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  In August of this year the state’s high­est court repealed a ban on same-sex mar­riages which led to the Propo­si­tion 8 vote (as well as a rul­ing a few years ago legit­imiz­ing same-sex mar­riage).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.