THE INTERESTING DEBATE & CORRELATIONS OF RELIGION & POLITICS

         I have some very dear friends who belong to a wide variety of denominations, creeds, branches of philosophical thought, etc., whatever you want to call these so-called Christian dogmas or other.  I also have dear friends who are Buddhist, Hindu, Mormon, Catholic, and assorted to what I would refer to as “cults” from a pure Scriptural perspective.

         So, if I am to define the word “cult” I go to a detailed definition.  A “cult” is a political or religious group or movement defined by great devotion to a person (the Pope, Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy, even your local pastor or priest, etc.), idea or interpreted dogma, or ritual (the “you have to do this to be one of us”—the secret handshake of faith and trust), often involving strict control, isolation, and a charismatic leader as we see in the progressive evangelical movement and other denominational religions—no different than political friction and drama.

         I believe in the Great Commission of teaching and training people to go out and teach the Gospel according to the Scripture.  I watched my dad do it, and quite often it broke his heart when a man would feel led to leave the church and start another in another location.  We become close, spiritually and personally, to these fine men, but I have ZERO control over what God directs them to do in their calling and I consider it a success that God used me to spark their intellect and quest outward.  The ONLY authority in our church is God’s direction and the Truth found in the accuracy of the Scripture.

         In both religion and politics there are coercive or philosophical groups that will use pressure, manipulation, and even psychological mind control framed in guilt over its members.  Money, control, power.  Hence, why I am libertarian and non-denominational.  For me it is the struggle between pathos and logos—emotion versus fact/truth.  The money, control, power struggle is very real, especially for those who want the money, control and power.  This leads to isolation in cutting off friends, family, and even society—but that is also a Scriptural direction from James 4:4 that tells us as Christians that friendship with the world is hostility toward God.  But what if your church is in cahoots with the world?  What if your church compromises to raise people over the teaching of Jesus for money, control, and power?  What if your church picks and chooses what they want from the Scripture?  For me, no different than those progressives who want to revise the Constitution with activist courts or rewrite history.  It’s just so uninformed in my educated view.

         The concept of rituals is interesting to me as both in religion and politics, they are all dogmatic performance art.  I do NOTHING for show, but to teach, train, and educate in brilliance in the Scriptural basics.  The Bible, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, all sincere and deeply inspired documents to benefit the masses—and of course with a deep Deist sense.  Rituals were formed by man, so I hedge away from them.

         In my Christianity I want no idol to make me think that I have to go through that to get directly to God.  This is why Jesus died on the cross and the temple veil was torn apart—all for my free access to God through Jesus.  I have ZERO requirement to pray to Mary or some random “saint” or statue established by man.  I have ZERO requirement to read additional guidebooks over the Bible.  My requirements are simple—READ and follow the Scripture in its entirety…no additions or subtractions as per Jesus’ directions to John in Revelation.  Our current Canon was formed around 400 AD, long before the council of Trent or Nicea and my church was foundationally formed on Jesus and the teachings of the apostles in the epistles.  Only two generations after Jesus.  I will stick with that as it has lasted for thousands of years.

         You see, the “cults” want to add to, take away, replace, disregard, misquote…and the list goes on.  Be my guest, pray to Mary (who had a ton of kids after Jesus—the Walton’s of Nazareth), a statue of a saint (I have not read where the trinity delegates any prayer requests), a crucifix of Jesus on the cross, heck, read the book of Mormon that elevates humanity to the status of Jesus, read the perverted words of the pedophile in the Koran…heck, read them all.  As for me, I kneel before an empty cross because in Jesus’ resurrection is where I derive my faith and power.  Truth is difficult for many as so many want to wallow in the ignorance of pathos versus logos.  Last time I checked, Jesus was pretty clear, and He is the ONLY way to the father.  Go to church to learn and KNOW and digest your Bible.  Anything else is like Democratic Socialism…it just isn’t right and sadly you won’t feel it until Satan slams the door on your cage for all eternity.

         I’m pretty intent on being a teacher, pastor, leader of a church as God intended, absent of money, control, or power.  You see, the power and control comes from God, we just have to submit to it.  Just Scripture.  Money comes and money goes, but I have yet to read a demand from Jesus on percentages or wages for those in service to Him.  There are a TON of what I call “Judas Christians and Judas Corporate Pastors” out there spanning all of the cults, and yes, the denominations and evangelical campuses, who are more worried about the money than they are service to their Lord and Master.  Think about it.