Christian Citizenship - General
- Jun 26, 2006 - comment
Mark Twain wrote in an article published in Collier’s Magazine in 1905, “Is there such a thing as Christian citizenship? No, but it could be created. The process would be quite simple, and not productive of hardship to any one. It will be conceded that every man’s first duty is to God; it will also be conceded, and with strong emphasis, that a Christian’s first duty is to God. It then follows, as a matter of course, that it is his duty to carry his Christian code of morals to the polls and vote them. Whenever he shall do that, he will not find himself voting for an unclean man, a dishonest man. Whenever a Christian votes, he votes against God or for Him, and he knows this quite well. God is an issue in every election; He is a candidate in the person of every clean nominee on every ticket; His purity and His approval are there, to be voted for or voted against, and no fealty to party can absolve His servant from his higher and more exacting fealty to Him; He takes precedence of party, duty to Him is above every claim of party.”
“If the church is to be the church in a darkening age, it must take its stand on the solid ground of biblical revelation and the historic confession of Christian truth. Another word for this is orthodoxy or dogma. While it seems the dry and dusty stuff of theologians, dogma is actually the only bulwark that allows the church to both judge itself and stand fast against the currents of cultural trends. Secularism advances . . . only as orthodoxy retreats. As surely as we yield the ground staked out for the church, the barbarians will advance to claim the terrain.”
Charles Colson, Against the Night (Ann Arbor: Servant Publications, 1999), 150.
During the summer of 2005, nearly 2,000 Southern Baptists invaded New York City for the second installment of the Paint the City project—part of New Hope New York, a Strategic Focus Cities emphasis of the North American Mission Board (NAMB). The project began in 2004 with approximately 500 volunteers who went to New York at their own expense to paint several schools. This past year, the project was expanded and, prior to the beginning of school, the volunteers had painted nine schools in the Bronx, one in Harlem, and two on Long Island. The focus is on fixing up the schools that are in the worst shape. All work must be done between one week after the end of one school year and one week before the beginning of the next school year so that teachers have an opportunity to get into their rooms before classes start.
Each volunteer pays his or her own travel and lodging expenses and contributes $100 toward the purchase of supplies and equipment to be used. In 2005, the Benjamin Moore paint company donated two thousand gallons of paint and offered additional paint at a reduced price. The free paint was enough for two schools.
Painting schools is not the only focus, however. The volunteers also conducted six block parties for local residents and 25 sports camps. They also shared their faith with anyone who gave them an opening by asking “what are you doing here?” More than 200 are known to have received Christ—possibly many more since figures are not yet completely tabulated.
Gary Frost, director of missions for Metro New York Baptist Association, said, “Paint the Town is proving to be what I call the doorway to the soul of the city. Southern Baptists are perceived by many in the Northeast to be fundamentalist Bible-thumpers. This project really allows us to be seen as who we are: compassionate people who love Christ and each other.”
Karen L. Willoughby, “Paint the Town: SBC Volunteers Reflecting and Proclaiming the Love of Christ in NYC,” (SBC Life), February-March 2006
(Note: for information on how you may become involved in this or other projects, visit NAMB’s Bridge Web site. Click on “take me to The Bridge” near the bottom of the page.)
Lord Robert Baden-Powell founded the Boy Scouts in England in 1907. The organization had its beginning in America in 1910 as the result of Chicago publisher William D. Boyce who, while lost in the fog on a trip to England, was aided by a Boy Scout to find his way. Boyce was so impressed he met with Baden-Powell to discuss bringing the organization to America. Since then, millions of boys have had their ethical and moral character shaped by the Scout Oath and Scout Law that insist on preparedness and moral straightness.
The Scout Oath, which every Scout memorizes, says, “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” The Scout Law says, “A Scout is: Trustworthy, Obedient, Loyal, Cheerful, Helpful, Thrifty, Friendly, Brave, Courteous, Clean, Kind, Reverent.”
“Notwithstanding, the Boy Scouts of America has been under nationwide attack by the American Civil Liberties Union by multiple lawsuits against the Scouts for their refusal to admit overt homosexuals as Scout leaders and for the Scout Oath to do ‘my duty to God and my Country.’ The ACLU’s hate-litigation attack increased in ferocity after the Supreme Court ruled in 2000 in the Dale case that the Scouts have the right to set their own standards for Scout leaders.
“Many schools and other local government bodies have withdrawn sponsorship or support for the Boy Scouts due to the chilling affect of the ACLU’s lawsuits or threats of lawsuits—including threats to seek court-ordered, taxpayer-paid attorney fees—on the ACLU’s claim that the Scouts are a ‘religion’ because of the Scout Oath, and any governmental assistance is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
“Although most Americans would conclude on a common-sense basis that it is preposterous to contend the Boy Scouts are ‘a religion,’ the ACLU convinced a like-minded lawyer sitting as federal judge in Chicago to hold that Department of Defense assistance to the annual Boy Scout Jamboree—which every president of the U.S. has supported—is a violation of the Establishment Clause because the Boy Scouts is a ‘religion.’
“Congress responded to attacks on the Boy Scouts by passage of the bipartisan Support Our Scouts Act of 2005, which President Bush, himself a former Cub Scout, signed into law on Dec. 30, 2005. It provides that the Boy Scouts cannot be excluded from governmental facilities, programs, or forums . . . The Boy Scouts, despite the drain on its resources in fighting the hate-litigation of the ACLU, has refused to abandon the Scout Oath, or the Scout Law, or its standards in fulfilling its mission to serve youth.
“‘The purpose of the Boy Scouts of America is the same today as it was 96 years ago,’ states Chief Scout Executive Roy L. Williams. ‘Scouting has remained constant and true to its mission and helping them learn to make better decisions throughout their lives.’”
Rees Lloyd, Scouts Anniversary Week & ACLU Attacks (WorldNetDaily), February 9, 2006
While the Boy Scouts has remained true to their beginnings, the Girl Scouts has veered left. Rather than maintaining its early roots, it has “only grown more brazen lately in its embrace of radical agendas—with some of its councils openly promoting homosexuality and encouraging young girls to interact with abortion-minded groups like Planned Parenthood . . . At its 50th annual convention held in Atlanta last October, for instance, the Girl Scouts featured Kavita Ramdas—president of the Global Fund for Women, which lobbies for ‘safe and legal’ abortion—as a keynote speaker and role model for thousands of young women.
“Perhaps, with Girl Scout membership totaling about 4 million, the groups’ executives feel impervious to conservative parents’ concerns. But what they may not realize is that their unrelenting liberalism is spurring a counterrevolution.
“Within the last five years, thousands of girls have defected from Scout troops—exchanging their brown and green outfits for the more patriotic red, white and blue uniforms of the American Heritage Girls (AHG).
“Billing itself as a ‘Christ-based’ scouting alternative for girls 5 to 18, AHG was birthed from a kitchen-table discussion among a few Christian moms in West Chester, Ohio, who wanted their daughters to have wholesome outdoor adventures intermixed with biblical lessons.
“In 1995, they launched their program with just 100 girls and 10 troops. But thanks to the Girl Scouts’ leftward drift, in recent months AHG has exploded into a nationwide movement. At press time, it had at least 5,000 members, forming more than 150 troops across 32 states.”
Excerpted from Candi Cushman, Godly Girl Group (Citizen magazine), January 2006
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