Kennedy's now empty office.

Obvious lessons can be learned from Senator Kennedy’s funeral; the description of the gospel is one of the most interesting. In my years of scattered interest in politics, Christianity and the gospel are not words that came to mind first and foremost when hearing Ted Kennedy’s name. His Irish Catholic heritage was obviously deep in his family and for him personally.  Much has been made of Senator Kennedy’s recent confessional letter to the Pope.  His Catholicism is concerning enough, but is not what I found most intriguing (though it is interesting to see how many call his Catholicism ‘faithful’ when he opposed so much of it publicly).  I won’t comment on the funeral mass – that’s another issue.

Instead, I found it fascinating to listen to the more liberal commentators stretch themselves to talk about how “Christian” Senator Kennedy was.

• Social work alone was the heart of Jesus’ message.  Matthew 25 and its description of what was done for “the least of these” is the single defining mark of Christianity.

• The gospel is “working for the little guy.”

• Personal immorality is inconsequential when working for social justice.

• A denial of the exclusivity of the gospel of Jesus as the only way to the Father.

• Denial of genuine discipleship and loyalty to Christ as presented in the whole of the Bible.  Very little was said of Jesus Christ outside of social justice terms.

• A division between the social ethic of Jesus and the rest of the New Testament.

• Only certain social issues are worth mentioning. Much was championed about his vocal call for an increase in the minimum wage, and little about his support of abortion.

I do believe that Bible-centered, gospel-centered Christians are too quick to allow liberals to hijack the issue of social justice.  We need a robust readjustment of a gospel-centered approach on this issue.  It is a subject I am interested in pursuing more significantly.  However, last week was anything but gospel-centered.

This truncating of the gospel for a liberal social agenda is nothing new.  It is also common to speak much of God and religion at someone’s death.  It was simply fascinating to see how those who excoriated George W. Bush for his religious convictions and their impact on his life now champion Ted Kennedy for the impact his religious convictions had on his public policy initiatives.  It was interesting to hear liberals who lust over the secular fall over themselves to discuss Kennedy’s “faith.”

The gospel of Jesus Christ – God’s holiness, the depth of our sinfulness, the perfection of Christ’s atonement, the need for life altering faith and repentance, the supernatural change of conversion and a life of discipleship under the lordship of Christ through the sufficiency of God’s word are issues never discussed through the public outpouring of accolades about the Senator’s Christianity.  But then again that was just it, last week was a lauding of the Senator’s faith, not necessarily that which is defined in Scripture.