This was supposed to be a book.

When I first began writing several years ago, I envisioned the content as a position paper, which soon became a lengthy article that later expanded into a book. The latter was going to be a big project, though having survived a master’s thesis, I believed I could do it, I just needed more time … which I didn’t have.

In October of 2014, I had the good fortune of having a beer with Clive Thompson, a longtime contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and columnist for Wired, and author of the book Smarter Than You Think. I explained my dilemma and he suggested rolling out content in blog posts. He believed that by giving people the opportunity to comment, blogs are a good way to refine material and to reveal new and relevant information that could be easily missed or undervalued using traditional research methods. He’s a good writer who does his homework, so I trusted his advice. It has obviously taken me awhile to warm up to the idea.

Informing the Faithful is that vision realized. It will be a journey through a dynamic political environment guided by a deeply held belief in Jesus Christ. I’ve been an atheist, an agnostic, an eclectic, and a Born Again. I’ve been a Republican, a Democrat, and an independent. I didn’t set out to intentionally explore the spectrum. But the experience has given me a broader perspective than I would have acquired by staying put, and it has given me a full range of friends and conversations. I’m better for having made the trip.

Despite an abundance of information, my initial efforts to resolve the inherent conflicts between religion and politics yielded only fragile states of peace and overly nuanced positions that imploded like a house of cards when new events unfolded. My inability to find any lasting resolution led me into the proverbial wilderness and eventually into a new land. After surveying my surroundings, however, I discovered that it wasn’t really new — it was a place we American Christians had slowly abandoned.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Christian leadership at the national level attempted a secular power play by trading their collective strength as a voting bloc for a Republican political agenda that promised support on a handful of issues. GOP politicians — eager for new constituents and finances to guarantee their re-elections — welcomed the arrangement and Christian leadership across the country began justifying the alliance with Scripture. A short decade later the sharp divisions over “hot button issues” collectively became known as the culture war, which is now comprised of a widening assortment of wedge issues.

And here we are today: the American church is in decline, religious liberty is under attack, those without any religious affiliation (the “nones”) are on the rise, abortion remains legal, gay marriage is now legal, almost half the states currently have laws legalizing marijuana in some form, the Tea Party is threatening to split the Republican Party, and the country as a whole is deeply divided.

Whatever form of theocracy or Christian utopia the alliance between religion and politics was supposed to produce, the evidence suggests that it failed … miserably. And worse, the Gospel message has been upstaged and hijacked by the political agenda.

In religious circles, the popular narrative to explain this deterioration is that the country has steadily walked away from God and its Christian heritage. That’s a good story but it offers an incomplete explanation. What role have Christians played in the downfall? Can we serve two masters by claiming to be representatives for Christ while championing a political agenda that is only narrowly biblical? We confidently blame non-believers for our circumstances, but were we complicit in abandoning God? And, is it too late for American Christians to reclaim our mission as ambassadors for Christ?

The purpose of this blog is to explore those questions and many more, and to foster conversation about our collective dilemma and what to do about it.

I believe Christians need a profound paradigm shift. We need a tactical retreat from partisan politics and a radical course correction in our political activism. We need to vastly minimize our investment in the culture war – not because we are losing but because it was the wrong fight. We need to stand firm for the true and complete biblical agenda. We need to rebuild our communities to survive in a post-Christian era. We need to embrace our core mission as disciples of Christ, return to the harvest, and recommit ourselves to our most essential role — to live and love like Jesus.

I’m not the only one issuing this call for change, but I firmly believe it is a message that needs to be repeated, adopted, and put into practice. This blog will serve as a place to host that conversation, which is taking place among an ever-widening circle of Christian leaders. The next few years will determine how much of the damage is irreversible.

I definitely have a vision for what our reinvigorated role looks like, but I don’t have all the answers. At times I feel as though I need to know everything to say anything. That’s why I need you to participate; to join the conversation.

Admittedly, this blog is a form of crowdsourcing, that is, soliciting input from an online community. But it won’t work if it (like so many blogs) becomes an echo chamber. This venture needs intelligent critique backed by credible sources — Scripture being chief among them. I won’t always get it right, and I’m counting on this community of supporters to identify the gaps, flesh out observations, correct reasoning, reshape arguments to fit Scripture, and discard falsehoods.

This blog is for Christians — those who put their faith and trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Although I’m glad to hear the thoughts and insights of non-believers, the objective of this blog is to engage Christians, not to convert non-believers. Beyond addressing key topics, I will occasionally focus on current events and the antics of those in the public eye who profess to be Christians but don’t act like it. They often serve as examples of what is wrong, and as case studies for discovering ways to realign with our true calling.

The tagline for Informing the Faithful is “Challenging the Distractions to Christian Living.” In keeping with that commitment, I will not allow the uninvited comments of interlopers to drag down the discussion. I will gladly delete the inflammatory drivel of Internet trolls whose only motivation is to aggravate, distort, and cripple productive conversation. The topics will be difficult enough without self-appointed agitators.

Even among believers, though, I do not expect to find harmony and peaceful co-existence when having a conversation about religion and politics. Ultimately, this is spiritual warfare — though not against one another — and the stakes are high:

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” – Ephesians 6:12

It’s risky for all of us to open up, especially about deeply held beliefs. Our mothers were right when they told us to avoid discussing religion and politics to prevent heated arguments and strained relations. Underneath the emotional bluster, however, lurked an uglier truth that they never shared: religion and politics are two topics about which many people feel strongly but have limited information and understanding. (Ouch!) Fear, half-truths, distortions, rigid ideologies, and isolated personal experiences comprise a significant percentage of what informs our faith and politics.

For those reasons and more, this venture will be uncomfortable for all of us at times. But the corrosive interplay between religion and politics has simply become too critical to the future of Christianity in America to merely go on bemoaning the contemporary narrative of our predicament. We are directed to walk wisely in the world (Colossians 4:5-6), be shrewd (Matthew 10:16), and renew our minds (Romans 12:2). If we don’t become educated, conversant, and clear eyed about what is really going on, we will be accomplices to the church’s demise.

I invite you to explore the relevant topics with me and discover better ways to represent Christ through them. That’s probably not the most enticing offer you’ve received this week, but I certainly pray it is the most compelling.