Christian influence in politics

Christ's influence left out of politics, is like Christ's influence left out of evangelism. It is unfortunate that so many modern Christians try to lump the scope of Christianity's influence only to specific boxes, such as church involvement, leadership and missionary work. This is completely contrary to how prior generations of Christians thought about their faith.

Biblical illiteracy is rampant throughout society and to our chagrin, even within the Christian world. For the first three centuries of this country (prior to the birth of American Independence included) the majority of Americans knew a substantial bit about the Bible and that could even be said about non-Christians--such as Muslims, Buddhists and Atheists. This is because Christians didn't stop at simply leaving their influence into just Sunday's at church but into every aspect of society--even government. This is evident in the historical sense to a stark degree. Consider the influence that Christianity has had in government and then decide what is worse, Christian influenced government or government without Christ's influence? Here is a tiny portion of what our faith has done to influence government: Outlawing of infanticide, child abandonment, and abortion in the Roman Empire. (in AD 374); outlawing the brutal battles-to-the-death in which thousands of gladiators had died (in 404); outlawing the cruel punishment of branding the faces of criminals (in 315); instituting prison reforms such as the segregating of male and female prisoners  (by 361); stopping the practice of human sacrifice among the Irish, the Prussians, and the Lithuanians as well as among other nations; outlawing pedophilia,; granting of property rights and other protections to women; banning polygamy (which is still practiced in some Muslim countries today); prohibiting the burning alive of widows in India (in 1829); outlawing the painful and crippling practice of bind young women’s feet in China (in 1912)..... This list of Christian's influence on the culture and government is vast and hard to fathom. All we can really say is that without Christian influence on every aspect in society, we lose our Christian reforms we have achieved in 2000 years of influence and ultimately we lose the spread of our faith. When government is maliciously forceful and completely against Christ who ultimately wins? The devil does.

George Washington in prayer

William Wilberforce, Christian who helped end slavery in Britain

It is our duty to spread our wings into every aspect in society. There are billions of people who play video games and yet, we have little influence in this arena. Who has the reigns of society and can impact everyone's lives? certainly Not business's, they can only provide a service or need, it is government that is; it is government that passes laws and restricts freedoms and without Christian influence in government how can people stand on a street corner and talk to others openly about Christ and not be persecuted? It was through a constant vigilance and biblical influence in government that help spark the rise of freedom and our ability to calmly influence our culture towards God. If we leave government to its own will, it will destroy us all and impede our ability to spread the Word and our influence. Without a just government, we are left to minor struggles to influence society about Christ. With a sound, biblically based constitution and Christian statesmen, government restricted to its proper functions and we are able to greater influence our world for the good. Look at common Muslim countries in the Middle East or Communist/Statist countries in North Korea; do we see a lot of Christian influence in a government which treats its citizens as common cattle? Therefore it is imperative that our influence spread into everywhere and then we may begin to see our reforming of society to look closer and closer to our savior Jesus Christ.

Yet Christians who encourage greater Christian involvement in politics need to hear an important word of caution: if we (and I include myself here) ever begin to think that good laws alone will solve a nations problems or bring about a righteous and just society, we will have made a huge mistake. Unless there is simultaneously an inner in people's hearts and minds, good laws alone will only bring about grudging, external compliance with the minimum level of obedience necessary to avoid punishment.


Genuine, long-term change in a nation will only happen (1) if people’s hearts change so that they seek to do good, not evil; (2) if people’s minds change so that their moral convictions align more closely with God's moral standards in the Bible; and (3) if a nation's laws change so that they more fully encourage good conduct and punish wrong conduct.

References - Politics: According to the Bible.