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Another excerpt from the same article. A second trend which challenges our call to the cross is the temptation to see political power as the Church's primary means of influence in the world. Such a temptation arises in contexts where Christians are permitted to participate in the governing processes of Nation-States. The American context is an obvious example. There, many Evangelical Christians have closely identified with the political agenda of the Republican Party and organizations like “Moral Majority” or the "Christian Coalition." They have then attempted to mobilize the church to lobby legislation to reflect the views and morality of Christians. The Church has thus grown passionate about influencing their culture for Christ by "winning" political struggles with the opposition. The problem, of course, is that the democratic process itself is built on the assumption of power struggle. The entire political process therefore legitimizes the use of power and coercion of the majority over the minority. Thus when Christians take up such methods "in the name of God" (and in the attempt to be politically realistic) they are easily labeled for what they are – forms of self-serving power used to coerce others who do not agree with them. In adopting such political agendas, the church is interpreted by the postmodern world as the "enemy" seeking to exert its control over "us." The clear result has been further entrenchment and increasing counter-attack. In its attempt to win the "culture war," the church has tragically lost much of its ability to speak meaningfully about love, servanthood and the cross of Christ to the postmodern world. Instead of trying to get hold of the "reins" of culture for a good cause or confusing political power with the witness of the church, we must reject the temptation to obtain or influence power in order to do something good. Such attempts to be "realistic about the way the world works" serve only to compromise the unique witness of the church to the power of God. As Hauerwas says, "Christian ethics is precisely a way of behaving in the world where the good are weak – or to say the same thing in other words, where the only power of the gospel is the power of God." This does not constitute a "turning away" from the world nor silence regarding injustice or other "political" issues. Instead it is to affirm that the Church, rather than primarily contributing to a secular social strategy, is itself a social strategy. As a community of people interacting with each other the church constitutes a distinct polis. Through its practice and speech, it applies a hermeneutical critique to the cultures in which it lives and engages in new patterns which demonstrates to the world a new way of living. It may humbly participate in the broader strategies of the world, but it must see this as secondary contribution. It must especially guard against the temptation to contribute to these strategies if it means a "realistic" compromise regarding oneness of the Body of Christ or the call to the cross.