Imperishable Inheritance

This last elec­tion was a dis­cour­ag­ing one for con­ser­v­a­tives.  Amer­ica elected, by a wide mar­gin, one of the most lib­eral politi­cians of our time.  His eco­nomic plans bor­der on Social­ism, and he has one of the most pro-choice vot­ing records dur­ing his dura­tion in Con­gress.  On top of that the Con­gress is now entrenched in lib­er­al­ism in both the Sen­ate and the House.  Con­ser­v­a­tives can also expect lib­eral judge nom­i­na­tions to our nation’s top courts.  Is there any­thing to be opti­mistic to be about?

An Impor­tant Sidebar

Before going any fur­ther there is an impor­tant point to bring to light. As Chris­tians we must acknowl­edge that our hope is not in this world, its lead­ers, and poli­cies. We serve a sov­er­eign, mighty God that is work­ing all things to the good of those who love him (Rom 8:28).  To find your­self in immense grief over our polit­i­cal state is to ignore that our focus is to be on the escha­ton and not this world that is pass­ing away (1 Cor 7:31; 1 John 2:17).  Keep in mind also that all rulers and author­i­ties are put into that posi­tion by the will of God (Rom 13).  With that impor­tant note we can move into our discussion.

Propo­si­tion 8 and Its Effects

In Cal­i­for­nia, which is known for its lib­eral vot­ing record, passed Propo­si­tion 8 into their state’s con­sti­tu­tion. This amend­ment not only defines legal mar­riages as between one man and one woman, but it also applies retroac­tively to all cur­rent homo­sex­ual mar­riages for­merly sanc­tioned by the state.  In August of this year the state’s high­est court repealed a ban on same-sex mar­riages which led to the Propo­si­tion 8 vote (as well as a rul­ing a few years ago legit­imiz­ing same-sex mar­riage).  This elec­tion sim­i­lar mea­sures passed in Ari­zona and Florida bring­ing the total to 30 states that have passed sim­i­lar measures.

This last week protests across the coun­try took part in oppos­ing the pas­sage of the act in Cal­i­for­nia.  The pro­test­ers are call­ing on the State’s high court to over­rule the amend­ment as “uncon­sti­tu­tional.”  All this has led to a rev­e­la­tion that many con­ser­v­a­tives have touted for a long time?namely the mis­guided role that judges have in legislation.

It’s become more and more appar­ent in recent times that judges across the coun­try have been leg­is­lat­ing from the bench instead of inter­pret­ing and apply­ing leg­is­la­tion. This amend­ment is par­tic­u­larly impor­tant, because it has brought to light that a few judges (or even one judge) do not and should not speak for the gen­eral pop­u­lace.  On issues as impor­tant as the def­i­n­i­tion of mar­riage amongst oth­ers it is very appar­ent that the pop­u­lace should decide how such an issue is decided.

We all have the ten­dency to love elec­toral results when the out­come is what we desire.  How­ever, lib­er­als have shown more and more that they can­not accept when an out­come doesn’t favor their posi­tion.  This con­tra­dic­tory posi­tion is no more evi­dent then the protests sur­round­ing the pas­sage of Propo­si­tion 8. Instead of acqui­esc­ing to the elec­toral results they vow to fight it as long as nec­es­sary for the result they want to come through.

The Bea­con of Hope

As con­ser­v­a­tive evan­gel­i­cals we can look at issues like Propo­si­tion 8 and thank God for not allow­ing us to be as wicked as we could be as a nation.  In a time when the GOP is “re-evaluating” their plat­form (trans­la­tion: we need to be more mod­er­ate) we can see this pro­mo­tion of right­eous­ness as an impor­tant vic­tory.  While not the only issue rel­e­vant to evan­gel­i­cals in the cur­rent polit­i­cal land­scape it cer­tainly shows that on the whole we as a nation aren’t as lib­eral as our pop­u­lar media would like us to believe.

The gospel must go forth with or with­out a Repub­li­can pres­i­dent, and noth­ing will inhibit the Spirit of God work­ing in this world for his glory.  We can con­tinue to be kingdom-minded believ­ers who seek to pro­mote right­eous­ness in the pub­lic square and also main­tain our fierce ded­i­ca­tion to the truth that only the gospel  will bring redemp­tion and joy to this fallen world.