We Christians have a love/hate relationship with politics. We love freedom but we hate compromise. We love having a voice in decisions but we hate wasting time fighting lost causes. We love representative government because it’s based upon the Biblical principle of the free will of man. We love limited government and the balance of powers because they are based upon the Biblical principle of man’s sin nature.

We love the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution because they are covenantal documents enacted by mostly Christian statesmen who understood our duty to God as citizens and as a nation.

We even love giving a voice to those who disagree with us. Unlike Islam, or some other world religions, Christianity teaches that each person has a God-given right to believe and advocate any idea, no matter how onerous.

But we Christians hate compromise because our value system is based upon eternal principles of right and wrong that never change. For example, when we compromise to allow some abortions, as opposed to no abortions, it tears at the very soul of our being. When we are forced to vote for a candidate whose beliefs line up with most, but not all, of our Biblical beliefs, it sometimes makes us feel dirty.

A recent editorial in Christianity Today magazine summed up our feelings. “We engage politically, not primarily because we want to form a voting bloc, but because we know that if we ignore politics, we imperil the well-being of millions of people.”

We believe some people are called by God to dedicate their lives to service in the political arena. The story of the great Christian reformer William Wilberforce is told in the new movie entitled, Amazing Grace. Wilberforce worked tirelessly in the House of Lords in England to outlaw slavery. It was a battle that he fought alone for many years.

Wilberforce was tempted to quit many times because he hated compromise and he hated playing the political games. But he did not quit because he knew that the lives and futures of millions of people hung in the balance. After 40 years of struggle, slavery was finally outlawed in all of the British Empire . The final victory took place just days before his death.

There have been many other Christians who have worked tirelessly in the political arena championing the cause of the unborn, civil rights, child labor laws, religious freedom, family values and many more. All of them faced fierce opposition. All were forced to accept small victories and incremental change when their passion and calling cried out for more. Like Wilberforce, most were accused of ulterior motives and personally attacked by unscrupulous political opponents. But they fought on.

Another reason Christians hate politics is because our votes are sometimes wooed by wolves in sheep’s clothing who pretend to know God, but when the political pressure comes, they acquiesce to special interest groups and lobbyists.

None of this is likely to change. There will be true Christians and false Christians running for political office. There will be true change, partial change and in many cases evil will triumph over good.

Our sincere thanks and gratitude goes out to the true Christians who stay in the battle.

“I like to gamble and I’m not going to quit.”  That statement could have come from any one of thousands who fill the casinos in our area every night.  In this case, it came from Charles Barkley, the former NBA star who has always insisted that athletes should not be looked up to as role models.

            Gambling has gone main stream in America.  Human nature being what it is, there have always been those willing to risk what they have on the chance of gaining more.  But in the past, gambling has been confined to smoke-filled back rooms.  Like prostitution and bootlegging, everyone knew it occurred but it wasn’t approved by society.

            Today 65% of American adults disagree with the statement “it is morally wrong to gamble.”  Among evangelical Christians, the figure is 43%.  Polls of this type were not conducted in decades past so we can only speculate what the results would have been if the same question were asked a hundred years ago. 

            I believe it’s a safe bet (pardon the pun) that many more Americans in the past believed gambling was morally wrong.  I base that assumption primarily upon my study of American history and American theology. 

            The most influential theologians of the 19th and 20th centuries decried gambling as a violation of God’s principles, but not for the reason one might think.  The venerable Charles Hodge wrote in his classic Systematic Theology that winning was the problem more than losing.  The triumphant gambler takes advantage “of the unwary or unskillful to deprive them of their property without compensation.” 

            The basic teaching against gambling was that it was actually stealing to take someone’s money or property without compensation.  The argument that the loser has voluntarily given up his property was countered by theologian R.L. Dabney “that his consent is one which he has no right to give, because it is prompted by an immoral motive, namely; the hope of plundering his rival (The Practical Philosophy).”

            In our modern secular society, theological arguments carry very little weight.  The best condemnations of gambling center upon the losers.  Every pastor in our area has dealt with the spouses and children of gamblers who suffer because of their losses.   While the casinos make millions, it’s the churches that help feed the children of the hapless losers.

            If we view gambling only from the pragmatic view of the victims, we are then required to balance the misery of the losers against the joy of the winners.  Since morality today is determined either by obvious effects of the activity or the will of the majority, we end up with most Americans thinking the good outweighs the bad so gambling must be acceptable.

            But it is not acceptable.  Gambling violates the command of God to each of us that we “look not only to [our] own interests, but also to the interests of others (Philippians 2:4).”  Gambling violates the Biblical principles of stewardship and property. 

            Is gambling here to stay?  Probably.  But morality is eternal.  It does not change with the political or economic winds of the day.

Laslo Tokes was a young pastor who defied the status quo. In Communist Romania pastors typically collaborated with the government and remained under the control of Nicolae Ceausescu, the Communist dictator.

Pastor Tokes was appointed to the pastorate of the dying Hungarian Reformed Church in 1987. The life of Christ immediately came back into the church as he preached boldly the message of Christ. Young people began coming to the church. Baptisms and catechism classes resumed as the church’s membership swelled to nearly 2000 in two years time.

Predictably, the Communist secret police moved in to stop this pastor as they had many others before him. They threatened the parishioners, beat the pastor, and murdered one of his close friends. The police stood in the church building during services wielding machine guns. But the church would not be intimidated.

Finally an order of removal was issued for Pastor Tokes. On December 15, 1989, he was to be forcibly removed from the church and his home which was a small apartment in the back of the church building. When he awoke that morning, the building was surrounded by the people of the church. They formed a human shield, preventing the moving van and the secret police from seizing their pastor and his wife.

Many others joined the crowd throughout the day. Christians from different denominations and ethnic groups gathered to protest the Communist government’s oppression. By nightfall, several thousand protestors surrounded the church building. Candles were lit and the crowd’s boldness grew.

For the first time in decades, they began to chant the words “Freedom, Liberty!” They sang patriotic songs that had been banned by the Communist dictator. The protest continued throughout the night and all of the next day. As night fell on December 16^th, the chant turned into rebellion as they shouted, “Down with Ceausescu! Down with Communism!”

On the morning of December 17^th, the secret police broke through the crowd by force. Pastor Tokes had taken refuge in the church sanctuary near the Communion Table. He had wrapped himself in his clerical robes and held a Bible as a shield. He and his wife were beaten and removed.

The protesters moved en mass to the town square. The crowd continued to grow and the shouts of freedom grew louder. Then the inevitable happened; Romanian soldiers opened fire with machine guns on the crowd. Hundreds were shot. They had known the price of freedom would be high.

But their candles and their faith had sparked a revolution. By Christmas, the evil dictator Ceausescu and his wife were dead and Romania was free. The following year, the seemingly monolithic Soviet Union collapsed as well.

Today, there is a small plaque on the side of the church building in Timiasoara. It reads, “Here began the revolution that felled a dictator.”

This newspaper opined last week that “Communism didn’t matter – economics and trade trumped everything.” I was sure I had misread the piece so I reread it several times. No mistake; “communism didn’t matter.”

  The editorial was entitled Repeating History and was drawing some parallels between the Vietnam War and the current war in Iraq. I’m going to give the editors the benefit of the doubt that they were speaking about Communism only in terms of how it affected us in the United States.

  When we look back upon the history of the 20th century, we see that communism mattered a great deal to many in the world. It mattered to the 6 million people of the Soviet Union who were starved to death by Josef Stalin. Communism mattered to the 3 million Chinese who were murdered under Mao Tse Tung’s so-called Agrarian Reform.

  And Communism certainly mattered to the 3 million Cambodians slaughtered under Pol Pot after we pulled out of Southeast Asia. All totaled Communists murdered 100 million people in the 20th century.

  Today Communism is trying a 21st century Extreme Makeover. Hugo Chavez was democratically elected in Venezuela and has been systematically socializing the country. He nationalized (that’s Commu-speak for stealing) Citgo Oil Company and is using its huge profits to buy favor.

  It’s working. Chavez was recently voted dictator of Venezuela and the country’s congress will not even bother to meet for the next two years. He is heavily courting Cuba with the obvious aim of setting up a puppet government after Castro dies. Chavez attempted to buy a seat on the Security Council of the United Nations last year and was only narrowly turned back.

  Meanwhile, the largest Communist nation in the world, China, has completely embraced capitalism and is rapidly becoming the world’s second Superpower alongside the United States. Last month China successfully tested a missile that blows up satellites in orbit. The possible uses of such a weapon are obvious but, of course, the Chinese promise they will never use this weapon for military purposes.

  In all of these countries, personal freedom and especially religious freedom is extremely limited. House church leaders in China are being jailed everyday. Venezuela is steadily increasing its pressure on Christians and most missionaries have already left the country. Cuba continues to be one of the world’s leaders in suppressing freedom of religion. One of my good friends just spent a week teaching Christian leaders in Cuba and was forced to stay indoors and out of sight to avoid detection.

  Communism is based upon a values system of atheism and collectivism. In other words, there is no God and all rich people should be murdered. So Communism matters very much.

  The Christian response to Communism has always been to proclaim the message of Christ to those who are bound by it. In the darkest of places, the light shines brightest. Alesandr Solzhenitsyn and Watchman Nee are examples of those who suffered for years in Communist prisons. Both emerged with a strong faith in Christ and a message of love for the world. And that certainly matters.