Now after 17 centuries of experience in the courts of secular power, there are few (in the US at least) that think we have anything to do with change. We are defined as a rock-solid and morally righteous political block of social conservatives, either to be wooed or rendered ineffectual, depending on your point-of-view.

The clout of the so-called religious right is waning. Blame it on the lack of a unifying candidate if you want to, but as a Christian I think this is a good thing. Political power is the opiate of the religious. Ironically, the very power we sought has stripped our true effectiveness, and defined us as merely another political force among many.

So it?s over, Connie. This will actually be good for both of us.

For the first 300 years of our existence the Christian community was decidedly counter-culture, without secular status or power. We were known for our love and community; our growth came mostly from among the poor. Then with Constantine we gained a champion who blended cross, sword and earthly wealth. We rose out of the catacombs and into the courts of the civic lords.

The Bible refers to us collectively as the ?Bride of Christ.? Our dalliance with this handsome patrician Constantine was the first of our serial adulteries with rulers good and bad: Charlemagne, Henry, Catherine, Francisco, Benito, William, George?all of them. We leveraged them, or they us. Shamefully, at our worst, we became accomplices-by-silence, as we did in 1930?s Germany.

Our role remains shallow today if all we do is find candidates or political causes with the values closest to our own and then endorse them. If our work does not actually target the greatest need for change, in the human heart, we have instead merely adopted the American secular power system (admittedly the best one out there) and then tried to dress it up with our morals. Given the failing and sin that occupies even the best of human systems, this approach is a bit like putting lipstick on a pig.

At our very core we represent an entirely different order, one that is deeply suspicious of all worldly power. The Christian concept of authority is upside-down from the rest of the world; we believe that to be great is to be a servant, and that the last shall be first. We believe in turning the other cheek and in loving our enemies. These are difficult to live out practically, but nobody claimed it would be easy.

This ought to produce Christian citizens who are engaged and involved, making decisions for the practical good of the world order. We have a good example of this in one of our own evangelicals, William Wilberforce, who worked to end English slave trade in 1833.

For most of the issues that divide liberals and conservatives, there is not a ?Christian position.? Believers disagree about the role of government in economics, or whether any certain worldly conflict is just. I hate to startle or anger my evangelical friends, but this means that a committed, born-again evangelical Christians can just as likely be a Democrat as Republican.

Jesus told us to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar?s and to God the things that are God?s. These two citizenships are not to be confused. I am a Christian, and because of that, I am in nobody?s camp. If I am persuaded you may have my vote, but my heart belongs to God.