An accusation I’ve heard lobbed against certain groups of people in our country is that they “look to the government to solve their problems.” Unfortunately, I believe such an accusation can (rightly) be lobbed against the church based on our behavior and talk the past four years. The impression that is given off by some believers is that unless the right politicians are put in place and the right political protections are put in place for the church, then everything will fall apart. The impression given off is that unless we have the backing of the government, we cannot solve the problems facing our society.

I believe that such kind of thinking is false. I believe that most of the problems we are facing as a church and as a society can be solved without the government’s intervention. Many of the problems we are facing we can solve whether Biden is in office or not. Many of the problems we are facing we can solve whether the country liberalizes or not. We do not need to be dependent on the long arm of the government when the arm of the Lord is longer and mightier to save.

Now to be clear: I am not against Christians being involved in politics, I am not against Christians running for office, I am not against Christian lobbying the government for the concerns they care about, and I am not against voting. What I am against is misplaced priorities, valuing the political over the spiritual. What I am against is defaulting to thinking that political solutions are the solution. What I am against the mission drift of the church, becoming more focused on this world which is passing away than the coming new creation on the Last Day and the Final Judgment.

What problems are we facing and what can we do about? Here are a few problems and few non-political solutions to them:

Problem #1: Big Tech

Nature of the problem: Big Teach is gobbling up your information and selling it. Big Tech has built a entire billion-dollar business empire by capturing your attention, addicting you to its apps and devices and then turning around and selling your information to the highest bidder. Big Tech is trafficking in outrage and has algorithms which are undermining our way of life by putting upsetting piece of content in front of your eyeballs on purpose so that you will angrily comment and “engage” with those pieces.

Solution:

• Delete your Facebook account.
• Get rid of your smartphone.
• Don’t allow your kids to have a smartphone until they are 18 (Bribe them with tattoos instead, which are WAY safer for children than smartphones because they don’t turn your brain to mush and expose you to hardcore pornography).

We don’t need to the government to do these things.

Problem #2: Anger and Anxiety

Nature of the problem: Rates of anxiety have skyrocketed amongst younger generations since the advent of the smartphone. But even beyond younger generations, anxiety, anger and despair seem to be more prevalent. While I definitely believe that things like anxiety have a physiological basis in some cases, it seems to me that many people are anxious today because of self-sabotage: They fill their minds continually with anxiety-inducing new media. No one is pointing a gun to our heads and forcing us to watch CNN or Fox News or One America News or MSNBC all the time. No one is compelling us to doomscroll through Facebook and Twitter, seeking to be outraged by the latest thing the Left or Right is doing. We are doing it to ourselves.

But why? Why would we engage in practices which are so harmful? To some degree, people are being exploited. Social media companies do seek to make their products addictive. But on the other hand, sometimes we can prefer to feel bad than to feel nothing at all. I think some people prefer to fill their minds with outrage-inducing media because to be alone with their own thoughts seems unbearable. Even for some believers, if they inculcated times of silence in their lives, they might find that their relationship with Christ is virtually no existent. Such an admission might more than some can bear and therefore, choosing to stay stuck in a spiritual rut seems like the safer bet.

Solution:

• Reduce all your news consumption into 30 minutes day. Listen to a “news roundup” podcast which covers the major stories briefly.
• Memorize Scripture. We are transformed by renewing our minds (Romans 12:1-2). The best way to get the Scriptures into our minds is through memorization. Many Christians object to memorizing Scripture because its hard and “I can’t remember anything any more.” The point of memorization really isn’t retention. The point is difficulty. By engaging in a such a difficult process, our minds will naturally grow. Moreover, trying to memorize Scripture forces the mind to slow down and really contemplate the Scriptures. Even if you don’t retain the verse in your mind, you are still saturating your mind with the truths of Scripture.

We don’t need to the government to do these things.

Problem #3: Sexual Licentiousness

Most Bible-believing Christians are deeply concerned about the culture of sexual promiscuity and lust perpetuated in our country. We might even say that there is systemic sexual immorality embedded within American culture. Music, movies, and all kinds of media rarely celebrate the Christian virtues of chastity and fidelity. Instead, they push beliefs that all manners of sexual deviancy are acceptable and ought to be celebrated. While I am deeply grieved by the legalization of gay marriage in our country in 2015, yet the even before the legalization of gay marriage, many Christians had already surrender the authority of Scripture of matters of sexuality in their owns lives due to widespread addiction to pornography. You put yourself in an especially psychologically stressful situation when you may outwardly condemn all manner of sexual deviancy in the culture but you are a sexual deviant yourself, indulging in things which are offensive to the Lord and his sacred covenant of marriage.

So how do we turn the tide in our country to encouraging a culture of chastity before marriage and fidelity within in? Here are a few non-political solutions

Solutions:

• Quit porn. It’s that simple: we cannot hope for the culture to encourage sexual purity if we as a community and you as an individual are not pure yourself. You need to proverbially “gouge out your eyes” and “cut off your hands” just as Jesus said. This means getting rid of your computer, downgrading your smartphone, and doing whatever it takes to get such sin out of your life. The very fact that you’re thinking, “I could never get rid of my iPhone, I need it for work” means that you’re not totally convinced of Jesus’ words to pursue holiness.
• If you’re single, pursue marriage. Marriage is God’s gift and most people in the world, especially Christians, should get married. Obviously, there are some scenarios in which someone will stay single for their whole lives. Such may feel called to singleness for their lifetime. But Paul calls singleness a spiritual gift to be used for the advancement of the kingdom, not a career. Of course, some situations are beyond someone’s control. For example, there may not be a big pool of eligible and competent Christian bachelor’s and bachelorette’s around. Some people may have been married or engaged or even dating someone, and the other person died.
• If you’re married, prioritize your spouse. Your spouse is THE primary relationship to cultivate after your relationship with the Lord. While children are a gift from the Lord and to be provided for, they will one day leave you, as God intended. One day you will retirement and if you’re married the two primary relationships you will have left are God and your spouse. What will be left of those things on that day?
• Teach your children, or the children in the church God’s design for sexuality. If you are a parent, YOU are responsible for the education of your children. While public, private, and homeschool co-ops may be helpful and even essential in carrying out the education of your children, you yourself are the primary guardian of your children’s education, yes, even math! But you are directly called by God to be the steward and guardian of your child’s spiritual development, which means teaching them God’s view of sexuality. Too often, Christians parents are afraid of awkward conversations around sex and therefore do not have them. Avoiding conversations about sexuality, especially when our children are young, is exactly how younger generations receive a warped view of sexuality because instead of receiving it from their godly parents, they receive it from the world.

We don’t need to the government to do these things.

Problem #4: Abortion

Most evangelicals used be ok with abortion; yes, it’s true. Thankfully, the Catholic Church lead the way in opposition to abortion and evangelicals eventually were rightly persuaded by the Catholic view and have now become one of the largest groups opposed to abortion. They have continued to lobby the government to eventually overturn Roe v. Wade which has now happened! It also can’t be understated in the important of Donald Trump in appointing conservative justices who helped sway the decision and undo a great injustice in our country. While I’m not a fan of former President Trump, I do have to give credit where credit is due. He surprised me and he made good on that promise.

And yet, even with Roe v. Wade overturned, abortion will not end in our country. The overturning of Roe v. Wade has pushed the issue of abortion back to the state where it will still be legal in many states. More importantly, abortion will still happen in our country because we live a broken world that will only be put right when Christ returns. Moreover, just because the law has changed does not mean that human hearts have. Reflect on the issue of racism in our country. Even though our country was desegregated, the issue of the racism lodged within the human still remained. Furthermore, the culture was not fully affected. So while black people could legally participate in the life of America without restrict, there were still plenty of barriers erected and loopholes exploited to keep them shut out from the American dream. The same dynamic, I believe, will be present with abortion. Even with Roe v. Wade overturned, there will still be a culture of death that pervades America.

Solution:

• Keep your baby. If one of the teenagers in the church get pregnant, we should do everything we can to encourage them to keep the baby. More realistically, since we’re living in the largely secular Northeast and people get married much later, what is most likely to happen is that a married woman in her late 30s or early 40s will get pregnant, even though she has other children. In those instances, the best way to be pro-life is to keep the baby, even if there is a 15 year gap.
• Foster and adopt. Tons of kids are in the NJ foster care system and plenty need to be adopted. Furthermore, how can we present adoption as a viable alternative to abortion without anyone actually adopting children? Consider fostering and adopting from NJ.
• Care for your elderly parents properly. While this doesn’t speak to the issue of abortion directly, it does speak to the issue of life. Remember, the goal is to build a culture of life. How can we do that unless we actively care for the elderly parents within our midst? Honoring our father and mother includes caring for them in their advanced age. Caring for our elderly parents doesn’t mean that we need to build an addition onto our homes so that they can move in with us. But it does mean regularly visiting them. It is a travesty to abandon any person to a nursing home facility. The key point is “abandon.” Nursing home facilities can play a crucial role in the care of elderly parents, especially if they have significant mental decline. But to hardly visit them is displeasing to the Lord.

We don’t need to the government to do these things.

Problem #5: Racism

Contrary to the belief of some people in our country, racism is still a problem. While overt racism enshrined into the law may be gone, there are still cultural issues that must be addressed. Racism is ultimately an issue of the heart and a species of sin known as hatred of others. If racism is a sin, then it needs to be repented of and crucified like all other sins. When sinful people get together, they often will act collectively in ways that perpetuate even more sin. It’s call SINergy (see what I did there?!?!?). The actual concept of synergy means that when two or people get together they can accomplish more than the sum of their persons. When sinful people get together, they create culture and laws and dynamics which can perpetuate sin and encourage other people to sin.

Solution:

• Pursue mutual accountability. Contrary to our antiracist friends, the burden of working towards a more fair society does not rest solely upon white people. George Yancey has powerfully argued for a “mutual accountability” model where both white and black people work together for a brighter future.
• Read widely. There is so much good theology out there, even from outside our tradition. One of the best ways to gain insights into other cultures and people groups is to read their theologians. Most of the great church fathers were not from Europe, but from Africa and the Middle East. But they help set the trajectory for the church’s theology for the next 2,000 years. Listening to preachers outside of your tradition is also helpful. They bring new insights into the text and wider applications to the cares and the concerns of their primary audience.
• Pursue the church’s mission. One of the clearest places I’ve seen racial and ethnic harmony is on a sports team. Why? Because every player is working together toward a common goal regardless of their station or background in life. Pursuing the church’s “goal” (discipling all nations) would seem to me one of the ways that we can pursue diversity naturally. Everyone hates insincere attempts at racial harmony. This is why I find it kind of ironic in the portrayal of “woke” white liberals in TV shows…everyone rolls their eyes at the woke white guy. Why? Because there’s really not much action backing up slogans and virtue signaling. Rather than trying to force our church’s to be a certain way, one of the best ways, I think, to pull in a diverse crowd of believers is to make evangelizing ALL people in the community a priority. All Christians in the body of Christ, both in each local church and in the global church, should be pulling together to reach all people with the gospel. And if we’re serious about reaching our communities with the gospel, this should pull us outside of ourselves and our comfort zones.

We don’t need the government to solve this problem.