Among gospel preachers, present and past, are those who claim to spurn contemporary attitudes and faddish attention to social issues in favor of undiluted proclamation, proclamation with no stake in any matter extraneous to the gospel. But this is a claim without substance. We need only examine the wrongs, from slavery to segregation, that have been defended with “Christian” reasoning to appreciate how erroneous it is. There is not, and never has been, preaching that bypasses the time and place in which it is situated; there is only preaching that is aware of its contemporary motivations and implications, and preaching that is not. Preaching that is not so aware is likely to accommodate the prevailing ideology, all the while insisting its sole interest is the gospel. Such preaching tends to be preoccupied with interiority and with the cultivation of personal peace, too often untroubled by the human oppression God has consecrated us to defeat. It’s an emaciated substitute for the announcement that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has overcome the dominion of sin and death in all of its forms.

Christians cannot act as apologists for any nation when its actions violate the values of the kingdom of God.