LEAVE IT TO CLEAVER: The Gospel - Red or Blue?

The gospel is neither “red” nor “blue.” Our country is inundated with red and blue political chatter. To the blue folks, red folks are considered to be too religious. Conversely, those who are red see blue folks as not being religious enough.

The genuine gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is no other gospel Christianity can believe or advocate. It is the center of the Scriptures and the center of historic Christianity. This is the simple gospel — yet unfathomable in its ramifications for me, my family and even my world. Sometimes, we Christians stray off with a different idea of the gospel — a path molded by cultural traditions or political ideology.

Perhaps Christians are ranked red or blue by how many services they attend weekly, the version of the Bible they read or the songbook (or no songbook) they sing from each Sunday with attending drums, guitars and other instruments (or no drums, guitars and other instruments).

Too much or not enough religiosity is not the standard for judging other Christians. If we assess like that, we have based our gospel on our cultural or political assessments. We have muddled being religious with believing and living the gospel.

Apostolic words speak to us regarding this matter: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ” (Gal. 1:6-7 NIV).

Let’s have the heart of Jesus to be Christian — not religious — in the matter of spiritual liberty. There are clusters of people in every religious circle who masquerade as authorities to issue tickets to be a part of their culturally correct or politically correct religious consortium — red or blue.

Executive Editor’s Note: This article was first published in the Nov. 13, 2013 issue.