It’s nearly impossible to escape it in the news, entertainment, and social media. The conversations bubble up around the water cooler, at family gatherings, and during school functions. We live in a highly charged political arena and current events, like the partial government shutdown and the battle over border security, bring it to the forefront. What should we as Christ-followers do with politics? Should we dive in head first and pick up protest signs or should we quietly retreat to our homes and avoid confrontation like the plague? Is there a middle way?
I find it difficult to write about this topic because if I mention the sanctity of human life as it relates to the unborn then I will be quickly labeled, and dismissed by those on the left, as a right-wing religious conservative. However, when I breathe a word of compassion for immigrants and refugees then those on the right call me a bleeding-heart liberal socialist. If Jesus was asked to comment on the news, would he be on CNN or Fox News?
I do not like to align myself on either side of the political aisle. I have been registered as and have voted for Republican, Democratic, and Independent candidates. I always do so with much prayer and trepidation knowing that I disagree with both sides on significant matters and agree on other equally significant matters. At the end of the day, I have to remember that God is in charge and that I am a Christian first, before any of my political leanings.
The thing that makes it all so much more difficult is the tone that politics has taken. Perhaps I am just too young to remember, but it seems like there is a deeper division between the two sides than ever before. No longer do the two sides just disagree on matters of policy and practice, but they speak with vitriol and hatred towards each other with belittling insults and name-calling. Is this really what we’ve come to?
How Did We Get Here?
History tells us that our differing political opinions have roots in our differing theological convictions. Contrary to popular opinion, both the Republican and Democratic parties are steeped in Christian values. This means that finding peace across the political aisles might be more difficult than getting Southern Baptists and Catholics to the same BBQ.
The Republican Party went through a shift to the right on social issues in the 70s and 80s as millions of conservative evangelicals entered the GOP. It wasn’t until this time that opposition to abortion rights and gay rights were a partisan issue. For many evangelicals and conservative Catholics, these newly-centralized stances on issues related to traditional values and the sanctity of life made the GOP an obvious choice, and by 2008, 40 percent of Republican voters were white evangelicals. This gave the Christian right and the conservative coalition a huge influence on the direction of the GOP.
However appealing the GOP may have been, many other Christians found an alternative way to apply their biblical theology through the Democratic Party. I grew up in a post-Jimmy Carter America seeing Democrats as the party of secular liberalism. And it wasn’t until years later that I realized that their history is steeped in Christian tradition as well.
Mainline Protestant support for the rights of the disenfranchised and minorities as well as collaborative foreign policies helped to cement those issues as calling cards of the Democratic Party. Though personally religious, many Democrats have been quick to refer to the separation of church and state when asked why they aren’t more forthcoming about their beliefs. Jimmy Carter was the notable exception to this. Many of them simply see their religious beliefs as deeply held but more private because of their role in government. However, some believe that their party’s principles reflect the ethical teachings of Jesus and the social justice proclamations of the Hebrew prophets.
Where Do We Fit?
So, if both parties are rooted in the principles of Christianity, then why do many Christians feel that neither party represents their values well?
Many pro-life Catholics, including some evangelicals, appreciate the Democratic Party’s stances on immigration, the environment, and economic justice, but can’t stomach the party’s support for abortion rights. They can’t bring themselves to vote Democratic, no matter how much they might like the party’s views on other issues, because their conscience will not allow it. But many conservative evangelicals are angry with the GOP for only giving lip-service to the moral issues that they care about. Consequently, the choice at the voting booth is between a party of corporate greed and hawkish foreign policy or an endorsement of secularism, cultural liberalism, and abortion rights.
Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that though both party’s views are based in part on Christian tradition, these platforms are also distortions of Christian beliefs. Just a glance at the news and you easily spot most of the seven deadly sins (sloth, wrath, greed, lust, gluttony, envy and pride) in the platforms of the nation’s political parties, often masquerading as Christian values. Christians seeking to be faithful to the whole counsel of God will not find themselves at home in either party.
When you become frustrated with the existing political system, take it as a reminder to thank God that he sent Jesus to establish the Kingdom of God. And we cannot equate his kingdom with any
As is the case with every paradox associated with Christianity, there is an already / not yet component as it relates to political loyalties. Unless a political system is fully centered on God, and none is, Jesus will have things to affirm and things to criticize about it.
I’m not saying that we should just retreat from politics and let the whole thing collapse into secular humanism. We should pray, we should be informed, we should let our voice be heard as we vote, and we should hold our elected officials accountable to enact policies that reflect the beliefs they claim to espouse.
Whose Side is Jesus On?
Remember when Joshua was trying to figure out how to deal with Jericho, and he met the commander of the Lord’s Army? In Joshua 5:13-14, we read, “Joshua went to him and said to him, ‘Are you for us, or for our adversaries?’ And he said, ‘No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.'”
Did you catch that? Joshua asks, “Are you on my side or my enemy’s?” And he answers, “Neither. I’m on the Lord’s side.” The question isn’t whether Jesus is on the Democrat or Republican side. The appropriate question, not only for politics and government but also every other concern, is are we on the Lord’s side?
We should feel a deeper sense of community with people who share our faith but not our politics than we do with people who share our politics but not our faith. This is because we can experience unity through our primary allegiance to Jesus the King. At the cross, he removed the dividing wall of hostility between people on the far left, people on the far right, and people everywhere in between.