I don’t talk about politics. I actually have some very strong opinions about them, but I honestly feel that there is no need to add one more shout to the din by expressing them. So this opinion isn’t about politics. It is about Christians in politics. And I will try to be kind, but I’ve had a lot of time as a Christian NOT talking about politics to be able to feel that I have a reasonable opinion to offer here. You know, while I’m allowing my own subjective approach to come out.
I was a freshman in a college that was out to change the world by training and connecting its students into government. I had gone in as a creative writing major, so I didn’t feel the same strictures to my thinking that my friends felt as they set their eyes on the prize – I think most of them imagined that they could be president one day. One of our classes was a discussion class that posed a question or two per week, intended to give us training in both speaking and critical thinking.
The question that came up on the day I will never forget was “How involved should Christians be in politics?”
I started an essay running the predictable lines I’d heard, and then I stopped mid-essay, realizing I didn’t actually believe what I was saying. By the time I was finished, I’d come to the conclusion that while it wasn’t a sin for a Christian to be involved in politics, there was no real Biblical mandate that we must be.
I was on the essay examination panel that week, holding that position in a room full of students who were there to get into politics. At one point, someone else on the panel turned to me and asked incredulously, “What are you doing at this school???”
I am not pro-choice. I do not support gay marriage. I believe that abortion is murder and that homosexuality is an abomination to God. But I will not be a voice for the religious right to speak their condemnation of these practices into our political system.
I believe that God has placed earthly governments over us – no matter which party is in power, what leader we have, what the rest of the world says about us. It is NOT a theocracy or a church hierarchy. It is a completely secular entity formed by man and propagated by man. God holds the heart of the king, but He allows the king to make the decisions he will as a man and uses those decisions for His ultimate glory.
He is perfectly capable of speaking His own wrath, when He is ready.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
-Romans 1:18-32
Christians in America have had unprecedented involvement in politics. They have turned sins into political agendas, waging a religious war against flesh and blood, a war that they are destined to lose, because flesh and blood will return to dust. It is a war that Paul attacks in Romans 2, warning his readers against judging, reminding them that as they judge, so will they be judged.
I personally don’t care if gay marriage is legalized in all 50 states. I would not choose it for myself; it is not my responsibility to hold others back from their choices. I am extremely cautious about politicizing abortion. Judgment offers only death in attempt to preach life. The idea of a government run by a religious right terrifies me – not because I’m party to the left, but because we have no more business forcing God on those who don’t choose Him than He has taken forcing Himself on us. We are told to gird ourselves for battle by putting on Jesus Christ – not by attempting to drown out and eradicate all the voices that rise up against Him.
If we back out of the debates, we run the risk of becoming “good men who do nothing”, but it will only prove the matter I already suspect, that we have already taken on such futility in our thinking that we have forgotten how to be a light. That we have stopped believing that our very lives lived in Christ are enough to condemn others for not choosing Him. That we believe our city on a hill is dependent on an earthly government for its existence.
God has given man up to his passions, but He sent Jesus to die for love of us all. Our voice in politics – or anywhere – should be the echo of a loving God who sees us for what we are and has done everything He can do to reveal Himself while He may yet be found.
As a Christian, I believe that it is my place to speak the Gospel – that Jesus died to redeem us and reconcile us to God so that we could know Him, not to reform us and our character. This is good news indeed – good news that is not being preached in the political arenas where judgment and a louder “right” is the going rate to gain a seat in any district.
There will be no such thing as a Christian Utopia or earthly Kingdom of God until Jesus returns. People sin and will continue to sin until sin is no more and God dwells with us without separation. Making political wars over sins won’t speak grace to a world that desperately needs Him.
Loved reading this Kelly. It’s more a libertarian point of view (and one I personally hold as well). I appreciate how you succinctly put how one can believe that homosexuality and abortion are both wrong but it’s not necessary something that can or should be regulated by political parties. I appreciated reading this perspective! Thank you for putting your opinion out there when there is the chance to upset your readers. I take it as a chance to challenge myself personally to do the same more often despite whom it may offend. Thank you!
Wow. What a fabulous post, Kelly. Almost any missionary biography one could pick up holds testament to the fact that often God’s people flourish under governments that are actually anti-Christian. This doesn’t mean we throw up our hands and let sin rule, but it’s a perspective we must remember. God is always at work. It’s definitely a balance. It’s heart change God’s after in us all, not just law changing, as good or bad as that can be sometimes.
Kelly, I so very much agree with you!! We have no business being politically involved and boy I could go on forever about the reasons why. But I will leave it at that. You aren’t alone, and I love finding people that totally get it. 🙂 Keep up expressing your thoughts and opinions, even if it is difficult to press that “publish” button. Heh 😉
Loved these thoughts Kelly. I have often thought the same about these issues, but have often been hesitant to express them especially here in the deep south where so many churches are too involved in a political agenda. If only our churches showed more grace to those who disagree with them.
Warning: lots of rambling words ahead. But don’t worry – there is a point.
I would caution you against throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Let me take marriage policy as an example: there is societal good in promoting stable, two-parent households. Totally secular social science tells us that traditional marriages create the best environment for the rearing of children that will contribute to society (i.e. stay out of jail), so you can argue there is a compelling governmental interest in promoting traditional marriage. That’s how you end up with tax policy that gives (most) married couples a break – not because a bunch of right wing advocacy organizations launch an email campaign telling people that marriage is in jeopardy unless the tax credit is maintained. I would argue that part of God’s common grace to mankind is that things tend to go better for the society that lives in the way He says is best, so for the sake of general order and a peaceable society (for which we are called to pray and work for), there is cause to stand up on some of these issues and make sound arguments that never mention God or the Bible.
That being said, I will gladly admit that the example of strong Christian marriages in the lives of non-believers is far more compelling and effectual than any law on the books. Government can only regulate the external. Just look at the closed countries that try to dictate matters of faith, where the “illegal” Church flourishes. America’s problem is that we have come to a point where it essentially wants all the benefits of a Christian culture (taking care of the infirm, the elderly, the widow and orphan) without the self-sacrifice to which Christ calls us. C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man and “men without chests” come to mind. This is true both in the culture at large and in the church. I’ve spent six years exposed to correspondence from self-professing Christians to their legislators, and you would not believe what some of our brothers and sisters say. Too much of the American church has been infected with the poison of either (1) if there’s a problem, it’s the government’s responsibility to fix it, or (perhaps even more dangerous) (2) the end of the world will happen if prayer is eliminated from schools, that cross the judge said was unconstitutional gets taken down, homosexual marriage is made legal, etc. (Sidebar: the end of the world is going to happen anyway, not sure where these folks get the idea it wasn’t and why they’re so afraid of it if they’re believers, but I digress.)
While there is plenty of blame to go around in circles where Christians go into politics for the sake of Christians going into politics, no one gets anywhere in politics without considerable support. A lot of times, that support has come from individuals and groups that don’t use their God-given faculties to reason about our role in government is and should be and could be. Frankly, it can be a bunch of mindless, sheep-like bleating. We don’t have a lot of great Christians in politics because knee-jerkers on both the right and left find them untenable. And what do we expect? We are by nature knee-jerkers and we would be foolish to expect much else.
Which brings me full circle to what I find your theme to be (I promised you there was a point) – that Christ came for redemption of the soul, and that is what Christians must be about. We cannot redeem through the legislature or through the sword. If every believer was the light and salt they were called to be in whatever sphere of influence they were given, there would be a better government, less greedy corporations, stronger families – the list goes on. But I would continue to make the argument that there is a place for Christians in government if they have the wherewithal to realize they are governing, by and large, a population that does not care about the gospel. Those on the outside should be viewed not as enemies, but as captives, and we should always be praying that God will open our eyes to ways that will set them on the path toward freedom – His very Self. Such believers can honor God by seeking Him personally in their decision-making while making articulate, compelling, and fact-based public arguments for policies that are consistent with the way He set things up – so long as their own lives are reflecting the change He has and is making in their own mind, heart, and soul.
Leann said it much better than I could have, but I just wanted to add… Perhaps this is just my “pet peeve,” but I don’t think Christians can compromise when it comes to abortion. No, we cannot bring about an end to abortion (or any other bad thing) with a “Christian government” — history shows us where other “Christian governments” have led — and no, I don’t think we will ever be able to end it completely, just as we will never be able to end murder completely. But I think it is one thing in particular against which Christians should make a decisive stand. There is love and forgiveness for all those involved in the abortion industry, absolutely! And I think an attitude of grace toward them is something we Christians need to work on. But I believe that while we extend grace toward the sinner, we should absolutely work to abolish the sin as far as it is within our power to do. The Bible makes it clear that we ought to uphold life as sacred, and it thoroughly disgusts me to see how flippantly this country tosses it into the trash (literally), all while the law claims to punish murder. There are other points upon which I am somewhat undecided at present, but I think that is one cause that is worth fighting for to the best of our ability.
Jessica, Leeann – thank you so much for weighing in. It is hard to explain and cover everything that should be covered in a blog post – your comments really speak along with the post, and I really appreciate your perspectives!
good post, kelly 🙂