A Better Investment Strategy
June 30, 2009
“Congress shall make no
law respecting an establishment of religion; or
prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or
of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Government
for a redress of grievances.” 1st Amendment, US Constitution
I have said it many times before to
friends and acquaintances and I will say it again and again as necessary;
as a devout Christian woman I am convinced that religious groups and high
profile religious leaders should not participate in our partisan political
system. Now if they participate as individual citizens then even
those leaders can and should be involved to the level their world view
allows.
I have many times heard James Dobson
of Focus on the Family in a radio broadcast ask for funds for some political
purpose. Back in the day Jerry Falwell was exhorting the Moral Majority
to rise up against a political activity du jour. Pat Robertson would
often plead with the 700 Club to send money and you can add the late Dr.
D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge to the list of those begging funding for
political action. Massive letter writing campaigns as well as political
advertising have been funded by the contributions.
It seems as though every time I turn
around someone is raising funds within the Christian community to support
this and defeat that based on a Biblical World View. Potentially
my position on these actions would cause some to brand me as apostate or
a heretic but I strongly believe that basing any law of our country solely
on any religious tenet is wrong. I have stated many times in
my adult life that it is forcing another equally free citizen to live by
my religious beliefs and in that process his First Amendment Rights are
violated.
The antithesis to be proffered to my
view is that because this country was founded by Christians, then everything
in the Constitution should be recognized as Bible based. That position
is as much of a stretch as someone arguing that freedom of religion is
concurrently a freedom from it as well. The founding fathers chose
the words of the First Amendment carefully as they were focused on the
prevention of a mandated state religion being adopted because that was
exactly what they escaped from by coming to the “New World.”
In preparing for this rant I tried diligently
to "Google" some estimated or actual total of money spent by the religious
right for various issues. Anything approaching a total eluded me;
however I did discover that Dobson and his Focus on the Family donated
well over $600,000 to fund the passage of California Proposition 8 to strike
down the marriage of same sex couples.
Now don't make the mistake here that
I am espousing the elimination of DOMA (The Federal Defense of Marriage
Act) because that is not the case. It does not matter which issue
I would have chosen because my premise would not change in the slightest.
I will reiterate that the many religious
groups have no business influencing politics and will continue to say it
until I am heard or run out of breath. Surely there is a better
use of Focus on the Family’s $600,000 and other countless funds?
I can’t help but believe that providing the annual funding needed by missionaries
or for an evangelical outreach would be the highest, best use!
During the same research cycle I also
attempted to find out what it cost to send a missionary to the field.
I was not any more successful generally, however, I did discover that a
native missionary could be funded for $50.00 per month and with Focus on
the Family funding them would result in 12,000 voices preaching and reaching
souls for God’s kingdom. The amount needed to fund a missionary
family from the U.S. can vary from $25 to $50k per year.
Remember again that huge dollar amount
Dobson sent to California? With that amount of money 13 to 22 people
could be funded as evangelists. Would it not be a better spend than
just buying advertising? Twenty-two individuals circulating in a
community would move many to support the Christian principles the proposition
was trying to put into operation and they would do that of their own volition
not because a law demanded it.
We need more evangelism
and less advertising!
