I am going to spend the next seven summer Sundays talking about one post from a fellow blogger. That blogger is Stephen Mattson. He is one of my favorite writers over at Red Letter Christians. He is a relatively young man who has wisdom way beyond his years. He is also able to express himself in plain and simple yet very effective words. I certainly admire him for that. The post I will be critiquing is entitled “7 Misconceptions about Christianity”. I believe these seven things are so endemic of what has happened to Christ’s church over my lifetime.  It has strayed from the basic teachings of Jesus into areas he would probably be ashamed of.

The first misconception is

Christianity is political.

Here are Stephen’s words to start us out.

While it’s true that many Christians are deeply involved in politics and use their faith as a guide to make decisions about legislation and voting, Christianity is ultimately about following God—not a political agenda.

Unfortunately, many believers get so caught up in political advocacy, government causes and campaigning that they forget about God. People often manipulate their faith to conform to a particular cause. But Christianity is bigger than any political doctrine or state authority—it’s about following Jesus. Christianity is ultimately about following God—not a political agenda.

The old saying of not mixing religion and politics is indeed a double-sided sword so to speak. There is nothing wrong with letting your spiritual beliefs guide you in the political realm. In fact it should do just that.  But the other side of the sword is when you let you political belief bleed into and pollute your religious life. This side of the sword has taken on a very sharp edge in our country in recent years.

Too many Christians are caught up in political advocacy and let it drown out the basic beliefs of Christianity. They equate their politics to be the same as their religion. They let a single political issue control all the other issues. Too many take their eyes off Jesus and have let their politics be a golden calf in their lives.

Christianity is much much bigger than any political doctrine When Jesus brought the new covenant with him into this world he made it very clear that we are to be our brother’s keeper and to love each other, even our enemies. It seems much of this covenant has been for the most part lost on those bogged down in the quicksand of their politics. They let those who have a completely different agenda pull them around as if they have a ring in their nose. That very fact disgraces Christianity for far too many people.

Christianity is ultimately about following God – not a political agenda. There is simply no political party in this world that aligns with our dictated Christian agenda.  We must pick and choose among them the things that do align and disregard the rest.  Being a faithful Christian is MUCH more important than being a faithful Republican or Democrat! The comparison is not even close!!!