, [nor] heal [our] land."Could it be that the number one culprit behind our nation's present precarious predicament is not the vile things that sinners are doing, but the vital things that the saints are failing to do? Could our country's problem lie more with its churches than in its culture? In his search for the source of American greatness, Alexis de Tocqueville concluded, "I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers and it was not there...in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there...in her rich mines and her vast world commerce and it was not there...in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great." Could it be that America's greatness is dwindling today because her goodness is diminishing and that her goodness is diminishing because the fire in her pulpits and pews is dying out? 

Notice, Alexis de Tocqueville did not speak of America's pulpits aflame with the prosperity gospel, a wildfire spreading in our day that spiritual arsonists had not yet set in his, or of America's pulpits ablaze with the latest principles of church growth, a heat emanating from many a modern day pulpit. Instead, de Tocqueville spoke of hearing America's "pulpits flame with righteousness"; that is, of hearing pastors who boldly, fearlessly and uncompromisingly stood for what was right regardless of cost and consequence. To find such fiery conviction and courage in America's pulpits today is a rare thing indeed. After all, the church growth gurus have counseled us to coddle the "seekers" seated in our congregations and to never say anything that might make them squirm in their seats. 

The church is one of only three divinely ordained institutions in our world, the home and government being the other two. The home's purpose is society's posterity. God ordained marriage--a lifetime partnership between one man and one woman--for the purpose of procreation (Genesis 1:26-28). It is only within the secure environment of a loving home that the proper training and development of children can occur. The home, therefore, is indispensable to society's posterity since it is the progenitor, preserver and preceptor of society's next generation.

The purpose of government is society's protection. God has ordained government to protect the innocent and punish the guilty (Romans 13:1-7). God has put the sword in the hand of government so that it can perform two fundamental and essential functions in a fallen world rife with evil; namely, the imprisonment or execution of lawbreakers threatening orderly society and the declaration and waging of war against enemies threatening national security.

Although the church's primary purpose in this world is to carry out Christ's Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), it also plays an important role in society's preservation. When it comes to society, God ordained the church to serve as society's conscience, to inform society of what is right and of what is wrong. By calling us "the salt of the earth" in Matthew 5:13, Jesus is intimating that we are a preservative. Just as salt preserves and keeps things from rotting, the church is to preserve society and keep it from moral decay. The church accomplishes this critical task on society's behalf by fearlessly standing against society's evils and faithfully standing for God's righteousness.

According to Jesus, "if the salt" loses its "savor" or saltiness "it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." If the church fails to courageously stand in its pulpits, at the polls and in the public arena for what is right and against what is wrong, then of what good is the church to society? A spineless or "savorless" church is "good for nothing." It will be discarded--"cast out"--and held in derision--"trodden under foot of men"--by a morally rotting society. 

Contrary to popular Christian opinion, the church is not immune to judgment. Though already judged worthy of heaven, thanks to the merit of Christ, the church remains susceptible to the judgment of God upon the nations. Like His rain upon the earth, which falls on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45), God's wrath upon a nation also falls upon the just and the unjust. If God's judgment falls upon America, the church in America will not escape the consequences or remain unscathed, but will suffer along with the rest of the country.

According to 1 Peter 4:17, judgment, like revival, "begins at the house of God." It is only fitting that God's judgment upon a nation begins with the people of God within it. Who, after all, is more responsible for the moral degeneracy of a nation than a spineless church that miserably fails to stand against society's evils and to ignite the fires of revival essential for a country's survival?

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