One of the many books I am reading right now is They like Jesus but not the Church by Dan Kimball. It was recommended to me by Brad Andrews of Missouri Baptist and relevintage. I can’t say enough good things about this book. It acts primarily as a diagnosis of the Church in the eyes of the un- or de-churched. It also recommends how to reach these people outside of the established church. I am reading the on part 2, “What Emerging Generations think about the Church.” I came across this nice passage on politics and the church:

We also need to remember that many of the founding fathers of our “Christian nation” were deists, didn’t believe in the inspiration of the whole Bible, and had slaves. Since some American Christians are vocal about getting back to our “Christian roots” politically, we need to be careful not to forget this. When you examine them, some of our roots turn out not to be that Christian. So making a case for a “Christian America” comes across as the church mixing religion and politics. (P. 78)

A particularly poignant point. Rather than playing Old Testament Prophet, Christians should win over their communities the old fashion way by being good servants of Christ - and as a result being selfless servants of everyone around us. As I read more and more histories of the early Christians, the “pagan” communities were enamored with the Christians moral and selfless behaviors, and no mention is made about the Christians going Jonah on the pagans.