David Kuo's Political Folly
by Motte Brown on 10/19/2006 at 9:30 AM
David Kuo has been all over the news recently promoting his book Tempting Faith, advising evangelicals to "fast" from this mid-term election, saying we should "spend more time studying Jesus and less time getting people elected." He is the former Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, obviously disillusioned about what went on while he worked for the Bush Administration.
Let's assume David Kuo was well intentioned and that Christian stewardship is his sole concern here. Should we (evangelicals) remove ourselves from political activity to more devotedly follow Christ? As Michael Medved -- a traditional Jew -- pointed out on his blog yesterday with his critique of Kuo's book, the two are not mutually exclusive.
He ignores the fact that for most people of faith, it's not an either-or position: we can study scripture at the same time that we're working for our political principles, and we can "practice compassion" in private at the same time we endorse compassionate policies in public.
No one speaks on this issue better than Dr. James Dobson. As secular humanists continue their attack on the moral fiber of this nation, he contends it's disgraceful that Christians aren't more involved the political arena.
When we withhold our influence and participation, we yield by default to those who promote immoral and destructive policies. We owe it to our children and to future generations to defend the principles in which we believe -- the glorious freedom bought with the blood of so many brave young men and women. Shame on us for failing to do our duty to God and country. It is unconscionable that so many Christians today have concluded that it is somehow immoral to "get political."
Failure to "get political" in our nation's great democracy is a failure to acknowledge God's blessing of a representative form of government. And as the late Francis Schaeffer wrote in his A Christian Manifesto, it is a failure to recognize Christ's lordship over all of life.
True spirituality means that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord of all of life, and except for the things that He has specifically told us in the Bible are sinful and we've set them aside -- all of life is spiritual and all of life is equally spiritual. That includes (as our forefathers did) standing for these things of freedom and standing for these things of human life and all these other matters that are so crucial, if indeed, this living God does exist as we know that He does exist.
Well-intentioned or not, it is to Kuo's shame that he would encourage Christians to stand aside while elections happen that will shape the direction of America and to some degree, the world. As Schaeffer noted in 1982, we still "have lots of room to move yet with our court cases, with the people we elect -- all the things that we can do in this country."
1. James said the following at 1:57 PM on Jan 11
I think Kuo was referencing more a fast from activism, as to "not voting". I found his book much more compelling than I thought I would, and he has some really valid points. Additionally, I think the mean spirited rebuttals of the Colson/Dobson orgs can of reenforce his point.
jke