When it comes to politics and faith I find a lot of Christians fall into one of two categories particularly when it comes to social issues: The church should care for the needs of the people (more republican leaning) or The church should influence the government to care for the needs of the people (more democrat leaning). Generally speaking, in theory, many agree that it’s a Christian thing to care for those in need, Christians just differ on how. But, then here is the crazy thing to me: both sides think something should be done AND both think the church should be a part of it. So, why aren’t we coming together to do these things?
In my experience, more liberal leaning Christians, in talk, are all about the social justice issues: feed the poor, care for the needy; and more conservative leaning Christians in political discussions are all about the church doing those very same things: feed the poor, care for the needy. Yet these two groups of folks, who are supposedly part of a unified spiritual body, seem to constantly be at odds, and mean while the poor starve and needs go unmet. Actions speak louder then words.
My guess is that in actuality neither side really cares about the needs of their neighbors. We all love a good debate and getting fired up and passionate and waxing eloquently about philosophical issues and how to solve world hunger, but we don’t really love our neighbors.