Setting the Record Straight: Michele Bachmann, Francis Schaeffer and the Christian Right

The Rutherford Institute: Setting the Record Straight: Michele Bachmann, Francis Schaeffer and the Christian Right: This distinction between Rushdoony and Schaeffer may seem like a minor point, but to rational individuals who understand, as [the Washington Post's Lisa] Miller does, that "Evangelical [Christians] do not generally want to take over the world," there is a world of difference between those who subscribe to Rushdoony's Christian Reconstructionist views and those who fall more into Schaeffer's camp.

. . . the Christian Right has made big gains politically in the past several decades, the Christian involvement in politics has produced little in terms of definable positive results spiritually. After all, political action as a cure-all is an illusion. Although it is a valued part of the process in a democracy, the ballot box is not the answer to humankind's ills. And, in fact, Christians who place their hope in a political answer to the world's ills often become nothing more than another tool in the politician's toolbox.

Francis Schaeffer understood this. As he advised in A Christian Manifesto, Christians must avoid joining forces with the government and arguing a theocratic position. "We must not confuse the Kingdom of God with our country," Schaeffer writes in A Christian Manifesto. "To say it another way, 'We should not wrap Christianity in our national flag.'" As history makes clear, fusing Christianity with politics cheapens it, robs it of its spiritual vitality and thus destroys true Christianity.

The founder of Christianity understood this. Jesus did not seek political power, and He did not teach Christians to seek it either. Jesus spoke truth to power and it cost him his life. If Christians really want to follow Jesus, this will necessarily mean that they will often be forced to stand against the governmental and political establishment in speaking truth to power, as well.