I first became acquainted with Philip Yancey’s writings when I read Soul Survivor. That book traces Yancey’s spiritual journey from a legalistic, racist religion to one in keeping with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yancey spent years as a journalist and has written articles for Reader’s Digest, Saturday Evening Post, National Wildlife, and Christianity Today. He was the editor for twenty years of the magazine Campus Life.

I was drawn to his more recent Christians and Politics because Yancey’s writing speaks to my concern with Christians driven by hatred rather than love.

Yancey receives his share of vituperative letters for his writing. The world, he says finds itself repelled by the hatred expressed by some Christians.

“When the church accepts as its main goal the reform of the broader culture,” Yancey writes, “we risk obscuring the gospel of grace and becoming one more power broker.”

Jesus refused a political kingdom. Whenever his followers seek power instead of transformation, the church suffers.