In the contemporary culture of mass media with the emergence of talk radio and the development of the blogosphere, the national conversation concerning politics is now constant and widespread at the same time. Christians are in on the conversation and more than that, exert their influence in a variety of ways. Of course, this state of affairs continues to raise questions concerning Christian political engagement. Those questions are intensified with the approach of each new election cycle. At the same time, with new issues confronting Americans (and indeed the world) on a daily basis and with an aging set of evangelical figures in this arena, conservative Christians find themselves at a crossroads. That crossroads is not only critical in terms of the future influence of evangelicals in the political sphere, but also in terms of the evangelical soul.

According to the AP, “as they court the evangelicals who have become so crucial to their party, Republican presidential candidates are stepping into the middle of a family fight. Christian conservative activists are more split than ever over whether to keep the movement's focus on abortion, marriage and sexual chastity - or scrap that approach as too narrow. The founders of the religious right, now in the twilight of their leadership, see even the suggestion of expanding the agenda as a dangerous distraction.”

“‘It's an ongoing debate within the house of evangelicals,’ said Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative Washington think-tank. ‘It's about how evangelicals present themselves in the public arena.’ In November, some Christian conservatives condemned pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren for inviting Sen. Barack Obama to speak at an AIDS summit at his church. Obama, campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, supports abortion rights.”

“Just this month, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and 24 other top Christian conservatives pressured the National Association of Evangelicals to silence its Washington director, the Rev. Rich Cizik. The reason: Cizik tried to convince evangelicals that global warming is real.”

“The board of the association not only stood by Cizik, it then moved on to endorse a critique of U.S. policy toward terror detainees called ‘An Evangelical Declaration Against Torture: Protecting Human Rights in an Age of Terror.’ Evangelicals, who mostly have a conservative world view to match their theology, rarely speak out against the policies of a Republican president - especially one at war.” Of course, these dynamics serve to highlight the disturbing situation in which we find ourselves.

First, the debate within evangelicalism over whether to expand or narrow the focus is shameful for at least two reasons. The first reason has to do with the nature of Christian obligation in general. Christians must speak to every issue. Since when can we remain silent on something because it doesn’t suit the larger political agenda? The Christian worldview is not something to be pulled out like a weapon. It is not a particular angle on a particular issue. It is not a decision to be made in the back room of a political organization masquerading as an agent of gospel advance. The Christian worldview is the way a Christian views the world. It is the lens through which he sees all of reality and that lens is the bible. As the bible informs his understanding of God’s world, he speaks for God to the issues of life in an effort to call persons to repentance and faith in Christ. To set aside certain issues for political purposes is to look at God’s world and man’s plight with one eye closed and represent them both in half-hearted way.