4 And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.
5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
7 Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king--Jesus."
I think it's certainly remarkable that one of the leading influencers in media today had two high-profile Christian commentators as guests on separate online programs recently. Former Fox News juggernaut Tucker Carlson hosted Douglas Wilson, Pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho and Megan Basham, former WORLD Magazine writer who now works with the Daily Wire.
The two discussions certainly had their common threads, but it seems to me that the redefinition of what it means to be a Christian was front and center.
The Business and Politics website quoted Carlson, before bringing Basham into the discussion, said, regarding so-called progressives:
“If you’re interested in who they really hate, we’ll look at what’s happening,” he began. “So Christian churches across the country have been burning and no one in the government is doing anything about it.”
“Look at how Christian churches were treated during COVID. Strip clubs stayed open, weed dispensaries stayed open, liquor stores stayed open, but Christian churches were closed because public health,” he added.
He mentioned Paul Vaughn, described in the article as "a pro-life activist who faces 11 years in lockup for singing and praying outside an abortion clinic."
Tucker, whose degree of spiritual practice is not readily apparent, but who seems to have an openness to spiritual things, said, “So if you are a faithful Christian, not a fake Christian...but an actual Christian of the kind this country has always had, of the kind this country was created to harbor, actually you are seen as an enemy by the people who run it..."Carlson and Basham discussed the Rob Reiner documentary, God and Country. Megan noted, according to the Business and Politics piece:
“They are calling evangelicals, particularly evangelicals who engage in the political process, a threat to democracy,” she said. “So they are 32 percent of the American electorate. The Atlantic quite rightly called them in 2021 America’s most powerful voting bloc. So they’re right about that. They are essentially the only obstacle that we still have to the left wing agenda.”
“So there’s been a very deliberate effort, and this film is part of it, but it is just a drop in the bucket, to be quite frank, of an entire cottage industry that is saying if these people, these evangelicals, continue to engage in the public process to try to influence their neighbors through their vote, through free association, through using their free speech by, you know, get out the vote efforts, anything like that, that’s dangerous and scary,” she added.
She went on to say:
"What it essentially does is say, here are bad, scary Christians, and they include in that bucket, by the way, everyone from Billy Graham to Mike Pence to the Unite the Right rally, which was led by Richard Spencer, an atheist.”
“So it’s essentially saying all these guys, Jerry Falwell, John MacArthur, all of them, they’re the same as Unite the Right, which in itself is bonkers to even try to create a parallel there. So that,” she added.
The film reportedly uses left-leaning Christian voices to paint their fellow Christians as a threat.
The Carlson episode featuring Wilson, according to The Christian Post, hit the common theme that Christians who believe in applying Biblical principles to the cultural involvement are somehow threats to that culture; the article noted:
Wilson observed how progressive secularists are broadening the definition of Christian nationalism to encompass even those who simply believe their rights come from God, which he noted is a label that would apply to Thomas Jefferson. He remembered that Politico journalist Heidi Przybyla defined the term earlier this year as anyone who believes "that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don't come from any earthly authority."It went on to say: "Wilson...traced the uproar over Christian nationalism to the same attitude that has prevailed since the days when Christians in Rome were thrown to the lions for affirming the exclusive claims of Christ by refusing to confess Caesar as Lord."
The Christian Post article goes on to say:
He also discerned there is no political road to restoring a system based on Christian presuppositions in a nation that is no longer Christian, and that because America is suffering from a disease that is both "radical" and "spiritual," there can only be a spiritual remedy.
"Basically, we're in such a mess that there is no political solution, alright? We're beyond hope. There is no political solution. The next election, however happy it might make us for 10 minutes, is not going to fix everything," he continued.
Returning America to a Christian worldview is a responsibility that falls on preachers "who will stop being ashamed of the name of Jesus, and preach the Gospel as though it's supposed to spread out into the streets after the service," he said.
There is tremendous power that the body of Christ has - we have been placed in an enormous place of influence. There are many who are responsible for the departure from the ways of Scripture that is occurring. Some would say we have an onslaught of unrighteousness in our land today. But, what would happen if the Church really became the Church? Devoted to following Jesus, speaking and living according to truth, involved in being a true Christian influence in our culture? What a difference that would make.
Truth is, the gospel changes hearts. More hearts changed, more people living according to God's ways - that equals a tectonic shift in our society. We become frustrated with our leaders for imposing a secularist worldview on the population - what if we raised up that standard of righteousness.
It's true, politics can not be relied upon to make lasting change. So, evangelical Christians are found to be sitting elections out in survey after survey. But, political activity can help - if believers became more involved in the process. Yet, you have so-called "Christian" leaders who propose to tell Christians how to vote, but they themselves do not exhibit Biblical principles. We have great potential to be a force for good in our society; question is, how are we using it?
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