Are Christian political activists too narrowly focused?

Joel Belz at World Magazine takes to defending conservative Christianity's political action in this month's issue.  His article is a great read and deserves a lot of attention from Christians and is worthy of some good discussion here at VR.

It's become an increasingly frequent reminder to us evangelical Christians not to let our cultural identity be framed by "single issues."

It was a reminder implicitly included in the "Evangelical Manifesto," a document whose basic content we at WORLD have applauded but whose political direction I questioned in our last issue. Why are the Manifesto's backers so ready to join the cultural left in suggesting a guilt trip for those evangelicals who have been preoccupied with the evils of abortion and same-sex marriage?

And if some argue that the rising generation of younger evangelicals is a bit embarrassed by what they think is an out-of-balance focus by their elders, and thinks it's time to get equally exercised over issues like racism, economic justice, and the environment—well, if that's the case with our twentysomethings and our teenagers, then maybe we need to go to work and do a better job of explaining to them why we've put the emphasis where we have for the last generation and why we believe that it's time not to lower our voices.

Evangelicals shouldn't be embarrassed to say boldly and clearly: Abortion and same-sex marriage are uniquely heinous sins. They rattle the foundations of a civilized society. They take a culture in a dreadful direction. We haven't been wrong to say so. We aren't fanatics.

Read the rest of his article here.

H/T Indy Christian

Comments

[eric schansberg]

I like Belz and World a lot. (I just wrote him in response to his overview essay in the last issue on Norquist's book.)

But I can't imagine how it's defensible biblically (or otherwise) to put the murder of innocent children on par with the state allowing homosexuals to have "civil unions".

(Biblically, same-sex marriage is an oxymoron, so I'm not sure why someone with a biblical worldview would ever utter that phrase without quotation marks or "so-called" in front of it.)

And if we're going to talk about trashing a fundamental human/divine institution, one has to talk about divorce and the far larger damage it has wrought to the institution of marriage-- not to mention the lives it has adversely impacted (again, particularly of children).

Is there really any debate on this?

Given what is seen in the link below (video clip from Focus on the Family Action), I would say, yes, Christian political activists are too narrowly focused. Praying for rain on someone's parade? What kind of message is that from the Christian community, especially what it is reference to? Can VR explain?

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5581241