Is the "Religious Right" dead? . . .

My friend, Floyd, sent me the link to a recent article by columnist Cal Thomas.

Floyd is a good friend.

In the past few years . . . I have moved away from the conservative side of faith and politics. I have not gone to the left, but rather find myself in the gray area between the left and the right.

I guess by some people's definition, that makes me a moderate, or "centrist."  I like that term better than moderate. Call me whatever . . . just listen to what I have to say first.

I have used a joke a time or two about religion and politics . . . it goes something like this:

I want to start a new political party . . . the "something has to change" party.
I want to start a new church . . . the "something has to change" church.

Funny thing . . . the other day at IHOP in Euless (my favorite IHOP in the whole entire world), I was sharing the joke with the waitress (my wife and I know all of them by name . . . we go to tthe Euless IHOP a lot) about starting the "something has to change" party. The guy in the booth behind me leaned over and touched me on the shoulder. He then proceeded to ask, with all earnestness . . .

"Who is your party's candidate for president? I want to vote for them."

I wonder, as Adam Hamilton has preached at COR these past few weeks, that what we need is a reset . . .

I would suggest that our reset might be to focus on the words and actions of Jesus Christ as never before. I believe it is time to re-read carefully all the "red letters" (words of Christ) in the Bible.

Every time I do, I am always reminded that Jesus offers us some great advice about the human heart . . . that before you can affect another's heart, your own heart has to be in the right place first.

The effort, it seems, of the Religious Right and other groups has been to force, through legislation, the changing of people's hearts. Seems to me to have been a lot of wasted effort . . . and not the Biblical way to approach a situation.

For me personally, it is time to diligently examine the words and actions of Christ, and to take them completely to heart, and let them change me again from the inside out. . . . so that I might be a better disciple of Jesus, and perhaps try more earnestly to live life as he suggests it is to be lived:

-Loving God
-Loving others
-Serving others
-Working for/ through a lifestyle of peace
-Helping the sick, poor, disadvantaged and oppressed
-Approaching life in a servant spirit
-Lifting up others first

Ever forward . . . ><>