Here in Canada we are rapidly approaching a federal election. The aptly-named Liberal Party has been in power for the past three terms and has been the predominant party in Canada since the 1960’s. Tired of the terrible corruption and lack of morality in the party, many Canadians seem to be turning on the party in favor of the not-as-aptly-named Conservative Party (now known as the Conservative Alliance). The majority of Christians will be voting for the Conservative Party because of their more traditional stands on the issues of homosexual rights and abortion. This is not to say that they will make any great changes to Canada’s laws in these matters, but at least they will slow the slide into the moral morass.
Many Christians are being drawn by the Christian Heritage Party. This is a fringe party that seems to show up every election and draws a few hundred votes in the various constituencies where they have a respresentative. Christians are drawn to this party simply because of their name and the fact that many of the party members are professed Christians. The party does not have a solid platform. Frankly, the party does not need a solid platform as they have less chance of winning the election than the Green Party or the Marijuana Party. Christians seem to think that if only this party were to gain prominence and maybe even gain power, the country would turn back to God.
It occurs to me as I consider how to vote in the approaching election that God does not tell us that political parties are His means of promoting change in a nation. God has ordained that the nations change through the preaching of the gospel. If we want to see Canada change and return to her Christian roots, we, as the church, need to take our responsibility to preach the gospel more seriously. It is the church that is the hope of the world and not any political party!
Of course I see many Americans similarly equating the Republican Party with Christianity and the Democratic Party with anti-Christianity. I am sure you could find more Christians in the Republican Party than in the Democratic Party, and were I American, I’m sure I would vote Republican, but again, do remember that a political party will not make the change your country needs. The responsibility is yours!
You and I and other believers really are the hope of this world. It is up to us to take the gospel to our nation and to other nations. We are the respresentatives of Christ on earth, not as members of political parties, but as ambassadors of He who is Sovereign over this world.
