It troubles me that, despite the emergence of evangelical political strength shown in recent Gallup polls, there’s very little moral impact on the government.
The influence of the Christian church comes from the influence of individual Christian believers. If there are so many of us, we ought to be making ourselves felt.
The dynamics of Christian political influence are the same as Christian influence in every other area of life: the call for personal accountability to the truths of the Scripture.
I remember a tragic statement made to me by a man who is now a high-level executive at Bethlehem Steel. “In thirty years of life in my church, nothing was ever said or done to make me think the church had the slightest interest in what I was doing at Bethlehem Steel, nor that I had any moral accountability there as far as the church was concerned.”
As pastor of a church in Washington, D.C., I think the best way I can influence our government is by influencing the people making the decisions; not by lobbying them or by writing them letters, but by nourishing them on the Word of Cod so they have a biblical orientation to reflect against when they make decisions.
We’re quick to criticize political leaders but slow to pray for them. When I travel around the country I rarely hear a pastoral prayer that includes the President, the Congress, the governor, the state legislature, the mayor, or the city council.
Can you imagine the power of millions of Christians praying for our political leaders and showing them we care?
Richard C. Halverson
Remarks during the LEADERSHIP interview (Fall, 1980) before his appointment as chaplain of the U.S. Senate
Copyright © 1981 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
