An Excerpt

Most recently, I have been reading a book called Beyond Culture Wars written by a professor from Westminster Theological Seminary. This book deals with the intersection of politics and Christianity. There is a paragraph that I found to be particularly telling.

Michael Horton writes, "...the problem in our day is that we are not...[the] counterculture the New Testament describes. We are extentions of the cultural, social, economic, and racial divisions already present in the City of Man. The statistics demonstrate that evangelicals are about as materialistic, self-oriented, and hedonistic as the unbelievers (cites George Barna and William McKay). It is an irony that at a time when evangelicals are the most worldly themselves they would be at such a judgmental and even self-righteous pitch. If we are living no differently from the world, what is wrong with these very things we are complaining about? If the children of believers are watching more MTV than the children of unbelievers, as one poll attests (cites Barna), should we not begin in our own homes before we poke our noses into the homes of those who are not even Christians? If we want to end abortion, why don't we start by explaining the doctrine of creation to our own congregations, since evangelicals account for one in six abortions in this country? If we want the state to enforce public prayers, we would do well to ask ourselves whether we prayed with our kids this morning. And if we expect the schools to teach morality and then get upset when it is not our particular moral beliefs that are taught, we should ask ourselves, Am I teaching my own children about God, sin and redemption, the person and work of Christ, and other great and indispensable truths of the Christian faith?"