The media have been brimming with words over the latest political gaffe, this one by Senator Trent Lott, a Republican from Mississippi and presumed future Senate Majority Leader. At the 100th birthday party of retiring Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Lott let his tongue outpace his brain: "I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

When Thurmond ran for president in 1948, he was the candidate of the Dixiecrat Party, a mostly Southern, states-rights group that was resisting the federal government's inexorable push toward what coalesced into the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The party's platform affirmed, "We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race." While campaigning, Thurmond asserted, "All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches."

Lott himself has a rather checkered past in the arena of race relations. While in college, he voted against desegregating his fraternity. He played a leading role in reinstating the citizenship of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in 1978. At an appearance with Thurmond in Jackson, Mississippi, on November 2, 1980, he made a statement similar to his latest gaffe after Thurmond spoke against federal pre-emption of state laws: "You know, if we had elected this man thirty years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today." In 1981, he authored a "friend of the court" brief supporting Bob Jones University's interracial dating ban. Finally, in 1992, he told the Council of Conservative Citizens, thought by some to be a racist organization, that they stood for the "right principles and the right philosophy."

As with many things that happen in Washington, DC, this faux pas has been blown far out of proportion. Granted, he was unwise to say such a thing. However, Lott's words do not say that he supports segregation and racism; Lott's detractors interpret what he said that way. Lott himself has apologized and declared that he is not a racist, nor does he believe in segregation. Yes, he is a politician—a group not known for truth-telling—but why is he not being taken at his word?

The answer: politics.

This has nothing to do with the truth; it has everything to do with power. The Democrats just suffered a terrible loss in the November elections, and they are still reeling. Buoyed by their recent Senate victory in Louisiana, they—along with their minions in the media—have latched on to the Lott blunder like bulldogs, seeking to squeeze concessions out of the Republican Party. They want the Republicans in this country on the defensive to stall or stymie their agenda so that Democrats can retake power in the next election. It is simply a power play.

What does this have to do with Christians? It is a lesson in political- and media-driven issues. It may be cynical to say so, but most of the debates on matters deemed to be critical to the public are not fought for moral reasons. Politicians and pundits may bring up moral arguments to buttress their positions, but they are not trying to make America more moral. If that were the case, abortion would never have been judged Constitutional. To use that example, abortion is a "choice" issue, meaning that it gave the power of that moral decision from society to individual women.

Jesus tells us, "You are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world" (John 15:19). His people are different; they have different beliefs, different intentions, different goals than people who have not been blessed with the knowledge and grace of God. In a word, our agenda is different. We are indeed trying to make this a more moral world, and we do it by changing ourselves first (Acts 3:19). Then, by our just and moral example, as well as our Scriptural teaching, we attract others to our cause. The process is painfully slow but ultimately effectual.

And Senator Lott? He should batten down the hatches and face the storm in his integrity, if he has any left.