Radio Broadcast 14 August 2005 – Talking Points
Series - Is Freedom Christian
Program – Participating In Government

CW – For the last few years we have seen an increase
in Christian interest and participation in the
political process. This began to happen after more
than a decade where a great many followers of Christ
seemed to think doing more than going to the polls on
election day was somehow unchristian.

Ford – Yes, the waking up of conservative Christianity
has been very unsettling, especially to the political
left. Theo-phobic politicians like Tom Harkin have
remarked about Christian broadcasters calling them “a
sort of our home-grown Taliban.” He went on to say
“They have a direct line to God. And if you don't tune
into their line, you're obviously on Satan's line." He
sees the political activism of people who believe the
Bible as representing a threat to the liberal, and
ungodly agenda.

CW - Radio broadcasters most often reflect the
dominant opinion. I am glad Harkin and others might
suspect us of having a direct line to God.

Ford – Well, if you are not on God’s line you are on
Satan’s. There is no middle ground with God. A
substantial number of Americans, over 70 percent,
believe in an “all powerful, all knowing” God who
rules the universe. While many of these do not have
beliefs about God consistent with the Bible a great
many do prefer going to churches whose pulpits are
built on the Rock of Ages. 

CW – During this broadcast we want to talk about how
far Christians should go in participating in
government.

Ford – And I think it is good that we declare right up
front that it is biblical that Christians be fully
participatory in this American government, which
includes not only taking political stands but also
running for elected office. One of the reasons I
supported Alan Poole and Corey Allen in the last
election was that both of these declared their
Christian faith to be central to their desire for
public service. We need Christians in places of
leadership throughout our society. Samuel Adams said:
"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws
will secure the liberty and happiness of a people
whose manners are universally corrupt." We have no
hope of influencing people in our society to be moral
and upright without the leadership that is moral and
upright in all areas, not just religious ones.

CW – The last Pope forbade priests from running for
elective office. How does that square with what you
have just said?

Ford – The Roman Catholic religion also declares
everybody else to be separate from the true faith and
anathema. The truth is Rome has been more and more
separated from true Christianity since the fourth
century. The history of Rome’s persecutions of
Christians, of which the Inquisition was a part,
demonstrates this. Last year they had some of their
people come out with a declaration that the
Inquisition was not really so bad. I suppose if you
were not the people who were having breasts torn off,
genitals mutilated, and being thrust through with hot
irons you might not consider it bad. But true
Christianity cannot afford to forget Rome’s history,
neither should it give relevance to the pontiff’s
opinions.

CW – But the issue of having another Catholic on the
Supreme Court was raised with this last nomination. In
their argument a Catholic Supreme Court Justice might
be influenced by the pronouncements of the Pope.

Ford – When democratic candidate John F. Kennedy ran
for President, conservatives voiced the same concern,
but were told by the liberals that we had become too
advanced as a nation to respond to such arguments. Now
when the conservative nominee is a Catholic the shoe
is on the other foot so to speak. What is not readily
apparent is that some of the people in Congress who
have raised this issue are themselves Catholic. If
they are concerned about the Pope’s influence let them
first resign from their own offices.

CW – But isn’t the issue of whether another Catholic
should be on the Supreme Court really tied to the
argument being raised that conservative Christians
should stay out of politics?

Ford - You have a point. There are some people who
would deny conservative Christians not only the right
to run for elective office but also the right to even
vote based on our faith in God, our belief that we
should live by the teachings of the Scripture, and a
declaration that there is a higher power that rules in
the affairs of men. Christians who are acquainted with
the true history of America, and most of these are
middle aged or older, know that this nation was
founded as a Christian nation and that it can only
continue to exist as the land of the free and home of
the brave if that higher power is acknowledged and
honored in the land. There are some people who want to
change this land, even people now currently serving on
the Supreme Court. Frankly I am more concerned with
Supreme Court Justices who cite foreign law in
rendering opinions than with the religion of some of
the Court’s members.

CW – But you want religion to influence government.

Ford – I want the Christian religion to influence
government. The clause which says Congress shall make
no laws regarding an establishment of religion was to
keep government from establishing a State religion, it
was to keep government out of religion, it was not to
keep religion out of government. Thomas Jefferson is
quoted out of context to try to promote the separation
of church and state we have in effect today. The
separation liberals want in America is founded in
communism, not the utterances of our founding fathers.
John Adams in his Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal
Law, made in 1765 eleven years before the Declaration
of Independence said:
"Let the pulpit resound with the doctrine and
sentiments of religious liberty. Let us hear of the
dignity of man's nature, and the noble rank he holds
among the works of God... Let it be known that British
liberties are not the grants of princes and
parliaments."
	This declaration by one of our founding fathers and
the second President of the United States are not the
words of a person who thought Christianity had no
place in government but rather that of a man who knew
that 
“Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain
that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the
watchmen waketh but in vain.” Psalm 127:1

CW – I think you are right. Islam did not establish
America.
Buddhism did not establish America.
Hinduism and Confuscianism did not establish America.
It was Christians and the God of Christianity that
made America.

Ford – One of the questions not addressed when we talk
about why liberals want to disenfranchise Christians
is what is their real motivation in doing so, what are
they so afraid of?

CW – What do you believe that is?

Ford – Christianity stands as the restricting force
upon the establishment of their power and the taking
over of the freedoms we enjoy. It not only keeps them
from that agenda and hinders the establishment of a
New World Order, it restricts them from being able to
freely practice their ungodly behaviors and lusts, as
well as impose their perversions upon others. 
	It is not just the likes of the sodomite Barney
Franks who has something to fear from Christians
taking back America, and restoring sanity and morality
to our institutions and laws. A great many of those in
Congress and in the judiciaries across the nation have
cause for concern should Christians become a majority.
So many who come to Congress in order to promote their
ungodly agendas and self serving purposes would find
themselves in trouble should practicing Christians get
in control. 
	These people who, whether elected or appointed to
public service claim they should not be criticized
because they are patriotic Americans too. I have but
to remind you of what George Washington said in his
Farewell Address in 1796 to put the lie to that. He
said: 
"Of all the dispositions and habits which least to
political prosperity, Religion and morality are
indespensable supports. In vain would that man claim
the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert
these great Pillars of human happiness." In other
words if you are against religion or morality you have
no right to call yourself a patriot.

CW – Okay, so now give us some biblical evidence that
Christians should participate in government.

Ford – First of all let’s take a couple of New
Testament biblical/historical evidences. We can take
look first at all at the example of Paul who, unlike
most Jews in the Middle East was a Roman citizen. He
used the fact he was fully a citizen of Rome to insist
on his rights under that citizenship. This gave him
opportunity to use his rights to preach the Gospel to
people in authority who might have only heard about
the Gospel, not heard the Gospel. 
Our second New Testament example is the performance of
the Sanhedrin. Who used their position and the rights
granted them by Rome to do what they could to preserve
the Jewish people. Granted the Sanhedrin’s leaders
used this privilege wrongly and poorly, but they did
work within the situation they found themselves.
	Then we can go to the Old Testament, and look at
examples of participation within governments also not
within the State of Israel. Daniel and the three
Hebrew children who were placed into the fiery furnace
all became officials in Babylon. Nehemiah who was
responsible for the rebuilding of the Temple and the
city of Jerusalem was a trusted official within the
Medo Persian empire. As the kings cup bearer he
literally had the king’s life in his hands.
	Joseph became second only to pharaoh in Egypt. Esther
and Mordecai served king Ahasuerus, and I could go on
with others. The biblical/historical record was that
followers of the true God served within governments
with God’s blessing upon their service.
	Then we come to the direct written word of God. It is
recorded that Jesus said “render unto Caesar the
things that are Caesar’s,” and people have used that
to say we should pay taxes. But when you have a
participatory democracy rendering those things also
includes participating in the democracy.
	In 1 Peter 2: 13-16 we read: 
Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the
Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme Or
unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for
the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of
them that do well.
For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may
put to silence the ignorance of foolish men As free,
and not using your liberty for a cloak of
maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
People read this passage and see only submission. They
are willing to take the low road and submit even to
that which is ungodly rather than realize that by text
and example Scripture also teaches that when the
ordinances of men contradict the Word of God, we ought
rather to serve God than men. In a participatory
government we not only have the right to be the people
who write the ordinances and enforce them we have the
duty to do so, to be the governors if you will. After
all, the Lord Jesus Christ said “occupy till I come.”
That means you take the ground and hold it.

CW – That is a very interesting view and one I think
many of our listeners have never heard before. 

Ford – Our pulpits have been silent about a great many
issues to which they should speak while liberal
pulpits are noisy about that which they know not.

CW – Okay, give me an example of a place conservative
pulpits have been silent and liberal pulpits noisy.

Ford – I can give you an example in the same area.
During my lifetime mainline and fundamental Christians
in the united States have been staunch supporters of
Israel. They realized God meant it when He said of the
Jews “those that bless you I will bless and those that
curse you I will curse.” 
When the President came up with the Roadmap for Peace,
conservative Christians were silent in condemning it.
Anyone who knows anything of Israel’s dealings with
the Palestinian people know that never has any
proposition of concession ever succeeded. Forcing the
Jews to give up territory won in war is shortsighted
purely from the standpoint of logic. Arab perfidy or
faithlessness to every promise they have ever made is
proof of this. From a biblical standpoint it is
forcing the Jews to also give up land that has been
promised them by God. The silence of our pulpits and
God’s people has allowed much suffering and sorrow to
be inflicted in recent days. Will God hold us
accountable for this? I fear so.

CW – The giving up of the territory has also put
Israel’s security in jeopardy.
Now give me the liberal side of your example.

Ford – The pratings of liberal pulpits always blame
Israel for everything. Most of them try to claim
Replacement Theology in some form or other to justify
their beliefs. They want to replace Israel as the
inheritors of the promises of God to them. They are
going so far as to promote divestment from investment
in Israel. The program will hurt American businesses
as well as the Jewish people. 
Divestment was shortsighted when it was used against
South Africa as a tool for inflicting economic
warfare. It ruined the South African chromium
business, gave the people an old communist terrorist
as their leader and has caused us to have plastic
grills and bumpers instead of good chrome plated ones
on our cars ever since. But you can trust liberals to
never learn the lessons of history and when they go
contrary to their purposes they will attempt to
rewrite the story to make themselves look good.

CW – That is interesting give me another.

Ford – How about an example of government
encouragement of liberal Christianity and persecution
of conservative Christianity?

CW – Okay, that sounds good.

Ford – When liberal candidates go to liberal churches
and speak that is okay. It as a common practice for
liberal candidates to make the rounds at liberal and
political activist churches. But when conservative
churches have conservative candidates, or speakers who
have a conservative but politically sensitive message,
they are often threatened or investigated by the IRS.
The government through the IRS has sought to instill a
spirit of fear into conservative churches. And, as you
have experienced in your own ministry, they have
succeeded in making people who should be standing for
what is right to retreat from truth.

CW – Yes, I have experienced the fruit of compromise
in a church that has forgotten how to stand for what
is right.
 
Ford – Recently a man named Peter Toon wrote an
article called “The Stimulus of Silence.” He argued
that Christians have forgotten the value of silence in
the sanctuary, meaning they have forgotten how to be
still and let God work in them. He did not address the
“stimulus of silence” in the pulpits and Christian
lives. When we are silent about the things going on
that is wrong, we give the world, the flesh, and the
devil a stimulus of silence that encourages evil to go
forward. This dishonors the cause of Christ. Even
early Christians who were already under persecution
for their faith, were not so gutless as so many of our
church leaders are today. And the early Christians
truly had their lives hanging in the balance.

CW – The Word of God says that we should cry loud and
spare not.
What you are saying is that Christian leaders have a
duty to preach and teach more than just the plan of
salvation.

Ford – Doing what is right in regard to our
participation in government is not a replacement for
the preaching and teaching of the Gospel of salvation.
It is part of the living out of the Christian journey
toward our home in eternity. This is one part of what
it means to live the Christian life, that we should
stand for what is just and preserves our liberty to
serve God in a wicked and fallen world that loves us
not.

CW – Yes! We are citizens of heaven journeying toward
a land that we have never seen before. It is our
Promised Land, just like the Jews were promised a land
to be theirs forever.

Ford – Right we have dual citizenship. We are citizens
of America, and citizens of heaven. This should not
scare people whose hearts are set on that which is
right and good. 
There are a lot of people who have dual citizenship in
countries of this world. For instance, military people
whose children are born in Turkey, have dual
citizenship in that country and the United States.
When I was living in Turkey my wife became pregnant.
We arranged to leave a couple of months early so the
baby would not be born with dual citizenship. I had
known of one family who had a child born in Turkey,
and when the father was assigned back there about
seventeen years later, the Turkish government tried to
draft the son into the military for the two years of
obligatory service all citizens must serve. We left
early to avoid such an entanglement. 
Having dual citizenship in heaven and America should
not be seen as a problem for any person because there
is no law against the fruits of the Spirit that should
be manifested in Christian lives. The service of the
believer to God and the service to the Nation will
never be in conflict as long as the nation is right,
and if it is not right it is our responsibility to cry
loud, expose the problem, and bring the country back
into the right path it should go. As Titus Brandsma,
who died in 1942 at the Dachau concentration camp,
Poland, said: "Those who want to win the world for
Christ must have the courage to come into conflict
with it." – We should never hesitate from doing our
duty because it is unwelcomed by the worldly or
uncomfortable for ourselves.

CW – Well thank you Dr. Ford. You have certainly made
it plain that Christians in the United States should
be politically active.
concluding remarks…
IN CONCLUSION I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE YOU THE TOP TEN
THINGS I THINK WOULD HAPPEN SHOULD CHRISTIANITY AGAIN
TAKE ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE IN AMERICAN GOVERNMENT:

1.THE ACLU WOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO ANY MORE INTERFERE
WITH CHRISTIAN LIBERTY.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS CONTROVERSY WOULD GO AWAY.

2. DISCIPLINE WOULD BE RESTORED TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND
THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES WOULD BE TAUGHT.

3. MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHO ARE INVOLVED IN UNETHICAL
OR IMMORAL BEHAVIOR WOULD NOT BE SEATED.

4. JUDGES WOULD BE APPOINTED WHO BELIEVE IN STRICT
INTERPRETATION OF THE CONSTITUTION AND WHO WOULD NOT
ATTEMPT TO LEGISLATE FROM THE BENCH.

5. BABIES WOULD NOT BE MURDERED WHILE STILL IN THE
WOMB.

6. ISRAEL WOULD HAVE AMERICAN SUPPORT AND THE
PRESDENT’S ROADMAP FOR PEACE PLAN WOULD BE
ABANDONED.

7. THE U.S. BORDERS WOULD BE SECURED AND ILLEGAL
IMMIGRATION STOPPED.

8. AMERICAN RESOURCES WOULD BE TAPPED AND GAS PRICES
WOULD DROP RADICALLY, (IF WE WERE BEING CHARGED A FAIR
PRICE FOR GAS IT WOULD BE ABOUT THIRTY TO THIRTY-FIVE
CENTS PER GALLON)

9. THE U.N. WOULD BE EJECTED FROM NEW YORK.
THE BUILDING WOULD BE DEMOLISHED AND THE LAND USED FOR
SOMETHING USEFUL.

10. OUR T.V. AND RADIO COMMUNICATIONS WOULD SEE THE
PORNOGRAPHY THAT IS CURRENTLY POLLUTING IT REMOVED.

I BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN FIND JUSTIFICATION IN THE
TEACHINGS OF SCRIPTURE FOR EACH OF THE THINGS IN MY
LIST.