My mom bought me this DVD for Christmas: Vincent Price in “The Pit and the Pendulum.” It is really scary…

…and so is the way Christians in each generation swing back and forth from conservative to progressive. Your father is a right-wing zealot, he sees politics as a weapon of power – – and without meaning it, he also perceives it having potential as a path to salvation. “We can bring God’s kingdom to earth through electing the right candidate.”

Children can’t live off of their parent’s political zealotry, there is no life in it. The moral majority of the 80’s are not akin to the apostles. Joining in “Focus on the Family” boycotts will not persuade the masses to turn and repent. Political salvation is nothing more than Christian heresy and hypocrisy; which in turn breeds contempt. The children see in their parent’s love of Fox News and Ronald Reagan as a betrayal of Christ. So the pendulum swings and their contempt turns into arrogance. Hatred of the “right” breeds a new-bright hope and a superior feeling towards the ideas of the “left”; progressive politics is adopted as the new savior.

In an attempt to save the gospel from the “right’s” poison; the next generation’s naive arrogance leaves them open to allowing the gospel to be kidnapped by the “left”. The pendulum swings! Loyalty to Christ really becomes loyalty to progressive ideas. It is the other side of the political tug-of-war. But there often is a tinge more arrogance and self-righteousness included with each successive swing. “You hypocrites,” is another way of saying, “Me righteous!”  And boy, discussing ideas with arrogant people is a tough go. Just try to tell a progressive that you think it not scriptural to accept the practice of homosexuality with open arms, and they will instantly accuse you of being a “Fox News” watcher. That is worse than being called a Nazi in some circles. (To defend yourself just admit you listened to NPR in the last week and they may let you off the hook?)

The pendulum swings…right, left, conservative, progressive, hatred, arrogance…WILL SOMEONE JUST STOP THE PENDULUM FROM SWINGING? How? One word of advice, Philippians 2:3, “in humility value others better than yourselves.”