CHURCH: Don't lose focus

On the many Candlelight Church letters…

As a Christian it really saddens and frustrates me to hear a church is taking such a vocal position on the presidential election. I don’t like Hillary either, but to endorse a nominee who has a lifelong history as a womanizer is a bit goofy. Yes Republicans desperately need to win over women voters like Annika but the party chose poorly. Churches shouldn’t choose poorly too.

One or two biblically justified policies embraced by many churches are about 10 too few. Too often a church’s political candidate endorsement stands solely on being pro traditional biblical marriage and pro life while ignoring policies that hurt a father’s ability to support a wife and children, thus destroying families and forcing unmarried mothers to rely on handouts from Uncle Sam. And then we wonder why America is less married and less churched than ever before?

Search the letters of Paul in the New Testament and find any complaint of the government. When he mentions the government at all, it is to encourage Christians to obey the government like in Romans chapter 13 or to only judge church insiders like 1 Corinthians 5. Paul also talks about employee/employer or slave/master responsibilities repeatedly in that culture.

Do these churches realize the Emperor who was in power when Paul wrote his letters (with the possible exception of the book of Galatians) was Nero? When Paul appealed to Caesar in the New Testament as a Roman citizen, he was appealing to Nero. Yes, the Nero who had no sympathy for Christians and the one who ultimately had the Apostle Paul killed.

Churches should focus on the good news of Jesus the Christ and not pick which compromiser compromised the least.

MIKE RENO

Post Falls