"As it turns out, character DOES matter. You can’t run a family, let alone a country, without it. How foolish to believe that a person who lacks honesty and moral integrity is qualified to lead a nation and the world! Nevertheless, our people continue to say that the President is doing a good job even … Continue reading Quote of Note #74: Character and the Presidency
"If our proclamation does not upset the powers-that-be--if it doesn't 'turn the world upside down' (Acts 17:6) -- is that because our culture is friendly to the gospel? Or have we made the gospel friendly to the culture? If we aren't treated like Paul, is that because society has changed--or have we changed? Could it … Continue reading Quote of Note #72–Failing to Upset the Powers-That-Be
"In Philippians 3:20, Paul reminds these inhabitants of of the Roman colony that, as Christians, 'we are citizens of a heavenly commonwealth [politeuma].' We are citizens of a different empire. The church of Jesus Christ is an alternative city, a counter-empire. We are the 'Messiah-people' who pledge allegiance to the Lamb. We are subjects of … Continue reading Quote of Note #70 — An Allegiance a Heavenly Kingdom
"The gospel that Paul preached was not a message about some private, interior transformation of the heart. It is a message about a new allegiance to a King-in-waiting. As such, there was something radically political about the gospel--which didn't mean, of course, that Christians sided with a particular political party. In fact, there was a … Continue reading Quote of Note #69 — Our Allegiance to our King not some Party
{Advice from a senior devil to his apprentice tempter on the use of politics to ruin the faith of a Christian} "Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. … Continue reading Quote of Note #68 — “The World as an end, faith as a means”
"I’m one hundred times more passionate about creating Christians and churches that will be faithful, biblical, countercultural, and spiritually minded in a socialist America, in a Muslim America, in a communist America, than I am in preventing a Muslim America or a communist America. That puts me in a very different ballpark than many public … Continue reading Quote of Note #66 — A Pastor’s Vision
"We need to believe that both the dignity of our opponents, and the character we aim to model for our kids, require some basic rules for public debate. We should stop holding the candidates on 'our side' to lower standards than we expect from our opponents. This shouldn't be hard. Lying matters, and truth matters. … Continue reading Quote of Note #65 — Integrity in Political Life
"Our Founders built democratic government as an alternative to monarchy, but they also intentionally built an anti-majoritarian government because the worst form of democracy -- mob rule -- is always a danger against which we must be on guard. If we fail to preserve our anti-majoritarian guardrails against the mob, we will end up subjected … Continue reading Quote of Note #55 — Guarding Freedom and Dignity of All Americans
"The question to ask about such things -- the identification of the Bible with England in the nineteenth century or American foreign policy in the twenty-first -- is 'What does this do to the reach of the gospel and the church?' The answer is simple: It creates a dividing line in the church, which is … Continue reading Quote of Note #46: Christ is Lord, Not Party or Nation
"Something had gone terribly wrong with American evangelicalism, or, perhaps, I thought, it had always been wrong and I was simply seeing the problem only now. Over the forty-three years I had been a Christian, the orientation of American evangelicals had shifted from what many theologians call the ultimate to the penultimate. We had descended … Continue reading Quote of Note #30: American Evangelicalism and Tribal Deities
