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Understandably, distinctions between church and state get muddled when a President of the United States quotes John 3:16 and speaks in public of the Savior. Speeches like those turn pastors into patriots, just as they are designed to do. They make Paul's admonition in Romans 13:1 much easier to accept: "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established (NIV)." Some Christian activists tend to quote this verse more often when the political winds blow favorably, but as Paul wrote his letter, the Roman government was turning ever more hostile to the nascent church.

Likewise, Peter advises Jewish believers whose ancestors had been scattered across Asia Minor by governmental persecution to "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men" (1 Peter 2:13). What hard words those must have been or Peter's beleaguered flocks to follow. The point is that it is spiritual vigor, not political power, that is essential for believers.

In a democracy, of course, all citizens are participants, and Christians can accomplish much through heir government. Indeed, they have a duty to do so. But the essential message to the faithful is spiritual strength to season society, not political strength to overpower it.

Regardless of how much or how little the government woos the church, the church must never be turned from the task of talking to the lost about the God who finds, for despite the evangelical gains in the political corridors, the spiritual darkness deepens on Main Street. George Gallup declares that people are hungry for depth and meaning in 'their lives, but fewer than ever have specific beliefs about God. Harold O. J. Brown echoes that in the National Review when he writes, "Our culture is still nominally theistic, even Christian, but in fact the society no longer believes in God."

Many argue that it is the ugliness of secular society-its television, movies, popular music, and the venal values of its heroes-that turn people from God. Brown says these values do not create unbelief as much as they are created by unbelief.

If he is right, then there is overwhelming unbelief in the land to have created the emptiness we see on every hand. But it is against the very darkness that gospel values stand in sharpest relief. In fact, more and more of society's sleek and envied are discovering for themselves that the world's standard of success and happiness is only so much groping in the dark. These days we see dramatic evidence of successful people who have decided they can no longer live by the world's expectations. Consider a few examples:

• After six Eastern Division championships, four American League pennants, and a World Series championship, Earl Weaver, the manager of the Baltimore Orioles, drops out of baseball at the age of 52, disillusioned, saying it might not have been worth the price: "It cost everything … . My children are all married, grown, living away, four grandchildren, and I have had no time whatsoever to see them." Will his recent reluctant return be temporary, in light of this mood?

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April (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51