Time to Get Serious About Something Very Serious

If the plight of Jim Wallis is instructive to Christians in any way, it is this: never put your faith in a political party to do the work God has called the church to do. Unfortunately, many evangelical leaders do not see the disconnect between success in the realm of the secular and faithfulness in the realm of the sacred. Wallis and others like him are trapped in a system which requires them to conform their faith to a political agenda, all the while convincing themselves it is the other way around. Evangelicals at the other end of the spectrum face the same peril if they don’t get serious about the truly weighty matters of the faith.

Is it really necessary to send out “E-Mail Alerts” every time some foul-mouthed comedian goes on a televised profanity rampage? Should we really act so outraged whenever a political pundit calls Christians “stupid” and “uneducated?” Jesus said we should rejoice when people insult us, and it’s easy to understand why our Lord treated the matter with such levity. It is, or at least ought to be, quite amusing to see these supposed experts display such blatant ignorance.

There also ought to be a tinge of sorrow over the fact that someone could be so deceived into thinking, much less saying, that Christians have a “neurological disorder.” But in the gamut of emotions I may run whenever I hear such comments, anger and outrage do not even register. After all, my allegiance is to a man the same kind of people nailed to a cross. No matter how “outrageous” these present-day stone throwers get, they will never be able to top that. But Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Contrary to the impression one might get from the increasingly inane topics covered on the cable news shows, we are living in serious times. If you want to know why our nation’s culture continues to slide downward at an alarming rate, you need look no further than one eye-opening statistic: There are 130 million people in the United States who do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Consider that disturbing fact and maybe you will begin to realize why the church does not have time to gripe and complain about every insult hurled by a politician, pundit, or comedian. It’s time to get serious about something very serious.