Adapted from a William Shakespeare line, the sentiment that politics makes strange bedfellows is accurate quite often. The AP reports that “Republican Sen. John McCain says he would consider speaking at Bob Jones University, a school he criticized during the 2000 presidential campaign for its ban on interracial dating and anti-Catholic views.” Noting changes in policy statements concerning interracial dating, McCain said, “I understand they have made considerable progress.”

In the referenced campaign, “McCain assailed the Christian fundamentalist school for its policies and rival George W. Bush for speaking there. During a debate, McCain said that if he were invited, he would have gone to the school and said, ‘Look, what your [sic] doing in this ban on interracial dating is stupid, it's idiotic, and it is incredibly cruel to many people.’ Bush defended his speech there but later wrote Cardinal John O'Connor of New York and said he deeply regretted ‘causing needless offense’ by not more clearly ‘disassociating myself from anti-Catholic sentiments and racial prejudice.’” Clearly, certain politicians and certain Christians need to hear some things.

First, racism has no place in a Christian context. Certainly private institutions have the right to establish prohibitions in regard to interracial dating and we would defend that right. We certainly would not condone legislation against interracial dating as we desire to live in a free society. It is that free society that must also allow private institutions to freely establish their own policies. If an individual does not like those policies, he/she can choose not to associate with that institution. However, it is a far different thing for a Christian institution to promote racism (even in the form of a ban on interracial dating). While that institution may have the freedom to do so in the human sphere, it has no right to do so before God.

Second, Christians should take the lead in promoting race relations rather than be chastised by secularists of any kind. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ breaks down all barriers and we must demonstrate that fact to a lost and dying world. To the degree that we promote tension between the races, we deny the gospel of grace and its power to reconcile human beings to God and to one another. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28).”

Third, the differences between Roman Catholic and Protestant theology have been spelled out for five-hundred years. The reality is that these groups disagree on the way of salvation (among other things). The Scripture teaches that a man is justified before God by virtue of the imputed righteousness of Christ to his account by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. That is Protestant theology. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that anyone who affirms the doctrine of justification as described above is anathema. It was the apostle Paul who said that anyone who preaches a gospel that is different from the gospel he preached is anathema (and the gospel that he preached was that justification is the result of the imputed righteousness of Christ to a guilty sinner’s account by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone). Roman Catholicism is a different gospel. One must choose whether he wants to be under the anathema of the Roman Catholic Church or under the anathema of God.

In saying these things, we do not hate Roman Catholics. On the contrary, we love them and seek to show them the biblical way of salvation for their good and for their joy. It is unfair to characterize Bob Jones University as hating Roman Catholics. “Some say the school has muted its Catholic sentiment, but [school spokesman Jonathan] Pait said, ‘We haven't changed our position at all’ on the ideological merits of Catholicism versus Protestantism. ‘We don't hate Catholics,’ he said. ‘We certainly disagree with Catholicism, but I think it's going a bit far to say it's anti-Catholic.’”

Roman Catholics disagree with evangelicals in regard to how a person is saved, and, evangelicals disagree with them. Hatred is not a Christian virtue. It is “the love of Christ [that] compels us (2 Cor. 5:14)” to say to all “that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation (v. 19).” To Roman Catholics we say, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God (v. 20).”

Fourth, for years now it has been a great mystery to me how the religious right can hold President Bush out as model evangelical Christian. (The fact that the religious right holds the President out as a conservative politician is equally mysterious to me). Here the question is simple: what are we to make of an evangelical who apologizes to Cardinal John O'Connor saying he deeply regrets “‘causing needless offense’ by not more clearly ‘disassociating myself from anti-Catholic sentiments?’” At the very least he should get the facts straight concerning the university and its position. Then, he should not bow down to the god of political correctness and characterize legitimate theological differences as anti-Catholic. Finally, he must not deny Christ by affirming a different gospel.

Fifth, where are the statesmen in politics today? Where are the principled candidates? It seems that both of these candidates have done some flip-flopping on more than one occasion. Let the politicians cease from such political posturing. At the same time, let Christians live out the gospel they preach. And, let Christians vote for principled candidates based upon facts and not hollow rhetoric or expedient identification with a particular party. In fact, let Christians evaluate the parties themselves based upon real action and not mere ideological claims. Let not politics make strange bedfellows, neither for the politicians nor the Christians.

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