Reply #21: I have a problem...

[jeepnstein]

with congregations that take on these political campaigns. It's a thinly-veiled attempt by a political party to mobilize their conservative base.

As a "conservative" Evangelical Christian I object strongly to anyone injecting the politics of the world into Christ's Church. The Christian Church has a mission statement and it goes something like this...Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV)

"16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.""

We have enough work to do without taking on someone's pet political project.

If a church feels it needs security measures, they should take them but not make it some kind of "Security Theater" just to draw in a crowd. The scriptures give us all the instruction we need on this topic in Luke chapter 22, 36-38

"36He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. 37It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors'; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment."

38The disciples said, "See, Lord, here are two swords." "That is enough," he replied."

Any congregation, conservative or progressive, that takes up worldly political campaigns instead of preaching God's Word isn't much of a church.