Franklin Graham was recently quoted as saying “We’ve Taken God Out of the Political Debate … I Want to Put Him Back In.“ He said this as he traveled the USA on his 50-state 2016 Decision America Tour. He also stated “The only hope for this country is God and we have taken God out of the political debate, and we have taken him out of the public space.”
While I respect Graham and all his family has given to the world I want to politely disagree and here’s why. The issue isn’t that God was removed from the government or from the public, it’s that our public and our government are growing increasingly non-Christian. Let me state that in another way as to be perfectly clear…..
We have a representative government. It’s constituents are increasingly becoming less religious. As the country moves further away from religion so will the leaders that represent the people. It’s not a government issue, it’s a church issue.
It is the job of the church to make disciples and win people to Christ. It is the church’s responsibility to build a nation from the bottom-up, not the government-down, that serves God. When the church brings a new revival based on the teaching’s of Christ and not based on fear and hatred, we will win people back to the true faith. When the population becomes increasingly Christ-like you better believe that our leaders will reflect that. Until then, let’s be busy worrying about the job of the church and not forcing our government to shove Christianity down the throats of the public.
Furthermore, I would submit that Americans have not ejected God from the government. We still have national holiday’s based on the Christian faith. We still have prayer before almost all of our government meetings. We still have a national day of prayer. We still provide religious institutions with tax-free benefits so they can not be burdened like the rest of the industries. We still protect religious speech no matter how hateful it is.
We have the most religiously free country in the world, and do you know what would ruin that? Forcing our government and the people to be Christian against their will. Having a country with such religious freedom means that people are also free to NOT be religious. If you don’t like it then you can move to a country that forces you to participate in the state religion, but we all already know how that story ends.