Today’s secular driven society seems intent on erasing the rich Christian history and influence in our country. One of the main battlegrounds is Washington, D.C. where one media outlet is creating a place for people to better understand the truth with a new venture called “Jesus in the Public Square.”
The cultural slide in America can be traced back to the 1960s when the Supreme Court said no to prayer in public schools. That led to legalized abortion in the 1970s and now the high court says there’s a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
“Somebody’s values are going to reign supreme, so our goal is to bring our values to the public square,” David Lane, founder of the American Renewal Project, said.
Lane’s American Renewal Project first moved toward that goal by urging pastors to get involved in the political process.
His next challenge: getting Jesus into the public discussion. It came about after a visit to a Washington bookstore.
“You couldn’t find a Christian book with a flashlight. And it hit me again, isn’t this awful? A nation founded by people on a religious mission, The Mayflower Compact, for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith, and in the nation’s capital and you can’t find a book or Jesus anywhere,” Lane remarked.
“If the Lord does it, we’re going to put Jesus right in the middle of the table in Washington, D.C. He will defend himself,” Lane continued.
That table opened up at The Washington Times. Lane planted a seed with management, which led to a website feature handled by Scott Lamb.
“Jesus in the Public Square at The Washington Times hopes to talk about and dialogue with people to show them that Jesus Christ and his lordship is a universal theme and they should submit to that,” Lamb told CBN News.
The fact that this effort takes place on a major outlet’s website is significant and so far it’s a hit. In the first two months, the site had nearly 200,000 page views, making it one of the top five most read Web communities on The Washington Times site.
“We felt like we had a hole there, a hole for faith coverage and faith issues,” reflected Washington Times editor John Solomon.
“The intersection of faith and public policy, the intersection of faith and politics gets larger and larger every day and it’s complicated. I think that if you come to Jesus in the public square and you read something there, you’re almost certain to learn something that you didn’t get to read somewhere else,” Solomon continued.
Some of the more popular stories featured biblical economics. Another popular story featured a pro-choice journalist who became pro-life after watching the recent Planned Parenthood videos.
“We’re not looking to do 500 pieces a day—we’re looking to do four, five, or six pieces a day that talks about Gospel-driven things that really results in Jesus Christ and gets people thinking,” Lamb told CBN News.
“We hope to have a ripple effect outward so that churches are stronger, so that individual families are stronger and that people who are not Christian now come into the family of God,” said Lamb.
Ultimately, Lane says that the name, “Jesus in the Public Square,” reminds us that all truth is God’s truth. For America to change course, the people need to hear His word in a desperate way. Lane is optimistic.
“God is in the business of resurrection. I believe there’s going to be a resurrection of America. Literally,” Lane stated.
