This video has been making its rounds on Facebook. I hadn't watched it, just assuming it was another overly-hyped video that had gone viral around my Christian-saturated Facebook world. But so many people commented on it, that I finally sat down to watch it.
I'm so glad I did. I love it. This is TRUTH. And the part that I love the most is that it is spoken word. Poetry. Art.
I'm sure God is pleased with how this guy is using his gift. Preach it, brother.
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So I saw this a few weeks back myself, and he definitely speaks the truth. However, it's so hard for me to get back into it after the first few sentences. Perhaps someone can explain to me why a great video about being a true Christian opens with "Republican is not equal to Christian?" What does a political party have to do with the rest of the video?
Based on the remainder of his spiel (that people think that they're Christians because they say or do "X" but aren't), it would follow that the point he's trying to make here is that "some people think they're Christians because they're Republican." Wow. I sincerely doubt that that is an epidemic. More likely, many Christians think that they must be a Republican because they're Christian, not the other way around.
This just doesn't fit the rest of the speech, and feels like a jab when it could just as easily have been omitted, or made more generic. If separating Christianity from politics was his goal here (still, not fitting with the rest of the presentation), then it probably would have been even MORE appropriate, given his young audience, to say that being a DEMOCRAT doesn't equal being a Christian.
It's true that the "Christian Coalition" of years past endorsed the Republican party and may have offended politically-liberal Christians. I guess that makes this "backlash," but it seems hypocritical to respond by doing the same thing in reverse.
Bear in mind that Christians have typically supported Republicans in years past due to social issues such as abortion and gay marriage, and hopefully economic issues as well, if they understand how their beliefs should play out politically. I'm registered Republican, but only out of a lack of options - I'm much more conservative/libertarian than the current iteration of the GOP, and have arrived there after much (prayerful!) consideration, and years of in-depth study.
I'm going a bit too deep for a comment here, but I'll close with this: the founding of our nation stems directly from the Enlightenment, from the splitting of the Protestantism from the Catholic church. Principles such as a constitutional republic, limited government, and free markets spawned from the concept of natural rights, which, of course, spawned from Christianity and Protestantism in particular. The GOP is far from these principles, but not so far as the Democrat party.
Not to say that socialism and other so called "liberal" policies aren't valid theories and worth discussing, even among Christians, but that there is nothing wrong with being a Christian who is politically conservative (especially economically), or *gasp* a member of the Republican party.
In conclusion, this video would be 100% more effective if it didn't alienate more than half its audience at the onset. :)
Excellent point, Teddy. I totally agree!
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