Neil
Mammen
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we get to the 4th of July this year, I've been doing some research on the state
of the Nation at its foundation. The 4th of July is about the signing of the
Declaration of Independence[1]
and at that occasion we had 56 signers who consisted of 2 deists, 2 Unitarians and
52 Christians[2].
Many of whom had seminary degrees and many of whom were full-fledged pastors
representing their colonies. That's a 96% representation by Christians.
Now
most of us have imagined that it made sense, that this large percentage of
Christians in politics represented the colonies. I.e. we think the 96% of the
founding fathers most probably represented the 96% of the population who were
Christians. After all, weren't most people Christians at the time?
So
based on that we conclude that it’s natural that we'd have Christian
politicians and natural they'd come up with Christian verbiage and Christian
concepts like "the Laws of Nature and [the Laws] of Nature's God,"
and Inalienable Rights endowed by a Creator etc. All concepts embraced by what
we'd think were also embraced by most of the people in the Colonies. So we conclude that that’s why the laws during
the early part of the USA were all Biblically based laws. Finally, most of us
think that since the foundation of the US, the percentage of Christians has substantially
dwindled, till now Christians are a minority.
All
this results with most of us thinking that it makes sense that Christians
should now stay out of politics, for after all, with us being a minority and
the population antagonistic to Christian concepts of morality we should not be
trying to legislate what we think are the Laws of Nature's God. We tend to
think that those of us who are foolhardy to engage in the political fray should
expect an uphill battle every step of the way.
But
this is all founded on what could be a self-inflicted ignorance of History. In
Christians' eagerness to portray Christianity as pervasive in the early days,
we regaled every one with stories of Christian achievement and success. But those
successes were not because we were a majority, but rather because we were an active minority. What we've not
realized is that, if two researchers Roger Finke and Rodney Stark[3]
are correct, in 1776 less than 17% of the nation went to Church or identified
with a church. This 17% number was
calculated using a tediously careful method of analyzing old records by
itinerant and local pastors and parishes. This therefore is talking about
Church membership, that is, who was on the rolls. Today using a similar
methodology that number stands at 42% or more Christians go to Church.[4] There is a far larger percentage of
Christians today than there was in 1776.
Yes,
some may claim that though only 17% went to Church, many more were Christians; but
there is simply no basis for this claim that can be substantiated and one could
say the same today. In fact we know it's mostly the opposite. Many of those who
go to church are not Christians; it was the same back then. One may argue that
many were religious but churches were too far away and that’s why they didn’t
attend. But in actual fact in the frontier states (remember the Wild West was
New York at the time) there was a low population of women (who traditionally
force men to church) and most frontier men didn't care to attend Church. What’s
more interesting is that from 1761 to 1800, 33.7% of all first births in New
England occurred after less than nine months of marriage (D.S. Smith 1985 as
quoted on page 25 of Fink and Starke). Single women in New England it seemed, were
more likely to be sexually active than belong to a church. Only 1 in 5 New
Englanders even had a religious affiliation. (pg. 25, Fink and Starke).
Why
is this all relevant? Well if such a great nation was able to be founded on key
Christian principles when such a small
percentage of the population were Christians, it could only be because the
Christians at that time were willing to get involved in politics despite their
minority status. Note too even with such a low percentage of Christians, most
states were overly populated with Christian politicians so much so that they
even had State Churches. And most of those who did get involved were pastors. What a disgrace is it to us
Christians today when we are a greater portion of the population? (Not that we
want state churches created again, as I mention in the book).
Currently
about 77% of Americans claim to be Christian[5].
But that really doesn't mean anything. Are we a majority today? Certainly not.
So
what is the actual number? Well it depends on which survey you look at. For
instance Gallup says in 2012, 40% of the US attended church regularly; but two
researchers Hadaway and Marler[6]
claim it's really only 20.4% of the population that attend Church regularly when
you count actual heads. However remember using a similar methodology in 1776
we’d also get a small number than 17% i.e. attendees vs. members.
Any
way we look at the statistics, we Christians are currently almost more than and
maybe almost twice the population density that we were in 1776. So, what are we
afraid of? Why are we so timid? Why are we so silent?
Look
at how a tiny population of homosexual activists, (perhaps 3% of the population),
have managed to take over the culture and force our laws to bend to their
desires. Did you know that in 1776 only 1/3 of the colonists actively supported
the War for Independence? Do you see how an active minority can change our laws
and our culture for good or for bad?
Which way do you want it to change?
If
our ideas about freedom, liberty, God given inalienable rights, and Laws based
on the Laws of Nature and Nature's God were convincing back then to non-Christians, why can't we make a case for it now? If Christians were able to create
change as a 17% minority back then, why are we shying away from steering this
mighty ship now?
Their
foe was a huge empire, the greatest and largest empire known to man so far and
far greater than our foe today. Their punishment was death, ours is
unpopularity. Their price was their fortune, ours is our convenience. Their
goal was a new nation, ours is a renewed nation.
What
are our pastors afraid of today that the pastors back then were not?
It
can't be the popularity of our ideas?
It's
time to wake the sleeping giant of the American Church. Maybe you’ll join our
movement.
Neil Mammen
P.S. Some Christian folks may reject this information because it
implies that America was not founded by Christians. But that’s exactly the
point. We were founded by Christians
and on Christian principles, even
though we were in the minority. This fact does not diminish America’s Christian
heritage. It just points to the veracity of the believers back then. What
happened?
Some things you can do
to help spread the message
1.
If you are interested in finding out how you can turn America
back to God, then please join our cause to educate Christians and pastors and
the Church. May we encourage you to do a small group study on the book Jesus Is Involved In Politics in your home
(see the last page of this document)?
2.
See if you and fellow members can convince your pastor to do a
40 Day Series on this book. We've rewritten the original book so it's
non-partisan and comes with a 6 week Study DVD and sermon notes so that
the entire church can learn the principles. We've made sure that your
pastor won't get in trouble with anyone thinking he's promoting one party over
another. All references to politicians currently in power are removed as well.
Find out more and see a 90 page excerpt here that you can give to your pastor: www.40DaysToAGodlyNation.com
3.
Listen to, follow and share Neil's Daily Minute Politics
Broadcasts, it gives you an easy way to start conversations and pass on
information to others. www.J3IP.WordPress.com
4.
Like us on Facebook and
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5.
Post us on Pinterest. www.Pinterest.com
6.
Email your local or national conservative Talk Station or
Christian Radio and ask them to have Neil on as a guest. Direct them to www.JesusIsInvolvedInPolitics.com
7.
Invite Neil to speak at your next conference or rally.
Especially if it includes youth. speaking@JesusIsInvolvedInPolitics.com.
8.
Read the book and then write a positive review of the book on
Amazon
10. Join our mailing list
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11. Spread the word. Invite
others to watch the alarming 4 min video at our website www.JesusIsInvolvedInPolitics.com
[1] Yes, yes, I know some
of the founders actually only signed it later.
[3] Source: "The Churching of America, 1776-2005: Winners and
Losers in our Religious Economy" Finke and Stark. Rutgers University
Press, 2011
[4] Total church membership
reported in the 2012 Yearbook is 145,691,446 members, down 1.15 percent over
2011. http://hirr.hartsem.edu/research/fastfacts/fast_facts.html#attend [With about 313M Americans in 2012 this is
about 46% http://www.census.gov/popclock/]
[5] http://www.gallup.com/poll/159548/identify-christian.aspx
Start a Small Group Study with
The
Jesus Is Involved In Politics Study Guide
The Jesus Is Involved In Politics
Study Guide is designed to help you become an effective communicator of the
theology, apologetics and biblical principles of government discussed in the
book.
It allows you to be a discussion
facilitator without needing to be an expert in the content. The weekly discussions allow you to learn
and internalize the concepts while having fun. It also makes it easy to
introduce your brothers and sisters in Christ to these principles without
having to argue the details. Best of all you can enjoy deeper discussions on
the subtleties of the contents of the book while learning to communicate the
principles in a winsome gentle way.
Goals
The
goals of the study guide are:
1.
To learn how God has assigned
different roles for governments and churches.
2.
To be able to teach others these concepts in a
casual and interesting way.
3.
To turn America back to the heart
of God.
4.
To preserve this great nation as
a safe haven for our children and to preserve it as the greatest funder of
spreading the Gospel.
5.
To learn Apologetics and
Theology.
6. To awaken the Sleeping GIANT of
the American Church to its sacred responsibility in politics.
Format
There are various types of participants in study
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Discussion Time that allows participants to start
comprehending the implications of the principles and how it applies in real
life.
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