Iowa religious conservatives told transforming U.S. culture trumps politics

DES MOINES - An influential bloc of Iowa religious conservatives - turned off by a 2016 presidential matchup between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton - were urged Saturday to 'think bigger” in leading a spiritual revival that would transform American culture to embrace pro-family, pro-church civic policies.

'Our vision is a revived America that honors God and blesses people,” Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The Family Leader Foundation, told about 1,200 attendees - including 400 pastors and their spouses - at the organization's fifth annual leadership summit on Saturday.

'We don't need the church to be political. But we do need the church to be biblical and to be culturally relevant so the people in the pews know what to do when they get involved in the government and in the politics,” he told the assemblage. 'If we elect the right people, we will get the right policy.”

Previous summits have featured Republican presidential hopefuls wooing evangelical Christians who become diligent foot soldiers for GOP conservatives at election time, but Vander Plaats said there was concern the organization was 'going too far political” and needed to 'recalibrate” its vision to 'keep the main thing, the main thing” in following God's mission for church, family and government.

Vander Plaats said tragic events that have occurred in Dallas, Orlando, San Bernardino and other places are emblematic of 'a culture that is in a dead sprint away from the heart of God” and is why God's people must change the focus back to God's principles, precepts and righteousness.

'This culture doesn't need more sound bites, more rhetoric, more inflammatory comments,” he said, 'this culture needs the gospel of Jesus Christ, that will change hearts, that will change minds, that's when we think bigger.

'We pray fervently for a Holy Spirit-led revival when this country would experience a third great awakening like none other, and I think right now that's what we need more than ever,” Vander Plaats told the summit attendees. 'We believe if that happens, guess what, we will impact elections.”

Even though he said this year's summit would 'veer out of politics” and would not 'get into presidential politics,” Vander Plaats at one point in his speech said he needed to 'address the elephant in the room” in writing 'Trump” on a display board for a group that largely helped Texas Sen. Ted Cruz edge the New York billionaire in Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses last February.

'We don't know if that's an elephant yet, but that's the elephant in the room. We have Trump and over here we have Hillary,” he said. 'I don't know about you, but I have never seen an election at this stage divide so many people. I've never seen it. Families are divided; ministries are divided; husbands and wives are divided on this issue; churches are divided.

'Here is my concern: good Christian men and women, brothers and sisters in Christ, the body of believers, some are coming up with different answers as it relates to this. That might be OK, but what I'm going to ask, what I'm going to encourage you is think bigger than 2016,” he added. 'Is 2016 important? I would argue, yes, it is important, but I think we shouldn't be distracted from the main thing.”

Chuck Hurley, a former state legislator who is Family Leader vice president, said the intent is not to withdraw from the political arena, but not to get caught up in the 'political illusion” that civics and government power is the answer.

'Admittedly, it is not what we would like - the situation for president,” Hurley noted, but he expected many religious conservatives would get involved in down-ballot Iowa campaigns that hold more promise than a presidential race in which he speculated 'not too many” of Saturday's attendees would actively engage.

'We're going to pray, we're going to treat people the way we want to be treated - the Golden Rule - we're going to stay engaged, we're not going to panic, this too shall pass,” Hurley said. 'Think bigger, that's kind of the theme.”