FMA and the State of the Church
A New Enthusiasm

by Chuck Colson

Yesterday the motion to bring the Federal Marriage Amendment to a vote was defeated in the Senate by a vote of 48 to 50. We knew going in that we didn't have the votes, and actually we did a little better than we expected: Some of the undecideds have been moving our way.

I wish we had won, but I'm certainly not discouraged. This is part of a long process of educating the public and the Congress. There are a lot of phony arguments out here in the political atmosphere that we have to knock down one by one.

And with a pending vote in the House this fall, we need to keep working with House members. And we'll be back with another vote in the Senate next year. Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), the Majority Leader, is a strong supporter. He knows that in great efforts like this, it can take years to marshal the necessary public support, so do not despair.

As a matter of fact, there could be a blessing here that none of us expected. Last Sunday night, Jim Dobson, Tony Perkins, Ken Hutcherson, and I all spoke in a simulcast from Adrian Rogers's great Bellevue Baptist  Church in Memphis. There were 10,000 people in the church auditorium, a million connected by satellite, and many millions more by radio and TV-amazing.

For months all of us had been wringing our hands over the lethargy in the evangelical movement over the same-sex "marriage" issue. It seemed as if people were only concerned with what's in it for them and that they were staying in their churches, concerned about recruiting and nothing else. David Brooks in the New York Times, in fact, wrote that the evangelical Church has become part of the American cultural mainstream.

Well, for all the hand-wringers and for David Brooks, I just wish you had been with me at Bellevue Baptist. There were several times during that meeting when I thought the roof was going to come off the church.

We gave listeners explicit instructions about getting on the phones to their congressmen and senators, and those Capitol Hill switchboards were jammed for days. I had trouble getting calls through myself. The Church has come alive this week for this fight-and that is good news in the long term.
 
Bear in mind, we weren't looking for this fight over gay "marriage." It was thrust on us by the courts. But maybe there's a blessing. I have not seen believers as excited as they were Sunday night at Bellevue Baptist in years. It reminds me of the early days of the eighties when Christians were just engaging again in politics after decades of fundamentalist isolation. There was freshness and enthusiasm then, and it's back. Those folks at Bellevuewere ready to go to war. Jim Dobson and I speculated afterwards that this may be the beginning of a real revival in the Church.

Remember two centuries ago when William Wilberforce started his campaign to abolish the slave trade in Britain. He didn't have the votes, but he persisted. And after twenty years, he prevailed. But the battle so energized the Church that it led to the Second Great [Wesley] Awakening that swept across England and the English-speaking world.

So do not despair-the same thing could very well happen in this country.  God in His providence sometimes puts adversities and battles in our way just for the purpose of awakening His Church. And awakened, we'll press forward.

BreakPoint
Cultural commentary with Prison Fellowship's Chuck Colson
http://www.breakpoint.org

July 15, 2004

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