My friend Dan Darling recently offered insight on an oddity of Christian subculture. He tweeted, “If ‘stop fighting culture wars’ means rejecting irrational fear and worship of politics, yes. If it means ignoring Jesus’ command to love our neighbors by using our voice and vote to speak and work against injustices that hurt our neighbors’ flourishing, then no.”

Most Christians agree that the Church should never politicize the Gospel. It’s a complaint we rarely applied to ourselves, only to others. For example, pastors who find it “too political” to speak out against abortion or religious liberty march in a Black Lives Matter protest, as a “Gospel issue.” Churches who champion biblical sexual ethics avoid the “controversial” questions of race and refugees.

We can’t pick and choose which elements of Christianity deserve a public hearing. Any true, lived-out faith will embrace the whole counsel of God, not just the bits that don’t offend our political allies. The Christian worldview should never be reduced to politics and culture. It must always engage them.