Quotes from Lutzer's Book

From Erwin Lutzer's 2010 book When A Nation Forgets God (my emphasis in bold):

...have we forgotten that God's power is more clearly seen in the message of the cross than in any political or social plan we might devise?...Do we cling to the cross with the deep conviction that it is not simply a part of our message to the world, but rightly understood it is the whole of it? (p134)

He refers to an analogy by a Christian writer of Christianity having become an empty bottle and then says this:

Regrettably, today the Christian bottle has been filled with many different agendas: pop psychology, environmentalism, and a nationalistic spirit that cannot distinguish between Christianity and the American way of life.  The cross has become an an ornament hung around the neck, not an instrument that changes the heart.

Some political activists have filled the Christian bottle with a strategy for political reform.  Salvation, it appears, is electing conservatives to national and local office.   Important though the right leaders might be, we must always remember that God is neither Republican nor Democrat.  When the cross is wrapped in the flag of a political party, it is always distracted or diminished.  Even for some who have experienced its power, the cross has become an addendum to what is thought to be more pressing agendas. (p 36)