Wayne Grudem has published an article which is strongly in support of Bush and the Republicans. What is interesting to me as a Brit is that I could never imagine a leading Christian in the UK endorsing a politician this robustly. And yet you are the ones who separate church and state - not us. I can't make up my mind who got it right, but perhaps a nation where church leaders are allowed to publicly speak about their political views is more mature than one where church bishops still sit in the House of Lords, but Christians in the public eye are, in some unwritten rule they all obey, not allowed to express an opionion. Wayne Grudem has an opinion and this is a quote to whet your appetite:

. . . overall I am so very very thankful for an outstanding, I think excellent, President. He has done right. And he is changing world history in a right direction, a direction that will give more freedom for everyone to determine their own governments and their own religion, and (of significance to me as a Christian), more freedom for the proclamation of the gospel around the world, so that people would have a fair chance to hear and consider (but never ever be compelled to accept) that good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What about the Iraq war? It is just that - a war, and wars are not won quickly or easily. We were attacked in an act of war on 9/11, and we had been attacked by similar terrorists many times before that. Finally we are fighting back, against an invisible, very skillful, very evil enemy.

When people complain, 'It’s not going well,' I just think, 'What you are saying is that we haven’t won yet.' But that is because there are still evil people in the world who want to destroy Iraq and eventually destroy Israel and destroy us, and in some countries their governments are not stopping them yet. So this is a huge task, but we have no choice but to go forward. There will only be one side left at the end of this war, and I want it to be us, not the Muslim terrorists.'

It seems to me that what we need as a country is to unite behind the President in this war, not attack every move he makes (isn’t this what a country usually does in war?). For every U.S. soldier who dies there are many times more terrorists who are caught or killed (which I think in light of Rom. 13:4 is the right thing for civil government to do), and the terrorist movements simply cannot and will not continue a losing battle forever. Criticism of the war sounds to me like people are saying, 'There are still some evil people in the world, therefore Bush is a bad President.' That is misguided reasoning, because there will always be evil people in the world, and the God-given solution, according to Rom. 13:1-7, is to prevent them from harming others through the use of superior force by our military and police. That is what President Bush is doing, and I don’t know if anyone else in the world could do any better. (Many nations are not even trying, just sitting back and letting us do the dirty work while they criticize!)

So I think President Bush has done a very good job as President, in an amazingly difficult time.I think if we did not have such a hostile press the President's approval rating might be well above 60%, if people were just aware of all the good this President has done...

So I continue to ask God if he will still hear the prayers of so many millions of his people, who are still seeking after many years to change the Supreme Court so that abortion could be prohibited by law in our country, so that marriage could be protected and the homosexual agenda would be stopped, so that Muslim terrorist attacks against Christians and against the basic human freedom of people to govern themselves could be defeated rather than encouraged around the world, so that true reform and true parental choice could come to our failed public school systems that are robbing millions of poor children of a chance to be productive citizens for their whole lives, so that wise policies concerning the use of the world’s resources could be implemented, so that the tax cuts could be made permanent and even expanded, to further strengthen the economy, and so that the judiciary could be sufficiently reformed that the will of the people, rather than the opinion of judges, would be the determining factor in the laws of our nation. All this and more is at stake, and much of it will become simply impossible if the Democrats take control of either the Senate or the House.

UPDATE
Some of Wayne Grudem's writings are available online. In a sermon preached just before the 2004 election at Covenant Life Church - home to C. J. Mahaney and Joshua Harris, Grudem argues why he feels Christians should speak to political issues. Interestingly, in the sermon he does not mention specific politicians or political parties - perhaps reflecting the difference between speaking as a private citizen or as a preacher of God's Word. Here is a quote to whet your appetite to read this transcript:

The simple fact is, if Christians do not speak out about what the Bible says about issues of right and wrong, there aren’t many other good sources for finding out any transcendent source of ethics, any source outside ourselves. If Christians do not speak about ethical issues, it will be difficult for people ever to know what God considers morally right and morally wrong. Without a clear Christian voice, the nation will be morally adrift, as much of it already is today.

So I think it is right for us to speak up – to say, “This is what the Bible says,” and, “This is how I understand the teachings of the Bible” – and then people can listen, and agree or disagree, but at least we have given a clear witness.