As a pastor who has tried for some years now to get American Christians to use their God-given resources as citizens of this nation, I've encountered resistance for a number of reasons. One I've heard often has to do with the quite understandable burden believers feel to support missionary endeavors. As one who has himself engaged in domestic missions, founding three new churches in the Atlanta area in the 70s and 80s, I'm very sympathetic with the need to support the expansion of the church at home and abroad. The US, founded in a major way by missionaries, has been a glorious base for world wide missions for several centuries now, sending huge numbers of people and massive amounts of material goods abroad to spread the gospel. Pres. Calvin Coolidge acknowledged this missionary output in his Inaugural Address, saying America had sent armies abroad, not armed with the sword but with the cross. But, as with so many things, we cannot afford to make the issue an either-or proposition, forcing ourselves to choose between active citizenship at home and mission work abroad. We must do a minimal amount politically here at home to preserve our freedom and financial ability to do massive works abroad. It is clear that the missionary base, the freedom and well-being of the domestic Christian church, is under siege now from an increasingly secular state. Let me point out some connections between our domestic struggle and our foreign, missionary enterprise.

First, there is a growing chorus here in America that is trying to recast the tax-exemption of religious works as a "subsidy," and therefore illegal under the "separation of church and state" notion which passes today as the First Amendment. It's a peculiar idea, I think, to say that what the state doesn't take from you is a "subsidy," but such is the goofy thinking abroad in the land today. While Christians would continue to give if they lose the ability to deduct their charitable contributions, there is little doubt that the amount would seriously decline. This would surely affect the ability of the church to support foreign missions and cause many congregations to put the more limited resources into their own domestic, survival operations. Our active and vocal presence in the American political scene is the best assurance we have that public officials, who control tax exemption, will not tamper with it.

Second, there have been increasing efforts to tax church property. The latest being the effort in Colorado a couple of years ago. Secularists are miffed that churches don't pay property taxes and ceaselessly work to change the laws. I appeared on TV a number of times during that time to defend the need to keep the church free of Caesar's control. The power to tax is the power to destroy, remember. For some churches in Colorado, the property tax would have been more than the whole church budget, putting them out of business completely. If the state confiscates church monies, clearly many will have to suspend support for foreign missions in order to survive at home. Again, our active, vocal presence in public life and at the ballot box is our best protection, and the massive efforts by Colorado Christians defeated that effort.

Third, the church, like the Boy Scouts and other values based organizations, is being assaulted by gay rights groups and others who wish to force their moral agenda on the church by state law. I've mentioned the '92 New Jersey gay rights law which did not exempt churches, either in their employment practices OR their sacramental and worship services. If the church and/or its ministers must face civil or criminal sanctions for adhering to the Scriptures then clearly religion will have a tough time sustaining its operations here and support works abroad at the same time. In short, we cannot let the domestic base of foreign missions be destroyed, and the minimal amount of public effort I call for can preserve it. But rest assured that if it falls, the global, missionary beacon built upon it will fall too. --Tim