Republican National Chairman Michael Steele says abortion is a choice, homosexuality is not

Republican National Chairman Michael Steele says abortion is a choice, homosexuality is not: "I think that's an individual choice (to have an abortion)."

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Does Mr. Steele really support abortion (as the article suggests)? I don't know what Mr. Steele thinks by reading this no context excerpt. Probably he meant that having an abortion is a choice as opposed to no choice in being Gay (as the title suggests). Feel better now? This morass will be difficult for Mr. Steele to sift through. Looks like a rock and a hard place if I ever saw one.

Evangelicals are cutting themselves, donning sackcloth and digging through the ash pile. Their political clout (for all the good it ever did them) is slipping away. Now what will God do? This is tragic indeed. God's nation going broke (I thought it was Israel but whatever), God's political party straying in theology (I though they had platforms but whatever), what next? Maybe it was not God after all and our efforts and energies (as least our loyalties) were misplaced. The more grieving I see, the more convinced I am that the Kingdom of God is a foreign land to many Christians in the US of A. The Kindom of God is internal (resident within us) and the world experiences it only as it spills out of the Body of Christ into the earthly Kingdoms. Yes, there have been times when God sovereignly moved in revivals and altered the landscape, but these times are not the norm. When Christ returns He will establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. Until then we would be well advised to recognize the two kingdoms and keep them separate. "Be ye separate," where have I heard that before?

Time to drag out those old Greg Boyd sermons perhaps (the ones that got him into so much trouble with politically active Christians and earned him the Heretic Award ... again). Maybe he did have something valuable to say.

Link to Pastor Boyd's opinions.

Personal Big Huge Opinion: Pastor Boyd is probably more right than wrong in many ways. Tough calls abound. Was opposing slavery politically the right thing. It would seem so. Yet Biblical instruction is given to slaves to be the best slave you can be, obedient to your masters. No revolution? Some condemn the Bible because they see this as supporting slavery. But is it not more clearly the expression of the two kingdoms. One kingdom ruling in earthly fashion, the other influencing through being salt and light. No one said it was easy.

It appears history verifies the impossibility of creating and maintaining a Kingdom of God political structure. The result of mixing the two eventually serves to corrupt the Kingdom of God aspect while leaving the power seeking political firmly intact. Men seek their own way, their own power. The unseen "powers of the air" seek their own way, their own power. Citizens of the Kingdom of God would seek to relinquish all power to a perfect and just God. So what would that even look like in a political system today or any day? Can Democrats or Republicans or Libertarians or Communists/Socialists pull this off. Who is even trying, what political platform has God at its center. Our "big tent" politics needed to maintain power would not even know which god to head for. Is it the pantheistic god of the Hindus, is it Jesus or transcendental energy or all of them in Bahia fashion.

Sounds like the world is in a mess. The answer is and always was and always will be a resounding YES. Yes until the return of the Messiah to set up His kingdom for ever and ever. The Good News is we can gain citizenship in the Kingdom of God in the here and now through faith in Jesus Christ. What good does it do now? If you are a US citizen living in a war zone or prison camp John McCain style, the advantages are not always physically evident. You still get shot, beaten and your bones broken. Are there not similarities with being a citizen of the Kingdom of God while living in the here and now? Differences exist also. Kingdom of God benefits for here and now citizens certainly exist in ways beyond what earthly citizenship can offer. But the more concerned we are about our benefits the less likely we are to see (as in recognize or understand) the Kingdom of God.

Still, the Bible has plenty of advice on how to live our lives in the here and now. This advice carries its own reward. But is this that same living in the Kingdom of God? For instance the Bible suggests low or no debt is advisable. So if we have no debt, is that one aspect of the Kingdom of God? Some call it a "Kingdom Principle." To be sure in this day of financial problem we can see the wisdom of no debt. And there were those who believed in no debt and cared nothing about God. Are there people walking in the Kingdom of God and care nothing about him? And then there is Donald Trump, Mr. Leverage, the Debt King and the envy of many. Can debt be so bad if it can make you so rich?

Maybe the answer lies in our focus. Certainly low debt is a less stressful way to live. But is avoiding stress a Kingdom focus? Is it possible to desire no debt because God said it. Can we pursue no debt through our desire to obey the King? Can a simple debt issue be a test (ours not His) of our Love for Christ, not in the doing of it but in the why of doing it? Maybe two people can be doing the exact same thing but one is doing it for himself and the other is doing it for God. One would then be in the world and the other in the Kingdom of God in that aspect of his life. Or to put it another way, two can be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and the other left behind. What we do under God's leading and guidance because God is worthy of our loyalty and commitment is Kingdom of God stuff. Change the focus, change the kingdom.