A City upon a Hill, or Vanity Fair?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that a city set upon a hill is not easily hidden. It attracts attention, exposed as it is. Just so, the deeds of the righteous are on public display. It is not desirable that the light instilled in a man by the Spirit of God should be hidden. The idea of a godly community brought before the attention of men as an example has deep roots in American political ideas, going all the way back to John Winthrop's famous address on board the Arabela, "A Model of Christian Charity." Toward the end of this sermon, he observed,

For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken... we shall be made a story and a by-word throughout the world.

Winthrop warned that being the focus of attention has significant drawbacks if the community loses faith with God.

Vanity Fair, other than being the title of a book by Thackery, is a community described by John Bunyan in his The Pilgrim's Progress, as a place that will not abide righteousness and does its level best to kill those who try to live for God. Although it purports to be at peace with its godless ways, it shows through its persecutions of the godly that it cannot abide being reminded of its depravity.

The difference illustrated by these two communities is that between a society founded upon a desire to honor and obey God and one that will not have God in its thinking but is devoted entirely to the satisfaction of human desire. Furthermore, Vanity Fair is a society that will actively persecute those who try to live and think biblically.

Is the America of the 21st century Winthrop's city on a hill or Vanity Fair?

But what is the correct, Christian way forward? What has the American church gained in the past thirty years by becoming more active in politics, especially as it has become increasingly identified with the Republican party? Some would say the results of the recent national election shows a repudiation of both the party and the church.

What is more effective--change at the ballot box or change in the human heart?