The internecine comment is good too. Christians, please use the freerepublic to discuss how to reach the unchurched, rather than trying to convince some other Christian of your doctrinal point of view.
It's ironic to see this answer to the world's problems in this political forum. Most people see politics as the means to solving the world's problems. It's merely smoke. The fundamental solution to all problems is through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
After all, God is certainly a Republican, right? An American, too, I bet.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. We operate on two planes, the spiritual and the worldly. Spiritual bankruptcy leads to moral bankruptcy and the situation we find ourselves in now. Trying to solve the world's problems through "worldly" solutions, such as politics and laws, is like putting a band-aid on a deeply abcessed wound. Only by healing people's spirits, one by one, can you hope to solve the root problems our society faces.
Although we are in the midst of the Culture of Death (as JPII put it), I'm not so sure that these times are worse than any other times since Jesus walked the earth. Anybody can read the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans (written almost 2000 years ago) and see the very same problems in today's society.
That is why zealous christians can only listen to Rush Limbaugh for so long, until they tire of his shtick. Rush (95% of the time) preaches a gospel of salvation by conservative Republican ideology. I'm tired of it. His shtick fails to feed the soul. It is in the end a gospel of salvation by capitalistic materialism.
Materialism, either of the capitalistic or communinistic vein, is destructive of men's souls. Rush can't seem to fathom that.