We’ve seen a swirl of articles in the Gazette about the El Paso County Republicans being on life support, its ineffectiveness in the last three – now four – election cycles, when compared to the domination of the Democrats and left… I certainly have my thoughts on that, but I deeply believe we have a much deeper problem set.
In my second run for City Council last April, I began to discern disturbing trends. At first, I began to think that the demographics of our city has swerved left. Many churches in our city faced the pandemic the same way they faced recent elections, believing this shift to the left ought to be pacified in order to coexist with it.
Let me be blunt, using the words of Eric Metaxas from Letter to the American Church;
“What we face is not a nation state that imprisons its citizens within its walls, but one that forwards the ideology of atheist Marxism.”
Too many ‘religious’ voters and churches in our city have moved from the pandemic scramble to lying to God with ‘fig leaves’ of theological statements.
Bonhoeffer wrote about a religionless Christianity as the German church swerved into accommodating the Nazis. For all the analysts who missed the mark when they tried to interpret this, Bonhoeffer was bluntly saying that religion is the problem as we wring our hands and try to coexist with the left. We need a religionless Christianity that stands with every fiber of its being against evil, give it no quarter, and that kicks away traces of dead religiosity and fear based pieties.
Watching the spin cycle of this last election – the fourth one in a row that real conservatives lost in our city – the crowing democrats proclaim that our city is hurtling fast toward the ideology of atheist Marxism. They won’t say that in so many words, but that is their destination. As for the ‘religious’ voters who joined with evil to elect a bunch of unknowns and crypto socialists, I’ve never seen Christ Followers and the Devil join together for victory.
A recent example is that the Democrat Party dominated state legislature recently passed SB23-190, the forced abortion bill. For all their hollering about a woman’s right to choose, they took away a woman’s right to keep her baby should she change her mind after taking an abortion pill to terminate her pregnancy. The state Democrats were so anxious to attack religious liberty that they passed a law making it illegal for a woman to choose to continue her pregnancy.
Many of the City Council Members and candidates for both the council and Mayor claim to be conservative, and all claim to be concerned for women's rights. We’ll see if they put their money where their mouths are, when a resolution is presented to City Council to deny this law in our city, using home rule powers. The county commissioners have already passed a resolution condemning the law.
The real truth is that shifting demographics and political persuasions did not win this election for the left. Instead, our lukewarm church and ‘religious’ voters proclaimed religiosity and remained silent, handing it to the left in the spirit of coexistence.
If there was ever a modern-day moment that imitated the Lukewarm church of Laodicea from Revelation chapter 3, this is it. All of this comes together on the issue of life. As a people, we have a cultural document in the Declaration of Independence that proclaims, “We are endowed by our creator with Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The Constitution is a legal framework that protects those rights by protecting the innocent, defending the defenseless, and rescuing the poor from wickedness.
Standing on these principles – especially on the issues of life – seems to be fading into the fog of religiosity. The left will accuse us of being pro-life extremists, but all it takes is the courage that comes from the refusal to be lukewarm. Or will we, like 12,000 lukewarm pastors in Nazi Germany, hang back and see how the wind blows? And in our inaction let evil prevail?
Isa 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
In our Laodicean / Colorado Springs church day, it’s hard to know what’s bitter and what’s sweet…
Jay Inman (I go to The Road @ Chapel Hills where our Pastor proclaims TRUTH as a person)
Back home from celebrating 41 years with the love of my life, on a long drive around the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, and Glenwood Springs.