ARTICLE QUOTE: "...Although our advice may be considered unashamedly right-wing, this does not imply that we are unaware of the foolish areas which some USA-based right-wing 'politico-evangelists' have sometimes gotten into, neither does it imply uncritical support of various groupings involved in such things as 'The Moral Majority' or 'The Christian Coalition.' We always raise eyebrows when finding that certain "evangelists" never seem to have done their theology, or are millionaires, or appear to be overly-involved in politics."
I tend to assume that all who firmly who hold to Jesus Christ as Saviour, holding the words of Scripture in the deepest respect (in other words, evangelical or Bible-believing Christians), will tend towards holding politically-conservative principles in most areas of life. In fact, here in the UK, the association of the Church of England with the British Conservative Party has been so strong in the past that the former were often described as 'the Conservative Party at prayer.' The point being that the British Conservative Party could always be counted on to uphold the general values and principles of Christianity in Britain. And, truthfully, right wing, or right of centre, politics was always where one would usually find Christian sympathies. Lamentably, this strong association is now increasingly being broken and new Conservative leader David Cameron is making a strong attempt to associate the British Tories with liberal politics, but since an increasing number of more traditional conservatives are now speaking out against this attempt to move their party to the left, one is bound to believe that the attempt is doomed to ultimate failure.
Yet, here in the UK, occasionally one meets believers - and they often appear to be true
believers - who, politically-speaking, seem to see themselves as supporters
of the Labour Party (which, at one time, even had some internal
factions which stood very close to communism, but is now a generally mild,
left of centre, politically-liberal party), or who see themselves generally
as 'social liberals' (and would probably feel closest to the Labour
Party or to the Liberal Democrat Party). Whilst we do not
recommend support for any particular political party, I must admit that we at
UK Apologetics are a little mystified by this because both leftist
politics and liberal politics are inherently anti-Christian, and it
is hardly 'rocket science' to arrive at this conclusion.
A very quick and obvious way to observe this is by looking at the major British newspapers:
The two traditionally strong right-wing conservative papers, the Daily Express and Daily Mail have been regularly quite valiant in opposing unbridled liberalism and giving strong support to Christian values, but the left-wing press is very different. The very leftist-leaning Guardian, for example, has long been a bastion of atheism!
So again, I respectfully ask the question:
How can some Christians identify with leftist or liberal politics?
Here are five reasons why Modern Liberalism is incompatible with True Christianity:
1. Modern liberals reject ultimate and uniform moral standards, believing in Moral Relativism. This line of reasoning states that right and wrong are not eternal principles (while Christianity insists that they are), but entirely relative to one's situation in life, so that what is right for you may not be right for somebody else and what you may see as 'sinful' is not necessarily so for another person. This liberal perspective is utterly anathema to Judeo-Christian principles.
2. Modern liberals staunchly support Multi-Culturalism. This stance means that no one culture is seen as better than any other, and that to mix cultures is healthy; the huge problem here is that this approach to 'culture' includes religion! Therefore, no one religion is better than any other and no religion should be seen as having superior truth claims! At once it should be obvious why no commited Christian can possibly support Modern Liberalism.
3. Modern liberals staunchly support sexual permissive behaviour (the Moral Relativism of point one is quickly applied here). Liberals refuse to oppose gays, or to encourage marriage, and they approve of the continual weakening of censorship as applied to the media. An army of liberals have worked tirelessly for many years in undermining the teachings of Christianity, especially as applied to one's sexual life. Typically, the modern liberal would say that adultery and homosexuality are not necessarily wrong and they would ridicule the whole concept of sexual purity outside of marriage.
4. Liberalism has given wholehearted support to abortion and to a "woman's right to choose." Moral Relativism, of course, states than none of us can ever say that something is always wrong, and, for certain people at certain times, certain things which we might not like can be good for others. But Christians, who base their moral values on the Ten Commandments and the 'Golden Rule,' take their beliefs seriously and they find that they must reject such reasoning. Millions of tiny unborn babies in the womb have been aborted in Europe and America during the last ten years alone, and whereas abortion was first introduced only to be used in extreme cases, convenience abortions have now become the 'norm.' The Bible calls such a practise murder - pure and simple.
5. Modern liberals support the privatisation of religious belief. This means that you or I can believe whatever we like but that our beliefs should stay in the private area of our lives. The very concept of evangelism must be opposed to this schema. The moment one insists that one should proselytize one's faith, one falls foul of the modern liberal because of their deeply held belief in the privacy of religion. To the liberal, the concept of going out and making disciples sounds like trouble-making and the liberal must reject religious coercion. It should be added that increasing numbers of evangelical Christians are getting themselves into hot water in this area even as I write. I have also noted more and more instances of commited Christians being banned from various counselling agencies (such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Citizen's Advice Bureau in the UK), because these organisations are afraid that Christians may attempt to proselytize. Such bans would have been unthinkable even ten years ago which shows how Liberalism - despite its kindly, nicey-nicey face - is a most aggressive and malignant movement.
UK Apologetics has never recommended voting for particular
political parties, but surely the very principles already outlined are
sufficient to show us all that Christians should not - okay, I am going to go
further - cannot! - support any candidate or party
which wholeheartedly supports liberal values. Now that might mean real
problems if all the alternatives fall short, especially in scenarios in which
voting is compulsory. Parties and candidates which/who support traditional
conservative values, such as a concern for marriage, a 'tough' approach
toward crime and criminals and a concern to fearlessly uphold the Christian's
freedom to worship should obviously be supported where possible.
However, although our advice may be considered unashamedly right-wing, this does not imply that we are unaware of the foolish areas which some USA-based right-wing 'politico-evangelists' have sometimes gotten into, neither does it imply uncritical support of various groupings involved in such things as 'The Moral Majority' or 'The Christian Coalition.' We always raise eyebrows when finding that certain "evangelists" never seem to have done their theology, or are millionaires, or appear to be overly-involved in politics.
The Christian Hawk
April 2nd, 2007.