FAITH, CULTURE AND ELECTION DAY
Scripture: Jeremiah 29:4, Jeremiah 295, Jeremiah 296, Jeremiah 297
Faith, Culture and Election Day
Dave Gustavsen
Jeremiah 29:4-7
In case you haven't heard, there's a presidential election coming up in the United States. Have you guys heard anything about that? Nobody's really talking about it, so you might not have heard.
All of us know that this election season has been highly emotional and volatile, and I know every time there's a presidential election people say, ''This is the most important election in our country's history,'' but people are saying that even more than usual this time. In other words, this is a big deal for our country right now. And our commitment, at the Chapel, is to speak into the issues people are facing. My wife said to me, ''You are crazy to preach about this.'' And I said, ''You're probably right. But we just cannot ignore the elephant in the room. Or the donkey.''
So here's the question-and this really goes way beyond what's happening on November 8: if I am a follower of Jesus, how should that affect the way that I engage in political and cultural issues? It's an important question, and I have seen churches take very different approaches to this. Twenty-four years ago, during the 1992 election, my wife and I were living in Texas. And we were part of a little start-up church that met in a strip mall, and I remember after church one day, the pastor went out to his car, he opened up his trunk, and he gave us yard signs supporting one of the presidential candidates. Baptist church in Texas-I'll let you guess whether he supported Bush or Bill Clinton. On the other end of the spectrum, I've seen churches and Christians who completely ignore political and cultural issues. They say, ''That's not our concern; you know, God's kingdom is not of this world; we just need to preach the gospel.'' I don't believe either of those approaches gets it right.
So…if you're wondering who I'm voting for, let me just get this out of the way: I'm not telling. I would never tell you who I'm voting for, because ...
Dave Gustavsen
Jeremiah 29:4-7
In case you haven't heard, there's a presidential election coming up in the United States. Have you guys heard anything about that? Nobody's really talking about it, so you might not have heard.
All of us know that this election season has been highly emotional and volatile, and I know every time there's a presidential election people say, ''This is the most important election in our country's history,'' but people are saying that even more than usual this time. In other words, this is a big deal for our country right now. And our commitment, at the Chapel, is to speak into the issues people are facing. My wife said to me, ''You are crazy to preach about this.'' And I said, ''You're probably right. But we just cannot ignore the elephant in the room. Or the donkey.''
So here's the question-and this really goes way beyond what's happening on November 8: if I am a follower of Jesus, how should that affect the way that I engage in political and cultural issues? It's an important question, and I have seen churches take very different approaches to this. Twenty-four years ago, during the 1992 election, my wife and I were living in Texas. And we were part of a little start-up church that met in a strip mall, and I remember after church one day, the pastor went out to his car, he opened up his trunk, and he gave us yard signs supporting one of the presidential candidates. Baptist church in Texas-I'll let you guess whether he supported Bush or Bill Clinton. On the other end of the spectrum, I've seen churches and Christians who completely ignore political and cultural issues. They say, ''That's not our concern; you know, God's kingdom is not of this world; we just need to preach the gospel.'' I don't believe either of those approaches gets it right.
So…if you're wondering who I'm voting for, let me just get this out of the way: I'm not telling. I would never tell you who I'm voting for, because ...
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