Much of Christian anxiety about the sad state of the nation comes from the ridiculous notion that the nation was based on “Christian” principles and supposedly was and ought to be again a "Christian" nation. This is wholly inaccurate both historically and theologically. We can't expect people who are not Christian to live by Christian values, especially when the reprehensible behaviors and rhetoric of so-called Christians offers so little that is compelling.
When you hear Dobson saying those kids died because of God's judgment, that doesn't make a very compelling case for God, does it? Do you really think Jesus would make such a statement? And would you want to follow a God who did?
We can stand around on Sunday morning singing about how deep is the Father's love, but it is noticeably absent on Monday. On Monday many of those who claim Jesus fade chameleon-like into their surroundings and don’t stand out, don't look anything like Jesus, and are apparently not too bothered by it. Jesus didn't command his followers to fix the government, he commanded them to make disciples.
I think a more successful strategy for making disciples includes assuming at the outset that, like the first century world, we are surrounded by and in the midst of and called to witness to a pagan culture that hungers for deliverance from evil. And we make disciples like Jesus does: by compassionate action, by forgiveness, by healing, and by loving with a self-forgetting, self-sacrificing love. This is what the Jesus of the Bible looks like. If we are his followers, we ought to look like him.
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