I read this article this morning in Christianity Today. Short but pulls a focus back to the bottom line issue, confronting the compromising road that Christendom opens up. Although the article is written in the USA and applied to the US it has an application beyond there. I have sought to make no comments about the US as I do not carry a responsibility for it, others carry that responsibility, but the singular point of the article makes it worth referencing. Just before reading the article Gayle and I were talking about Brazil as we go there in October, and were listening to what I spoke into a conference there in 2016 (by Skype) as to what was coming to the nation. Although the comments are ‘this is now happening’ I am also convinced that there is much more to be flushed out. The challenge politically will be when a ‘moral’ candidate comes forward to pull in the evangelical vote with favours given in return.
We are called to be shaping our location. In the article Horton quotes Phil. 3:21 which I would take to mean that because our citizenship is in heaven we are called to make where we are resemble heaven, thus pushing us to a passion for transformation. I have some hope that Brazil can break the christendom paradigm, that the wilderness becomes the more natural habitat than the palace. Maybe this is why I have long-term hope for the European context. If we (Christians) are less privileged we might just find that true glory is found in the wilderness.
A taste of the article can be seen in this quote (again focused on the US but applicable anywhere):
When we seek special political favors for the church, we communicate to the masses that Christ’s kingdom is just another demographic in the US electorate.