I think most of you know that in addition to being a pastor I have worked in the political realm in Washington since we moved here in 1987. First as a congressional staff member and then with the Governmental Affairs Office of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). In case you aren't familiar with it, NAE is the conservative alternative to the National Council of Churches (NCC). Both are umbrella organizations made up of whole denominations, individual churches and various parachurch organizations, and while the NCC is generally for the old-line liberal denominations, NAE is for those who yet adhere to the historic, biblical faith. In current theological parlance, those who still embrace the historic, biblical faith are called "evangelicals." Some confuse this with "evangelists," which refers to people who try to win others to Christ in a major way (which is but ONE of numerous major tenets embraced by "evangelicals").

Anyway, NAE, like most other major religious communities, established a Washington office to represent the interests of our community to the federal government, which increasingly intrudes into the lives of Americans, including their religious lives. As an active pastor, I grew increasingly concerned at this growing intrusion into the corporate life of the church, into parachurch ministries, and into the life of individual religious believers. One big example, was the effort to deny Christian students the right to meet for Bible study or prayer in non-curricular hours and on a voluntary basis. Every other group had this right without question, and religious groups have had it without question for most of our national history. As the secular tide has grown stronger, anti-religious zealots have felt embolden in their efforts to drive religious faith out of the public arena, to the back of the social bus as it were. Neither NAE nor most other evangelical organizations wish to have government impose our faith through force on other peoples' children, but neither do we want our own freedom of religion denied by the government or to have a virulent secularism and hostility to religion imposed on us and our children.

In the face of this academic denial of religious freedom, the religious community, including NAE, worked several years ago to get the Equal Access Act passed into law. It restored equal freedom to students of faith. But, secular educators and their allies challenged it in court and the Supreme Court issued an 8-1 endorsement of equal treatment for religious students. It shouldn't have even been an issue, but that's the nature of the cultural battle we are in now; it shows the value of a Christian presence in Washington. This is what drew me, a pastor, to this arena. I don't have any illusions about salvation through politics, but neither do I discount the powerful effect government can have in suppressing the work I care about, the work of the church. Paul worked his own Roman citizenship aggressively in the service of his faith, and I think we should do the same. Government is ordained of God to establish civil order by force. It can be abused, as it was under communism in Russia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere to the severe detriment of our faith. We would be fools to refrain from using the legitimate powers of our earthly citizenship to protect what we cherish most, to preserve our freedom to go on evangelizing, preaching, meeting, and educating our children in faith. All five First Amendment freedoms are needed by the church to operate, and our government is charged with respecting them. History shows repeated state eagerness to suppress them.

People usually say that the two things you don't talk about in polite company are religion and politics. Rushing in where angels fear to tread, I do both; both matter, greatly. I'm a churchman first and foremost, and for that reason I wish to do all I can to preserve the freedom of the church to do its great work That freedom is not a given; it must be protected. Christians who disdain government should remember that God ordained it as His "minister" (Rom. 13:1-7), and that we worship a King, upon Whose shoulders is "the government"! -Tim