Republicans and Hispanics

In this morning’s Wellington newspaper, a New Zealand journalist reflected on the re-election of President Obama. He noted that the crowd celebrating the election with Obama looked like a cross-section of American society, whereas the crowd listening to Governor Romney’s words was white and well-dressed. He suggested that the USA had moved from government by the established European groups to government by the consensus of minorities. He commented specifically on the Republican Party not attracting the Hispanic vote.

I thought to myself, why had that large group of white Americans not attracted many voters in the Hispanic Community? After all they spoke about faith, family-values and rewarding hard work which are all characteristics of the Hispanic Community

The focus of this blog is the Gospel-in-action, so I am not looking at the socio-economic issues here.

A couple of weeks ago, I heard an American member of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) speaking on God’s way of doing things in a Nation. Over twenty years ago I noticed that YWAM had developed the ability to take the Revelation of God, divest it of our cultural baggage and connect it with new situations. Landa Cope is in that tradition and she reminded me of our constant need to keep returning to the core biblical principles and applying them to new situations.

Studying the first five books of the Bible, Landa realized that God was not only concerned about our salvation from sin but in discipling (i.e., forming by word and example) a nation. Following on from that, Jesus preached more than the Gospel of Salvation; he preached the Gospel of the Kingdom.

Landa gave us a sliced pizza view of God’s concerns beyond our salvation from sin. God is concerned with Government, Economics, Science & Technology, Church, Family, Education, Communication, Arts & Entertainment.

A few of the thoughts that I came away with:

God is integrated into everything we do.

The beauty of Beauty is that it doesn’t have to be explained.

God hates ugly; ugly is less well thought through.

The Kingdom works through influence and persuasion.

God gave the People the right to choose their leaders from their tribes.

God have the People the right to be wrong.

God chose the Levites; the Church doesn’t vote on absolutes.

Where the economy does not benefit all, we have slave shops.

God reveals himself in the things he has made.

If you don’t have free speech, you can’t tell the truth.

Adam and Eve married each other.

Parents have no authority over married off-spring.

Chinese, Japanese and Indians are smart because parents are in charge of education.

After 70 years only 20% of Russians were communists: parents knew better.

We can take back marriage with or without government.

Government is a line-keeper; it gives order.

Business is the best way to deliver services.

When business gets greedy, government steps in.

How much responsibility are the People taking for government?

God’s Kingdom uses checks and balances.

Well, there are a few teasers. See Landa’s website and her book ‘The Old Testament Template’ to get more.

The crunch point is that people can come to salvation by repenting of their sins and receiving salvation through the Cross, as many Hispanic and White Americans have. But to bless a Nation requires putting God’s principles into action in all aspects of society. Republicans could find common ground with Hispanics with that approach.

But for all of us who put the Gospel into Action, we have to act on the message of the Kingdom not just on the message of Salvation.