RNC

" A few friendly thoughts from your neighborhood "Christian political realist" in support of the "vote for the best possible candidate" position. 1. We are never going to have a perfect candidate. 2. Jesus is never going to be on the ballot. 3. In terms of candidates in this age, we only have imperfect choices, with no exceptions. 4. Politics in this age is not, therefore, about achieving utopia. 5. Politics is about getting the most good done that we can for God's glory. 6. Christians are wise to partner with like-minded partners to accomplish good and push back evil. 7. Doing so will mean a lot of discomfort, frankly (much as our own sin means discomfort for people around us!) 8. But again, we should not make the good the enemy of the perfect. 9. Instead, we should be like Joseph, Esther, Daniel, and other biblical figures, and be light in darkness. 10. We have no ability to transform the world into its ideal state; we cannot do so. 11. Nor can we make nations Christian; nor are we called to by the New Testament. 12. The mission of the church is distinct from the mission of the state. 13. As God works, sinners become Christians; that's what the Great Commission is all about. 14. Only the church has the keys of the kingdom; the magistrate in the new covenant era does not (Matthew 16 and 18). 15. Per the chastened vision of Matthew 22, 1 Timothy 2, 1 Peter 2, and related New Testament texts, we want a government that honors good and punishes evil. 16. As we live as "salt and light" per Matthew 5, we remember that only Jesus can--and will--make the world right. 17. Until that day, we are free to support the best candidate before us, and we do so without shame or guilt or despair. 18. Our political theology is thus inescapably eschatological, for we are living for the last day now, confident that our sovereign God will make all things right (Revelation 21)."

 

Owen Strachan 

 

" So, um, about last night . . . I awoke this morning to see no small number of professing Christians on this platform expressing their displeasure, to say the least, with certain elements of yesterday's Republican National Convention. At the risk of sounding like "Captain Obvious," I would humbly remind my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that political conventions are precisely that—political. That reality makes political conventions, both by definition and by nature, worldly, not ecclesiastical. We must remember, notwithstanding the biblical positions we individually should, and must, hold regarding such sociocultural issues as abortion, for example, that the overarching mission of political conventions is to win votes not souls. Psalm 146:3 reads, "Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation." With that exhortation in mind, as believers, we should not think it unusual or even appalling when even "our side" attempts to widen the narrow road (see Matthew 7:13-14). In his book The Great Evangelical Disaster, one of the most influential Christian thinkers of our time, Francis A. Schaeffer, acknowledged, "Ours is a post-Christian world in which Christianity, not only in the number of Christians but in cultural emphasis and cultural result, is no longer the consensus or ethos of our society." Against the backdrop of Schaeffer's sobering words, it warrants noting that the Republican National Committee, which organizes and puts on the Republican National Convention, is not a church. To the contrary, in fact, it is a wholly secular (worldly) entity and always has been. Consequently, we should expect a tree to always bear the kind of fruit that is in keeping with its nature (see Matthew 7:17-18). All this to say, I get the disappointment. I get it. It stands to reason that we who are the people of God would want godly people governing us since, as John Calvin declares in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, "rulers derive their power from him." But consider this, my brother and sister: should you really be disappointed in people who are driven by political expediency and propriety rather than biblical fidelity and veracity? If you consider that question objectively, particularly in light of what I argued previously about what political conventions are inherently designed to do, then, you already know the answer to that question, don't you?"

 Darrell B Harrison
It's fair to say that anyone who objects to the RNC because it wasn't "Christian" enough is mistaken.  The RNC is, and always has been, a political event intended to rally support for a political candidate.  Strangely enough, in a nation like the US, that means acknowledging and appealing to thousands or millions of people who are not Christians.  The opening night prayer by Harmeet Dhillon, wasn't inappropriate because she is a Sikh who has done much to advance the conservative agenda in the US.  Likewise the uproar over abortion.  Trump gave abolitionists exactly what they wanted, repeal of Roe, and turned it back to the states.  It's now up to the abolitionists to work to change state laws, not complain that Trump won't contradict himself and support a national ban.  Trump and the RNC are trying to win a political victory, not a spiritual victory.