OK, we're not building on rock, but at least we're not building on sand any more.
I was talking with friends one evening about the recent events in New York and in Afghanistan, and particularly the deft handling of those events by President Bush. We all expressed relief at it being George W. Bush that was doing the handling, rather than Al Gore.
This is a group that has usually supported the U. S. Constitution Party and Howard Phillips. But during the last election (November 2000), we saw an opportunity to vote for a candidate of a major party, who, though weak on many of the issues we hold dear, was in possession of a credible, open, and explicit testimony of a personal faith in Jesus Christ. Many of us lobbied our friends of similar bent to support and vote for George W. Bush.
We alienated some good friends. Oh, they've generally not severed their ties with us, and we get an occasional "I told-you-so," when President Bush has made a questionable move. Yet, even before our country was thrown into crisis, the dignity Bush restored to the office, his appointment of many good Christian men - and, yes, women - to his cabinet and close circle of advisors confirmed that we helped put the right man in office.
Bush is not a perfect man, mind you, but it occurs to me that God, Who is Sovereign, has given us a man whose Christianity matches that of the country. I am convinced that He used us, in our support of third party candidates, to allow the ungodly of this great nation to have a taste of the President they deserve in Bill Clinton. (Even so, God restrained that evil man for his last six years at the helm by allowing Republicans to control both houses of Congress.)
Would America be better off with a Howard Phillips as president? Without a doubt. Can America handle the likes of such a man now? Not likely. We must grow into a thorough Christianity as a people before God will grant us a thoroughly Christian civil government.
Many American Christians have become pretty good at producing a consistent and scriptural Christianity in our own lives and families. We've done so by building stone-upon-stone lives that are consistent with God's commands. So too, in the civil realm, we must begin at the foundation, and the foundation is not the peak of the roof. The foundation of a representative form of government is those who are represented. As we build up our neighbors using the life-giving weapons of Christian warfare, we can rightly expect that the dye of righteousness will leech into surrounding areas. Eventually even the peak of the roof will have that color. I suspect it's already starting to turn.
- Mark Hughes