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Big Questions

The Christian and Politics

Posted by John Sommerville on with 1 Comments

Every four years I want to be Rip Van Winkle and go to sleep in September and wake up the second week of November. I’m a not a political junkie. I never watch CNN or FOX, and in 2016 I didn’t watch a single debate. I’m also not a member of any political tribe. I do have opinions but I usually keep them to myself. So, don’t ask me how I’m going to vote; I won’t tell you. Sometimes I don’t even tell my wife.

Even though I’m not the most politically engaged person you’ll meet, I’m not living under a rock so I do know what’s going on. And I have to confess it’s gotten under my skin. I’m disgusted by the lack of civility and frustrated by those trying to stoke our anger, fuel our fears and pander to our innate selfishness.

Our goal here at City Church, whenever we look at an issue, is to look to the Bible for guidance. The Bible is our rule for faith and practice. It’s the standard against which we’re to judge all things. So in what follows over the next few weeks, I want to draw on what the Bible has to say about politics.

Christians and politics: Christians have historically thought about politics along a continuum between two extremes. One end is those who argue for withdrawal. They reject politics as worldly. For example, my great-grandparents refused to vote or get involved in politics. “Our citizenship is in heaven,” they’d say (Phil 3:20) and concentrated on personal holiness and telling others about Jesus. Many conservative Christians held this view until the 1970s.

The other extreme is to think politics is everything. Christians on the right and the left have come to believe that social change happens only through political action. This is sort of thinking that led to the Moral Majority in this country and Christian political parties in others. This view is fairly new, even in American history. That’s because many American immigrants came from European countries that had state churches, and the idea of churches engaged in politics made them nervous. It made our founders nervous as well, which led to the first amendment notion of the separation of church and state. 

One danger of seeing politics as everything is that it can lead to the justification of coercive power. It’s true that laws can force people to follow the rules. But when power is used coercively, it leads to anger, rage, and the desire for revenge. 

I would suggest that the neither extreme is healthy. Withdrawal is the equivalent of putting our heads in the sand and failing to take responsibility. And politics is everything ignores the Bible’s insistence that God, not politics, must be at the center of our lives. Government is just one human institution among others, and not even the most important of them all.

The Bible and political theory: One question I’m asked periodically is whether the Bible endorses one form of government over another. Some try to make that argument, but I find it unconvincing. The biblical authors suggest that God is far more concerned with how those in power discharge their duties, than with the structure of the government. That doesn’t mean structure doesn’t matter. In general, I believe representative democracy works better than the alternatives, not because it’s something God endorses, but because it incorporates checks and balances that keep power from becoming too concentrated. From history we know that concentrated power seldom works out well. But democracy also has its weaknesses. Rather than the tyranny of a despot, it can result in the tyranny of the majority, because the majority can lose its mind.

Before we move on next week to talk about biblical political priorities, it’s helpful to know how Jesus dealt with the politics of his day. You may not be aware of this, but Jesus lived in a hyper-political world. The Jews in Palestine had lived under foreign rule for centuries. High taxes, alien laws, brutal oppression and pagan practices were all around them. It created a theological crisis; if the Jews were God’s people, why did God allow this calamity? Some in Jesus’ day argued for withdrawal. Others for holy war. Still others for compromise.

So, which option did Jesus choose? None of the above. He never said the problem was Roman rule. Instead, he said the problem was the failure of God’s people to act like the people of God.

Much to their frustration, Jesus never told his disciples to develop a strategy for taking care over the political structures of their day. They expected it, but he refused even to consider it.

Just before he began his public ministry, Satan took Jesus up on a high mountain and pointed in every direction and said, “All this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me” (Matt. 4:9). But Jesus turned him down. Instead of plotting to grab political power, Jesus pointed his followers to God and to live out the values of his kingdom.

So, what then, did his disciples do after he ascended into heaven, and how did it work out? Well first, we know that they didn’t try to take over the reins of political power, even though the government in place was far harsher than anything we see in this country today. For one, it would have been impossible.

Here’s what’s interesting. They didn’t think this was a problem. They didn’t organize into a “moral minority” and demonstrate for religious freedom or lobby for legislation on specific moral issues.

But that doesn’t mean they didn’t do anything. Instead they followed Jesus’ advice. Rather than seek political influence, they instead lived Christianly in every way. They practiced an ethic of love. They cared for the poor. They valued everyone including slaves, women and foreigners. And historians tell us it worked! The church had such a profound impact on culture during the next three hundred years that they grew rapidly until they were the largest, fastest growing religion in the ancient world. Rome could cope with revolutionaries, but it couldn’t cope with a community of believers who gave their entire allegiance to Jesus Christ. Armed with a mission rooted in love, they changed the world.

The church’s relationship to government changed dramatically in 313 AD with the Edict of Milan, when Constantine granted tolerance to all religions in the Roman Empire. Up to then, Christians had been periodically persecuted. Few had political power. No one had the right to vote. But suddenly, almost overnight, this changed and they had to think about how to engage with the process, not just live outside it.

This made the church think about political engagement, and soon values emerged such as protecting people from evil, promoting justice, especially for the vulnerable, and working for the common good of all, not the self-interest of a few. The fourth-century Christians gave thought to what the Bible had to say to the issues of their day. But their issues are not ours, so each generation since has had to think anew about what the Bible has to say to their challenges. <to be continued…>

 

Comments

Christine Thomas October 1, 2020 5:46pm

Great post. I've been in conversations lately around, "What's going to happen in/after this election??" There is such a focus on the drama, as well as fear and anxiety. While that's easily understood, I don't think it's where God wants His people to get stuck. What He's shown us is that WE have work to do, regardless of any political outcome. And although the work may seem difficult, what a joy to be invited along to bring the Kingdom! He has promised to bear the burden...He sent His son to carry the heavy load. We are invited to gain Christ through serving others. I think that matters more than anything else, and transcends anything political.