Jim Wallis has it right when he wrote a book titled "Why the Right is Wrong and the Left doesn't get it." The task of the church is not to be aligned with the powers of this world, but to be a corrective and a call to action. Certainly christians should be active in the political sphere, living our beliefs and changing the world. Yet there is something off-putting about followers of one who refused the temptation to rule the world going and trying to rule the world.
It is a balancing act. Even though I disagreed with a number of his positions I thought Danforth got it. So does Wallis. But some of the more recent activities of Christianists, such as promoting their own version of prayer in schools or equating Intelligent Design arguments with science, just aren't the right thing to do. Christians of good character disagree on abortion, stem cell research, end of life issues, homosexuality, war, and many other issues. To say that one religious party or political party has the answers is to avoid the questions that Jesus set before those who claim to be his followers.
Who did Jesus condemn? The religious and political leaders. Who did Jesus support? The outcasts and poor. The answers to what we are called to do are simple and take a lifetime.
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