Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what can light have with darkness?

II Corinthians 6:14, NIV (1978)

One of the biggest problems we have in life is when we believe we can accomplish any sort of moral agreement with the unrighteous. I have noticed a lot of headlines in recent weeks about those who have been removed from their positions of authority who now want a seat at the table when discussing the direction this nation needs to be taking. From male generals who wear women's clothing, to abortion rights activists who want to help with "health issues", to social engineers who want to choose the school curriculum for our children, there are a lot of people who want to compromise with the new direction. 

Our "democratic" side tells us that we should include such people when deciding on this new direction, but I believe that to be a trap. You cannot bargain with the devil and come out with anything good, and you cannot negotiate with people who hold positions that are the polar opposite of what God wants and expect to come out with anything that is remotely godly. The point is that righteousness and wickedness are on different teams, so if you allow the opposing coach to sit in on your huddles, you have to realize that he is not there to help you win the game.

I am currently reading "The Light and the Glory" by Peter Marshall and David Immanuel. The book is on the founding of America from the time of Columbus to the Revolution, and they have a lot of information that we no longer read of in our modern-day histories. This is odd, since they have used hundreds of original source materials that well documents this era, but when you compare it to the books currently being taught in the majority of our schools you will see some glaring differences. One of the main differences is the role that religion and religious people played in our founding. Prior to the mid-20th century, religion was placed in a favorable light, but after that it was always viewed with suspicion and outright criticism, if it was mentioned at all.

Why is that? In large part it is because of the difference in opinion between those who came into power (and therefore in charge of re-writing the history) and those who were in charge previously. It began with something as noble as giving both viewpoints a voice, but it ended up with the silencing of anyone who believed different than the new and improved regime with their new and improved agendas. In short, the unrighteous were given a seat at the table with the unrighteous, and it has ended up with everything we see now. The list of grievances is extensive, but numbered in the change of direction are God being removed from the public square, illegal drug usage, a normalizing of the concept of a Godless evolution, and abortion and perverse sexual lifestyles becoming mainstream.

This has resulted in everything from our boys sharing the most private of facilities with our girls, drag queens reading to our small children in classrooms and public libraries, and the aforementioned generals in skirts and heels leading our military. Those familiar with the Bible will instantly recognize such things as unrighteousness, but those who have watered down Christianity to the point that perverts not only have a seat at their tables, but also a place to stand in their pulpits, will view these things as righteousness.

And God has warned us what will happen if we allow the unrighteous to work hand in hand with the righteous.

Now, please do not misunderstand: All of us have sinned and all of us have fallen short of God's righteous ways. I am not talking about removing everyone who is a "sinner" in our eyes from important decisions. What I am saying is that we absolutely do need to exclude all who would say that their past sins were good and that we should incorporate such unrighteousness into the rules of society. It is those who refuse to give up their sin (or those who don't even know what sin is) who do not need to have a part in correcting past wrongs. Without repenting of their former ways and acknowledging that the worldly ways are wrong and that God's way is right, we are just going to end up going in the same deadly direction that got us into this mess in the first place.

So, what's the point? Just this: America has been on a reckless path, and it is time for a change of direction. This can never be accomplished by compromising with the ones who prefer the wrong paths. This is not a negotiation! Evil can never be compromised with for by doing so we will always end up more wicked than we were when we recognized that we had a problem. You don't let a homicidal cook who has been found putting large amounts of poison in your food, negotiate with you to continue to cook, but with smaller amounts of poison - you get rid of them! And we cannot compromise with those who have rejected God's standards for those of the devil and think that we can come up with anything that is good.

The fact is that the righteous and the wicked have nothing in common. Those of us who were righteous thought that we could compromise in order to be fair, only to find that those who were the most innocent ended up paying the price for our well-intentioned folly. If we want a change in direction, we are going to have to get those who prefer the old direction away from the steering wheel. We can (and must) do this in a kind and Christian way but do it we must. We have spent too much time negotiating with the unrighteous in the past. It is time now for a righteous direction and that necessarily means that we cannot negotiate with the unrighteous to accomplish that change.