Thanks to Joe Carter’s, The Evangelical Outpost, I discovered Hugh Hewitt several months ago. When I saw his book In, But Not Of linked on his site, I was very intrigued and immediately purchased it. Here was a book written by a man that is a professing Christian and worked in Reagan’s White House. How could I resist the opportunity to delve a little deeper into two subjects that interest me very much, religion and politics?
Below are some chapters that really struck a chord with my heart:
IN, BUT NOT OF: A guide to Christian Ambition and the Desire to Influence the World
Chapter 6 - LEARN HOW YOU GOT HERE
This is what you need to get down: the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, the English, and of course, the Americans
My New Reading List:
JEWS
Thomas Cahill – The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the way Everyone Thinks and Feels
GREEKS
Steven Pressfiled – The Gates of Fire
Steven Pressfiled – Tides of War
ROMANS
Colleen McCullough – The First Man in Rome (series of 6 novels)
ENGLISH
Winston Churchill – A History of the English Speaking Peoples (4 volumes)
AMERICANS
Paul Johnson – Modern Times
Chapter 43 – CONFLICT IS PART OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
Jesus was very much the perfect example of love and forgiveness, but he was as blunt as anyone in the world, as clear as anyone in history, and uncompromising on the key issues.
…there is a personal gospel and a collective gospel; a gospel of how we are to bear injuries to ourselves and one how we are to react to injustice done to others. The cheek must be turned when injuries are done solely to you. But conflict has to follow whenever evil is done to the innocent.
The obstruction of truth and justice has always been something that I was passionate about. Even before I became a Christian, I was always searching for truth and regularly angered by unfairness. Of course my compass was off a bit then, but it is always pointed at the true north now, Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 26:3-4
You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD , the LORD , is the Rock eternal.
The perfect peace that is spoke of here happens on a personal level, when we rely on the Lord to be our rock and our hearts are fixated on Him always. This is much like the personal gospel that Hewitt speaks of in this chapter. While the perfect peace of the nations will never fully be realized until Christ’s return, we are to practice the collective gospel and preach the personal gospel to the nations (Matthew 28:19-20).
Chapter 44 – CHRISTIANS ANGER ONLY RARELY AND ONLY RIGHTOUSLY
Politics, for example, is really controlled mental combat, and like the real thing, mental combat brings forward anger on a regular basis.
Better never to display anger than to display it too often. Ask your friends and spouse: “Do you recall any occasions on which I was really angry?” If everyone has a story or two to tell, and all the stories are different, you have overplayed anger and have a problem that needs correcting.
But if no one can recall your ever being angry, ask yourself whether you are really engaged in any pursuit to which you are passionately committed.
This is an area I believe that I regularly struggle. As I noted above, anger over injustice is something that stirs my heart greatly. I have not asked my friends or family this question, because I believe I already know the answer. My life is full of things that I am very passionate about and I rarely am left sitting on the fence. I regularly need to remind myself of the need to show my gentleness (Philippians 4:5) and be slow to anger (James 1:19-20).
Chapter 48 – THE OBLIGATIONS OF A BELIEVER
The keys to influencing the world are discipline, persistence and patience. The key to influencing the world in the right way is the gospel.
This is exactly what I believe the Jollyblogger has been driving at with his posts of late. I could be wrong, of course, but Hewitt adds to this message below.
Christians are called to defend the church, and that means politics. That means voting and campaigning and contributing – at a minimum. A politically inactive Christian in the United States is turning his or her back on the church in the world, especially its most persecuted parts. This uncomfortable fact obliges you to get involved in the often repellent work of politics.
This is something I held to be true even before reading the book, but I just couldn’t have put it into these words. This happened often while I read In, But Not Of, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I would encourage anyone to read this book. Whether you are Christian or not, there are many valuable lessons that can be applied to your life.
Posted by price at July 20, 2004 03:23 PM