Religion & Politics… Those are two topics which, according to an old saying, one should never bring up in polite conversation. And especially never bring up in polite conversation together. In our society these days, in early 21st-century America, we often take the “wall of separation between church and state” to be such a fundamental rule of our social life that we treat religion and politics as if they belonged to two separate realities, two different worlds: religion is about what we do in our solitude, in our own personal and private lives, in here; and politics is all about what we do in our social and public and community life, out there; and never the twain shall meet. We get so used to religion and politics being different things that it feels vaguely uncomfortable—some feel downright wrong – when we hear religion in a campaign speech, or when we hear politics from the pulpit.
Religion and politics are two things most people would rather keep apart. But I believe scripture will not let us keep them apart; God cares about our political life, God is involved in our political realities, politics is not in a separate sphere from God but God’s world includes also the political world—and God calls us to do our politics in a Godly way.
As a pastor I understand that it is expected I will operate under the direction of some ground rules when speaking out on political issues. I do not see however how we can bar the controversial from the pulpit simply because it is controversial. If that were the case, pastors would hardly have much to preach on. I dare not be content to speak on matters of Biblical importance with glittering generalities. I am called to move the gospel to this age, to its people. Even more so the meaning and demands of the gospel today are chock-full of complexity. I understand that with politics, the more complex an issue, the more open to controversy, especially in a pluralistic society.
On such an issue, within this confines of this blog just days before the election, with little room for counter-argument, I don’t wish to speak in dogmatic fashion, as if I alone am the trumpet of the Lord, for I am not. I simply wish to quicken our Christian conscience, to spur you to both a personal and communal reflection by examining what the Bible so clearly has to say on the issues of today.
It’s the weekend prior to what has been called “The most important election of our lifetime.” As you may remember, the same was said about the election four years ago, and the election four years before that. Who knows if it actually is or if the same will be said four years from now, but I do believe there are issues of great importance at question for our faith as well as for our nation.
I consider myself a political junkie. I watched as much coverage of both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions C-Span would show me, I watched all three Presidential debates, the Vice-Presidential debate, and every four years I’m glued to two or more TV’s on election night as the results from each state come in. Four years ago I watched from my home in Michigan the Senate debates here in Illinois. I was very interested in both candidates. As you may remember, the Senate race was between Barack Obama and Ambassador Alan Keyes. You can imagine my interest four years later as both men were running for President of the United States. During their run for the Senate seat in Illinois, both men publicly acknowledged that they consider themselves “men of faith”. During one of their debates the moderator posed the question to each candidate – As a Christian do you believe that your opponent’s record on issues is in line with or goes against the teachings of Christ? Essentially it’s the old “Was Jesus a Democrat or a Republican?” question. I’ve heard this question asked many times, in many ways … even saw it on a bumper sticker once.
I thought for a moment, “What would I say?” Really, how would you have answered that question?
In many ways, serious consideration of this inquiry would force us to walk along a fault-line that runs right through the center of our Republic. Public pursuit of an answer to such a question would require us to engage in a conversation which would inevitably divide our nation to a point of constant contentiousness; as if it’s not already.
In my opinion, it does a disservice to Jesus even to attempt an answer to the question of whether He would be a Democrat or Republican. Such an identification of Jesus would have had no relevance to him in his day; he was a citizen of an occupied territory; his work was defined in statements like those that we know as the “Beatitudes” ….
•Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
•Blessed are the meek: for they shall posses the land.
•Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.
•Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.
•Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
•Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.
•Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
•Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
These are not declarations of political ideology. Changing the direction of his government was not even an option for Jesus and his Jewish colleagues. Admittedly, one could spar with the question playfully—Jesus did not seem to want much government in his life, a similarity shared with Republicans, though Jesus favored and even advocated for paying more in taxes, a similarity shared with Democrats. But, in the final analysis, those kinds of speculative generalizations serve no good purpose. To identify Jesus by choosing between the alternatives of his similarity to a Democrat or to a Republican all too easily could lead to a gross misunderstanding of Jesus as well as to a distortion of the meaning of faith and to a manipulation of faith for partisan political purposes. All too frequently, questions like this are a ploy to gain religious endorsement for a particular partisan political position.
Perhaps instead it will be helpful to raise the question of whether or not there is a biblical answer to any of today’s pressing political questions? The answer to that question is honestly ‘Yes and No.” Christian scriptures say quite a lot about interaction between government, faith, and the faithful. On the other hand, there is no simple solution, no “easy” button to push and activate the answer. Issues can be confounding and complex (environment, taxes, abortion, immigration legal and illegal, health care, social and welfare policies); experts, all men and women of good intention, often disagree. Still, disagreement need not strike the Christian dumb. It can only render me mute if I see the pulpit as the podium for eternal issues alone, defined dogma, the very words of Jesus. Beyond that, it is the task of every good preacher – our delicate, indispensable task – to help form a genuinely Christian conscience amongst the believers of Christ.
At times the issue is clear. In 1964 it was Civil Rights. There was no alternative, save the continued enslavement of a race. But few political and socioeconomic issues are that clear-cut. Once we get beyond the general principles – the right to live, to be clothed and eat, to decent housing, the privilege of a good education and health care, – it is difficult to locate evil, identify the villain, and pinpoint the solution.
Scripture is clear that government is a provision of God for the facilitation of an ordered society. According to the Bible, government officials should be recipients of our respect and beneficiaries of our prayers. Civil laws should be obeyed or broken with a will to receive the punishment prescribed for breaking a law. Even when a particular government becomes evil, Christians are to continue their prayers for civil leaders as well as to function as agents of change.
Equally important, the writers of the New Testament scriptures left no doubt that Christianity is a religion centered on God’s revelation through the person of Jesus of Nazareth. The determination of a Christian identity comes from a personal confession of and relationship with Jesus as savior, mentor, counselor, and guide.
That being said, these fundamental biblical truths directly relate to the interaction between Christians and their government or politics. Do not mistake what I am saying here. Nowhere in scripture will you find spirituality defined by political activity or a particular kind of political activity blessed as the epitome of Christian discipleship. Though Jesus explicitly taught his followers to give priority to certain issues—poverty, prisoners, the hungry, peace, justice—and to be faithful to an agenda for social action, never did Jesus elevate a specific kind of involvement in those issues or compliance to that agenda to be the final measurement of a person’s acceptance by God.
So, given these scriptural insights into the relationship between faith and politics, the civil realm and the spiritual realm, what can we deduce as guidelines for Christians’ involvement in politics?
First, Christians should serve as moral salt, light, and leaven in politics as in every other aspect of life. In some instances, political losses may be morally superior to political victories.
Second, faithful followers of Christ may join different political parties and assume contradictory political postures related to a plethora of social-political issues. And while it is perfectly in order for the people of God to debate which social-political agendas are the best, we MUST find our answers in the reflection of Christ – the priorities that emerged in the life and teachings of Jesus.
Third, we must always remember that identification as a Christian is determined by a personal relationship to Christ the reconciler and personal involvement in Christ’s ministry of reconciliation.
With these – the scriptural foundations and implicit contemporary applications on which we must stand to engage in this discussion – I share with you the perspective of one of those Senate candidates from Illinois. He said, “But of course, the question involved here (isn’t about two) people of different faiths, but people who profess the same faith, and that faith is faith in Jesus Christ. And the question, I think, that I would pose to the Lord … I want to know where He stands, so that I may follow Him.
I want to know where He stands with respect to the will of the Father, to Whom He looks. And on these questions, like abortion, He says the taking of innocent life is an abomination.
On these questions, like traditional marriage, He says He created us male and female, and that the wrong use of the body in this way is, again, as the Scripture says, an abomination. He defined marriage not as the union of man and man, or woman and woman, but as man and woman, and “the two become one flesh”—something that is possible only in the course of procreation.
So, when I look at where Christ stands, and I look at where (my opponent) stands, based upon that record of Christ’s understanding which we acknowledge as Christians to be the true record, I say, “Well, Christ is over here. (My opponent) over there. The two don’t look the same.
And that means that I’m not thinking about (me). I am thinking about the Lord.
And to say I don’t have the right to do that means that you’re trying to suggest that my faith-shaped conscience has no place in our politics. And yet, if I go into the voting booth or into public life without my faith-shaped conscience, then I have no conscience.
For, the Lord said I must love Him with my whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. There’s nothing left over. Without faith, there’s just a faith-shaped void where the conscience ought to be.
And I challenge all the voters of this state who profess to believe in Christ: “How can you vote from such a faith-shaped void?” Without the Lord, your vote will not be based upon that faith which ought to shape your life. And for anyone to suggest that you leave it behind at the door of the voting booth or public service, suggests something utterly incompatible with what the Lord, Himself, told us about the meaning of life.”
Unfortunately for us all, these were the statements of Ambassador Alan Keyes – NOT Barack Obama! Unfortunate because we no longer have the opportunity in Illinois to vote “Keyes for President”, but furthermore because at the posting of this, the likelihood of an Obama Presidency appears likely; likely to be voted in by a large number of Christians despite Obama’s positions on issues that stand in opposition to Christ’s teachings and example.
In 2 Corinthians 5:16-20 (ESV) I read from the Message Paraphrase:
… we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. 17Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! 18All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. 19God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. 20We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.
With a nation now so politically divided, we as Christians are called to view the world through the example of Christ. Through the movies we watch, the music we listen to, the conversations we have around the dinner table, and in regards to how we choose to vote and our reasons for doing so. There’s that cliché, “What Would Jesus Do” … well, as we view each candidate’s positions on the issues – as we look to what Christ has said on issues of morality – where does Christ Stand? Are the candidate’s views Biblical? Are we – are our candidates – as scriptures say, “united with the Messiah”? Are we ready on Tuesday to vote our “faith-shaped conscience”?
Indeed, our vote MUST reflect those Biblical values that are to shape our Christian life. This Tuesday, as on any Election Day, I pray that they do.
The question is not whether Jesus was more like a Democrat or a Republican. The real question for us is whether or not we—we Democrats, Republicans, Independents—are becoming more and more like Jesus.
If that is the case, if we are living more and more faithfully as followers of Jesus, all political parties will benefit from our participation in them, the nation will edge forward toward its highest potential, and we, in compliance with the plea of the apostle Paul, will practice politics that are worthy of the gospel of Christ and citizenship worthy of Christian discipleship.
