The car that I generally drive has cruise-control. Typically, when I drive on the interstate I set the control for the posted speed, and go about my business. It appears to me that most of the traffic passes me, except . . .
From time to time it looks like many of the cars around me hit a stiff head-wind or had sudden engine trouble. I find myself passing cars that just passed me doing ten or fifteen miles-per-hour more than the speed limit. A check of my speedometer shows there isn't a malfunction. Generally, I quickly see the reason for the sudden drop in speed--a police cruiser.
It is a powerful illustration of the limitation of governmental/police power. By and large cops can only make us do what is right. Force, intimidation, fear of negative consequences are the tools at their disposal. I don't mean that to be negative, I'm glad they have those powers, but these tools have serious limitations. As I have pointed out in the past, if our culture becomes one in which people only do right when they are made to, we'll have to have one police officer for every citizen, and then one supervisor for every cop. You can see the collapse coming with that paradigm, can't you?
The church, God's people, on the other hand, have a message that addresses the problem of evil in a different way. The Gospel has the power to change hearts. When the grace of God changes people they do what is right without being made to do so. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Christians never do wrong. Unfortunately, our record is not as good as I wish it were. Still the difference between the motivation of those who get a good dose of the good news and those who are in the rat race with the conscience of a rodent is stark.
Yet many Christian leaders are focusing on political victory. Part of living right is to responsibly exercise our political responsibilities and freedoms, but political power should not be our main goal. We have a power far greater.
It's STTA.
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