COMMENTARY | Southern Baptists and, indeed, all religious groups should keep their noses out of politics. Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, is calling for GOP presidential front-runner and former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich to ask forgiveness from evangelical women.
According to the Daily Caller, Brand drafted an open letter to Gingrich that said that while evangelical men were quicker to forgive the former Speaker's indiscretions, that his behavior left evangelical women leery about his candidacy.
I question the intentions of Land's letter. It indicates a personal relationship with the former speaker, so it seems to call him out publicly, rather than privately, unless the agenda is a play for personal clout, or an attempt by Southern Baptists to influence an American political race.
I submit that it is Land who should apologize to evangelical Christian women for making them pawns in his agenda, and not Gingrich, whose only apologies, if any, should be to his god and to the women who were directly affected by his choices... namely his wives and mistresses.
American politics is no place for pushing religion. Freedom of religion inherently requires a government free from religion. As the Rev. John Leland, a Baptist, said according to Barak Obama's The Audacity of Hope, during our nation's founding, when men like Patrick Henry and John Adams pushed a number of proposals to use the arm of the state to promote religion, "It is error alone, that stands in need of government to support it; truth can and will do better without it."
Here's the rub: Christ will not be made more real for people as the result of a decision to push a moralist agenda into politics. When Paul traveled to Corinth, he claims: "When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified....so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power."
I have a question for Christians: If your Christ is so powerful, then why does He need you to push His moral agenda into politics? You say the world just needs more Jesus in order to make everything better. So why are you so focused on other things?
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