COMMENTARY: The raised fist vs. the outstretched hand of love

Using the yardstick of 30 years per generation, it may be that we’re coming to the end of a generation in which political power was the primary preoccupation of American Christians. I’m dating that from the birth of the Moral Majority back in 1979, which led to other conservative power structures over the rest of […]

Using the yardstick of 30 years per generation, it may be that we’re coming to the end of a generation in which political power was the primary preoccupation of American Christians. I’m dating that from the birth of the Moral Majority back in 1979, which led to other conservative power structures over the rest of the 20th century, such as the Christian Coalition in 1987. What would this past generation have accomplished if their leaders had chosen the open, outstretched hand of love instead of the raised fist of political clout? Would Christians be more admired by our fellow citizens than today’s polls tell us we are? Would we have made more progress in changing this nation? More importantly, where will America be in 2038 if today millions of Christian men and women dedicate themselves to being a generation of love, helping their nation in a way only they can?

(Doug Mendenhall, author of “How Jesus Ended up in the Food Court,” is a columnist for the Huntsville Times in Huntsville, Ala.)


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