"And in my opinion (along with the opinion of others), many Christian leaders became way too politicized during the years of the Trump presidency, virtually wrapping the gospel in the American flag and conflating patriotism with the kingdom of God. Still, almost 8 out of 10 respondents said that pastors and Christian leaders should not just "preach the gospel." They should also comment on relevant social and political issues. That's because the gospel intersects with every area of life, from our sexuality to our marriages, from our homes to our workplaces, from our educational institutions to our entertainment, and from the streets of our cities to the halls of our government." - Dr. Michael Brown
Again, your respondents are irrelevant. The fact that any Christian thinks that "just preaching the Gospel" is wrong, tells you all you need to know about the church today. As for the intersection, this is where Brown and the NAR constantly go off the rails. The bible does indeed intersect at these various points in our lives. It does speak to how we should represent Christ in the workplace. It does define our sexuality and marriages. It does even speak to education and entertainment in our lives. Politics however deals with the corporate good, not the individual beliefs. For example, we may feel convicted if we watch profane movies as entertainment because we know we are supposed to be holy as He is holy. The intersection is between the bible and our lives. To extrapolate this out politically means telling everyone else that they too should feel convicted even though the things of God are utter foolishness to those who are perishing. The cold hard fact is that dominionism is so embraced because we get to tell others what horrible sinners they are and thus avoid having to look in the mirror. The other interesting sleight of hand being played here is between the word bible and Gospel. Dominionism is in the business of telling the world to behave as the bible outlines. The lost do not need to hear the bible as a set of legislative priorities. They need to hear the Gospel. It may sound like a nuanced argument but it really is not. The lost need to hear about the Savior. Yes they need to hear about sin and repentance but that is not Brown's argument here. His argument is we need to legislate repentance, which will never work.
"It was in that spirit that Jesus rebuked the hypocritical religious leaders of His day, men who were scrupulous in keeping the tiniest religious obligations but had lost sight of the more important issues in God's sight. He said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint and dill and cumin, but have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone" (Matt. 23:23).
This doesn't mean that pastors should spend most of their time discussing critical race theory (pro or con) or preach about the border wall more than they preach about the cross." - Dr. Michael Brown
I would really like to hear what percentage of pulpit time is acceptable to Brown for pastors to preach about the border wall. Seriously. Do you honestly think that Jesus died on the cross so we could all hear John Hagee's insane ramblings about our border with Mexico? So what is the magic formula? Is it 65% the cross and 35% about the virtues of giving tax breaks to the rich? Let's even say that it is 90-10. So nine times out of ten people will hear about the cross, the blood and have a chance for the spirit to convict them of their sins. That's great but it sure must suck for those who came during the week you preached about the righteousness of capitalism or the differences between hard infrastructure and human infrastructure. Are we getting the point? People who come to church need to hear only one thing and that is the Gospel. The things lost to the Pharisees were hardly political. They were about the spirit of the law. About how we treat one another.
"But it does mean that the gospel intersects with culture. In fact, if it doesn't intersect with culture, it's not the gospel, since the gospel is all about the Lord laying claim to the totality of our lives. And that means that, wherever we go as children of God, we are called to conduct ourselves in accordance with God's principles. (This doesn't mean forcing others to conform to those principles. It means they are principles we live by.) Put another way, how can the command to love the Lord with all our hearts, souls and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves not intersect with culture? That would be like saying that rain can fall from the sky without intersecting with the air." - Dr. Michael Brown
Quite another sleight of hand Brown is trying to pull off here. Of course we are to intersect our lives with those around us but that is not intersecting with culture. The verse tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves but nothing about forcing them to believe and behave as we might. As followers of Christ, His teachings should infiltrate the totality of our lives. Jesus did not then give us instructions to go and correct the education system and install mandatory school prayer. He did not command us to go into all the world and conquer Hollywood so that all movies would be made by the Kendrick brothers. He instructed us to go into the world with the Gospel message. The message that Jesus can save them from this world and their sins.
"In keeping with these thoughts, some of the comments posted in response to my poll included:
