Instead of the Lord\u2019s Prayer phrase, \u201clead us not into temptation,\u201d author Huston Smith suggests it should read, \u201clead us not into confusion or mistaken priorities.\u201d <\/p>\n
Evangelist Franklin Graham, who visited Juneau on Friday, is making the same mistake as his earthly father: dragging the name of Jesus into politics.<\/p>\n
Confusion and mistaken priorities have been a temptation for Christendom\u2019s religious leaders since Roman Emperor Constantine combined the early Christian movement with the secular power that was Rome. Christianity hasn\u2019t recovered.<\/p>\n
What Jesus of Nazareth is recorded as saying could be spoken in about two hours, but many church leaders seem confused or else forget what Jesus said, and set different priorities.<\/p>\n
Scripture warns those who change God\u2019s priorities, e.g. \u201cteaching as doctrine the commandments of men,\u201d or those who don\u2019t respond to clear teachings, e.g. \u201cwhy do you call me Lord and not do what I say?\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the Garden, Satan suggests plausible alternatives to obeying what God commanded. Such confusing tactics work regardless of who uses them. Sometimes church leaders claim divine authority, but largely ignore Christ\u2019s greatest commandments.<\/p>\n
Some colonial church leaders used their persuasive skills for political action against King George rather than for God. They ignored Christ\u2019s basic church-state policy, \u201crender unto Caesar what is Caesar\u2019s and unto God what is God\u2019s,\u201d which included paying taxes.<\/p>\n
Much later, instead of confronting ungodly Bible Belt prejudices, some of America\u2019s church leaders used politics to try to impose values they viewed as God\u2019s will, e.g. prohibition, opposition to Darwin\u2019s theory, etc. Such undertakings involve publicity.<\/p>\n
Political activism offers media exposure. In 1949, newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, a staunch anti-communist, ordered his editors to \u201cpuff Graham\u201d because aspiring evangelist Billy Graham opposed godless communism; name recognition followed.<\/p>\n
National politicians court religious leaders who in turn curry favor. Former White House staffer David Kuo explored such dynamics in his 2006 book, \u201cTempting Faith, An Inside Story of Political Seduction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other believers have written books that discuss the limitations and dangers of political activism, but have been largely ignored and their viewpoints marginalized.<\/p>\n
Power-seeking behavior continues to blind religious leaders who sometimes later find out that they endorsed officials whose private behavior or policies are exposed as ungodly \u2014 strange bedfellows, indeed. Further, some religious leaders have themselves been revealed as corrupted.<\/p>\n
Jesus asks, \u201cWhat does it profit a man who gains the whole world, but loses his soul?\u201d<\/p>\n
Theo-political leaders fail to recognize \u201copportunity cost.\u201d By spending their scarce time on political activism, disciples sacrifice irreplaceable time that might have otherwise been spent doing what scripture actually commands, e.g. loving their neighbors by helping \u201cthe least of these,\u201d etc.<\/p>\n
What matters most for eternity, earthly electioneering or imitating Christ\u2019s agape-love?<\/p>\n
A columnist once said, \u201cChristianity used to be about changing yourself and serving others; now it\u2019s more about changing others and serving yourself.\u201d Sadly, examples abound \u2014 many of the \u201ccalled out\u201d seem confused about spiritual focus.<\/p>\n
When Jesus returns will he \u201cfind faith\u201d or self-righteous political activism?<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mike Clemens is a Juneau resident and student of the United State\u2019s church-state relations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Instead of the Lord\u2019s Prayer phrase, \u201clead us not into temptation,\u201d author Huston Smith suggests it should read, \u201clead us not into confusion or mistaken priorities.\u201d Evangelist Franklin Graham, who visited Juneau on Friday, is making the same mistake as his earthly father: dragging the name of Jesus into politics. Confusion and mistaken priorities have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13880"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}