John Piper & Living Christianity

From Crosswalk.com...Making Room for Atheism: Thoughts on the Supremacy of God
By John Piper
Desiring God

If you ever get the chance to listen to John Piper, please do so. He is a wonderful, passionate speaker. His comments on Christianity in everyday life are very interesting:

The fact that God establishes his kingdom through the supernatural miracle of faith, not firearms, means that Christians in this age will not endorse coercive governments—Christian or secular.

This is why we resist the coercive secularization implied in some laws that repress Christian activity in public places. It is not that we want to establish Christianity as the law of the land. That is intrinsically impossible, because of the spiritual nature of the kingdom. It is rather because repression of free exercise of religion and persuasion is as wrong against Christians as it is against secularists.

We believe this tolerance is rooted in the very nature of the gospel of Christ. In one sense, tolerance is pragmatic: freedom and democracy seem to be the best political order humans have conceived.

Please don't take what is being said here incorrectly. The root word of caution here is, "coersion", or the use of force. Dr. Piper has it right. We enjoy living in a free soceity. We are free to choose and express our beliefs.

In my free speech blogs, I mention the frequent mis-interpretation of the First Amendment. But what I don't say is for our government to force it's people to choose a particular religion. In the Great Falls case, the city council was not forcing citizens to pray in Christ's name. No one held up a gun and said, "Say the name of Jesus or else!"

This is the sticking point with today's liberal judges: They don't understand "coersion". Maybe if they visited Kosovo, China, or any Muslim led country, they would.