Upside Down

In a blog post titled Turning the World Upside Down, author and professor of psychology at Abilene Christian University Richard Beck wrote…

“…[T]o my mind, the witness of the early church sets before us a vision of cultural influence. More and more, it seems to me, Christians on both the political right and left are obsessed with political power. Instead of converting others to the non-violent way of King Jesus the goal is to win elections to coerce compliance via the power of the state. That's been the shift, from conversions to elections. And by "conversion" I mean turning away from the idolatry at the heart of American culture, an idolatry that has come to possess American Christianity as well. Here's a simple test: The degree to which you place your hope in elections, as measured by your worry and dismay over electoral losses, is the degree to which you are beholden to false gods.

“And yet, to suggest that Christians eschew the coercive use of political power is to invite charges of moral and social irresponsibility. To turn your back on politics is to turn your back on your neighbor, a failure of love. Against this accusation all I can do is point to the witness of the early church in the book of Acts. Their apathy toward the state did not translate into abandoning their neighbors. What they did was neither irresponsible or ineffectual.

“In proclaiming King Jesus, the early Christians turned the world upside down.”

You can read the entire post here and search out other posts by Richard Beck here.

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