America won't be saved by a 'quick fix,' says fmr. presidential hopeful, Pastor Ryan Binkley
Pastor and former longshot Republican presidential hopeful Ryan Binkley has said the United States cannot be saved from its domestic problems with a “quick fix.”
Binkley spoke with Christians Engaged CEO Bunni Pounds on Saturday as part of her organization’s annual conference, which was held at Sojourn Church of Carrollton, Texas.
Binkley, who dropped out of the Republican primary in late February, said during the conversation that the nation was “in desperate need of an economic and spiritual revival.”
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“And the time for that revival is not 10 years from now or 20 years from now; the time for that revival is now,” he said.
Binkley felt that the “challenge” was that while his call for “an economic and spiritual revival in our country” is “always well received” by people, Americans prefer to have a “quick fix” on those issues.
“America, what we fall in the condition of is that we want a quick fix,” said Binkley. “We want to go through the ‘urgent care center,’ so to speak. Like, ‘Hey, can I get this, and what drug can you give me?’”
“Whereas, in reality, we need [...] a difficult heart surgery that you can’t get at an urgent care center. And so, we want something quickly.”
Binkley also believes there's “a sleepiness in the Church,” rhetorically asking if Christians “are we willing to do what it takes to get the long-term result or do we just want the quick fix?”
“We have to speak to the Church to wake up because there’s so many things that God cares about,” he continued. “He cares about our economic security. He cares about our physical security. He cares about us having a long-term plan for the next generation.”
“Let’s wake up to the reality that we’re not going to fix this thing overnight.”
Pounds agreed with Binkley and championed her organization as “planning on building an army of Christians that will build over time and really impact the nation on a policy level and in our churches.”
Binkley also expressed hope for the rising generation, telling Pounds he held many events on college campuses and said the young people he encountered “are not as lost as we think.”
“They truly have a hope,” Binkley said. “They know something’s broken, but they’re not receiving it from our messengers today. But I do believe this: they will listen to you if you’re authentic.”
“If you show and we show that we care about them and that we want to really try and explain the economic calamities of socialism, how that can really impact their future, then they’ll listen.”
Binkley’s conversation with Pounds was part of the annual conference held by the group Christians Engaged, which works to politically mobilize practicing Christians to support conservative causes.
In addition to Binkley, speakers at this year’s event included former U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., Congressman Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas, Coach Joe Kennedy, Family Policy Alliance CEO Craig DeRoche and the Rev. Rafael Cruz, among others.
During his remarks at the conference last Friday, Cruz talked about how he believes the oft-repeated phrase “God is in control” is counterproductive to a politically engaged faith life and unbiblical.
“I want to tell you, ‘God is in control’ is a cop-out,” said Cruz, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “‘God is in control’ is an excuse that Christians give to justify sitting on their rear ends doing nothing, while the country is going to Hell in a handbasket.”
“It denies individual responsibility; it denies free will,” he continued. “If there is a fundamental principle of Scripture, it is the principle of stewardship. We are stewards of all of God’s creation.”
