40 days towards a more godly nation - Jesus Is Involved In Politics

capture and kidnapping that had prevailed until then. I kid you not! 52
Don’t forget too, the laws that outlawed social injustices like:
1. Infanticide
2. Child marriage
3. Temple prostitution
4. Forced prostitution
5. Child prostitution
6. The superstitious killing of twins 53
7. Women as second class citizens
8. Abandonment of elderly in the wild
9. Revenge killings 54
13. Animal cruelty
10. Honor Killings
11. The abuse of children
12. The purchase of wives
55
14. Sale of children to pay family debts 56
15. The abuse of prisoners
16. Killing special needs/deformed kids.
17. Child labor 57
18. Gladiatorial combat
19. Death games
20. Bribery
21. Selective gender abortions
22. Cruel and unusual punishments
23. A man’s right to divorce his wife for
any reason vs. only adultery. 58
All these were stopped by laws that came about due to Christian
political action. We could go on, as there are thousands of laws in all Christian
and post Christian cultures that were based on just the moral values of
Christians. Notice that all of these battles were for actual rights, not goods.
This was not “economic” justice. But true moral justice. People’s God-given
rights were being violated and the Church stepped in to stop that injustice.
They didn’t step in to equalize results and bring about socialism.
What’s more relevant to pastors and Christians is that, most of the
changes in these laws started because of a sermon from the pulpit of a church.
It wasn’t something that the Church shied away from. Christians and churches
who were involved in politics took it upon themselves at great costs to change
the law and their societies. The same societies that now assume that all those
values are self-evident and forget the very people and the very religion, which
brought those just and moral laws into existence. All these laws took years and
years and numerous heartbreaking tries to implement and they only came about
because Christians and their pastors took a stance publicly, politically, legally
and judicially and just as important financially. Don’t forget that all these laws
were fought and rejected over and over again by those very same societies that
later embraced these ideals. And in each case, there was a huge backlash of
unpopularity and malice against these particular pastors and their churches.
Wilberforce was one of the most unpopular, reviled and hated men in England
during his campaign to free the slaves. Do you think pastors should have not
spoken about the horrors of slavery in churches in those days lest racists be
turned away from the gospel?
For a list of the ways Christians have used politics to change society
see Alvin Schmidt’s, How Christianity Changed the World (Zondervan 2004).
52 stason.org/TULARC/travel/nordic-scandinavia/2-5-6-Christian-and-pre-Christian-laws.html
53 www.dundeecity.gov.uk/slessor/
54 #9, #10, #11: www.newadvent.org/cathen/09066a.htm
55 The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was started by William Wilberforce.
56 #14 and #15 Cod. Theod., lib. III, tit. 3, lex 1, and Cod. Theod., lib. IX, tit. 3, lex 1
57 Alvin J Schmidt, How Christianity Changed the World Zondervan, 2004 pg. 142.
58 Cod. Theod., lib. III, tit. 16, lex 1; Cod. Just., lib. V, tit. 17, leg. 8, 10, 11. This law protected women
from being left destitute. But it was sadly overturned in the US with No-Fault Divorce.
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