I don’t often give the op/ed page in the newspaper much more than a quick glance, but Cal Thomas’s column caught my eye today. It’s titled “Closing one door, opening another” (it is dated May 4 at this link but was just in our paper today).

I won’t go into the details he discusses, but these paragraphs echo something I have thought for years:

This is not to say there is no role for conservative Christians in the civic life of their nation. There is. But Christians must first understand that the issues they most care about — abortion, same-sex “marriage” and cultural rot — are not caused by bad politics, but are matters of the heart and soul.

Some evangelicals wish to broaden the political agenda beyond these issues to poverty, social justice and the environment. Politics can never completely cure the ills of any of these, but the message Christians bring about salvation and redemption can. Besides, they can never “convert” people to their point of view.

Nothing in the Bible commands believers to reform or redeem society through government and politics alone, or even mainly. Neither is there any expectation that non-Christians will be converted to the Christian point of view, which can vary on some topics, through politics.

This is so true.

We have a rare privilege in this country to be able to make our voice heard, to tell our leaders what we think, to write letters to the editor, to have a part in campaigns and causes. And we should. I think many of us will be accountable for our lack of action in many of these areas.

Yet, as Mr. Thomas said so well, our hope is not in politics. We’re never called to “redeem the culture.” We’re called to share the gospel and make disciples. Christ is the only One who can change hearts.

People’s opinions on issues are not going to change unless their hearts are changed.

If we did get legislation changed to outlaw abortion and restore a Biblical view of marriage and restrict the indecency so prevalent in our culture, yet all of the people impacted went to hell when they died, what good were our efforts?