Nancy Pearcy on Christianity and politics

Nancy Pearcy on Christianity and politics January 2, 2005

Back in August my blogging friend JOLLYBLOGGER quotes Total Truth as follows

This heightened activism has yielded good results in many areas of public life, yet the impact remains far less than most had hoped. Why? Because evangelicals often put all their eggs in one basket: They leaped into political activism as the quickest, surest way to make a difference in the public arena – failing to realize that politics tend to reflect a culture, not the other way around……

Today, battle-weary political warriors have grown more realistic about the limits of that strategy. We have learned that ‘politics is downstream from culture, not the other way around,’ says Bill Wichterman, policy advisor to senate majority leader Bill Frist. ‘Real change has to start with the culture, all we can do on Capitol Hill is try to find ways government can nurture healthy cultural trends…….

On a similar note a member of Congress once told me, ‘I got involved in politics after the 1973 abortion decision because I thought that was the fastest route to moral reform. Well, we’ve won some legislative victories, but we’ve lost the culture (italics hers).’ The most effective work, he had come to realize, is done by ordinary Christians fulfilling God’s calling to reform culture within their local spheres of influence – their families, churches, schools, neighborhoods, workplaces, professional organizations, and civic institutions.”


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