Chuck Colson on God and Government

In an interview with CBN News, Chuck Colson, author of God and Government, says America's 40 million Christian voters will be a formidable force in the 2008 election. But he cautions, "We ought not to align ourselves with one political party or put ourselves hostage to a particular political agenda. Be free to be prophetic, to critique the debates, and to engage winsomely in the political process. Christians have to do that." A number of presidential candidates have expressed their Christian faith as they court the "values voter." CBN News asked Colson how Christians should feel about so many candidates seeking their vote. "It depends on whether we think they're being sincere and the Bible gives us all kinds of ways of judging the sincerity of someone's profession," Colson said. "Just because somebody cries out 'Lord, Lord' doesn't mean he's going to be in the Kingdom." Colson said it's important consider whether a person's words line up with their actions. "If their pious mouthings are unsupported by their behavior, reject them, throw 'em out," he said. "I just happened to be in the Senate yesterday and walked by a guy who professes one thing and acts completely differently," Colson said. "Well, I have a right to judge him. He's given me a right to judge him by his own behavior. So we need to be discerning. I mean, I'm glad to hear people profess their faith. But … when it comes to picking who I want to…run the country, I'm going to look at how sincere they are." CBN News asked Colson if Republicans, who were supposed to clean up government, saw themselves thrown from power on Capitol Hill in part because of corruption charges and also what it is about government that makes it so easily corrupted. "Well, this book I've written, God and Government, I have a whole chapter on the corrupting influence of politics, and why people have to look upon public service as a civic duty and not as profession or a career," Colson said. "There's so much to government today. It's so incredibly complex. He continued, "We've piled program upon program upon program until it becomes unworkable. But every program has a special interest group. And everybody's been sucked into the earmarks thing…its stealing money made palatable, because we're robbing it from the taxpayers to give to our constituents, so it's okay." "They threw out Republicans who promised to clean things up and didn't… deservedly so. Conservatives have an obligation that goes beyond party politics. It is to preserve the moral order. If you begin to abuse the moral order, I don't care which party you're in, throw 'em out." Colson likes the job that President Bush has done so far, despite the setbacks in Iraq. And he says the president has been damaged by the political culture in Washington. Colson explained, "I think he started out with a couple of strikes against him: his profession of faith; clearly, his faith in Christ in the debates had him targeted. And secondly, they thought the election was illegitimate. So he started with a tremendous handicap." "But I saw Brit Hume on television the other night ask a pretty good question," Colson recalled. "He said, 'If a month after 9/11, somebody would say to the American people, 'Would you be happy if we had over the next six years no more terrorist attacks, if the unemployment rate fell to 4.5 percent, if inflation was under two percent, and if the stock market doubled. Would you be happy with that?' Ninety-nine and nine-tenths of the American people would have said 'yes'." "I think things have gone well," Colson continued. "I think this President has lived up to his commitments. And I think he's taken a bad rap because the political system now succeeds only if you can destroy the guy who's in and you can prove yourself better and you can come in and bring your agenda. It's become so vicious." Some polls have shown Americans think the economy is doing badly. Why the seeming malaise in America? "Because they listen to the media," Colson said. "Bad news sells - not on CBN - but there's very little bad news on the economic front. This country is fat. We've never had it so good."