They say you should never discuss religion or politics, but it’s hard to determine where the adage started. You don’t have to be a sage to recognize the pitfalls of such conversations. Jonathan Swift said, “Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired.” Mark Twain was more specific: “I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s.”

The millions of dollars spent on superficial and emotive political ads, compared to that spent on information that helps people understand the depth of candidates and issues, could make you believe that Mark Twain was insulting monkeys. Therein, though, lies an opportunity.

Each summer when mission teams are on site, our congregation goes door to door and witnesses on the street, including on college campuses. The youth who go with us are often surprised by how shallow are the religious beliefs and convictions of many people we meet. Even as people tell us what they believe and respond to a couple of followup questions, they start to seem surprised at their own shallowness or lack of specificity, and sometimes begin to show discomfort. This happens frequently with those whose faith includes relativism.

Those same types of encounters have occurred when many different Reformed Presbyterians have witnessed in countless places to myriads of people. They are able to bring up religion in a conversation to strangers or acquaintances. Part of the reason for the warning about religion and politics is that, even in an age of angry confrontations, most people want a polite society. However, if you are respectful and friendly and caring—as though indeed you were concerned about someone’s eternal soul and were reaching out to them as someone saved by God’s grace alone—then, rather than seeming impolite, you actually sometimes open doors wide to a conversation they’ve been dying to have but didn’t have a safe space in which to do so.

Armed with that attitude—and especially with the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God—you will encounter situations that amaze you. We are blessed to feature two people in this issue who know a lot about the power of God’s Word to save people. Pastor Tim McCracken has seen the “basic” Word of God bring people to faith both inside and outside of prisons. Naghmeh Panahi was transformed as a child by the simple Word of God when she had no contact with Christians. In her adult life she has had remarkable opportunities to witness to the power of God’s Word among the nations and specifically in the country of Iran. She points out that doing kingdom work in the routine things of life helped prepare her for bringing up the gospel in extraordinary situations.

For good measure, we’ve included politics in this issue, too—some very wise advice from some RP pastors about things you can do in our political landscape when it seems like one person can’t make a difference.