I love politics. I really do. I love watching people jockey for a job that I wouldn't want if someone held a bazooka to areas unmentionable. I really like watching the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report. I like watching CNN and FoxNews (in very small doses). I like thinking about the midterm elections and whether the 2008 election will be Clinton-Kerry vs. Rice-McCain or something else.
However, Christians in politics is a a big connundrum. To me, for a Christian to enter politics makes me wonder if that person has decided that God's way of doing things doesn't work. They have decided that their duty to the Kingdom of God is to pursue power in the way that this world defines it: through power.
Of course, I realize that a lot of good has been done in this world based on Christians being in positions of power. Whether or not you believe that the Emancipation Proclamation did any actual good or not (it only released slaves in areas that had seceded and were not under Union control), the idea of what it represented was a foundational piece of moving toward racial equality. So it's impossible to say that having Christians in politics is totally a bad thing.
I guess the point that I'm thinking about is that the Kingdom of God is not about laws. It's not about forcing people to do something against their will. Jesus never begged anyone to follow him. He presented who he was, the cost of following, and then if someone walked away, Jesus let them go. He didn't force people into doing something. And laws are all about forcing people into doing things.
To take the race issue up again, Affirmative Action has been an effective program in giving minorities opportunities to get jobs and education that had been closed to them. But did it change the minds and hearts of all the majority, the Caucasians? No, of course not. It even hardened them in some cases. Laws can cause people to act a certain way or to acquiesce to certain actions, but it cannot force a racist to love someone they are prejudiced against. Only the Spirit of God can do that.
Politics is about power, seeking it, gaining it, hanging onto it. And power will disappear and change and take new forms in new parties and new countries. But the Kingdom of God is an eternal Kingdom, one that has survived persecution, popularity, being in power, Crusades, wars, exploration, new countries, and marginalization. May we seek the Kingdom that is about changing hearts and not the one that is about forcing actions.
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7 comments:
Since Kingdom work is not about politics, I have no comment about politics and Christianity. :-)
Tony
I can see what you're saying to some extent, Jack. However, government and politics has become so much about power and its use and abuse that I have trouble seeing followers of Jesus being able to be successful in it and remaining true to the call of Christ.
I freely admit that I might be wrong, but how I see Jesus calling us to act doesn't seem like it's very compatible to how people in government (on both sides of the aisles) tend to act. (Generalization alert!)
I majored in Political Science. I worked in Washington.
Should Christians not enter medicine because some doctors perform abortions?
Should Christians not practice law because many attorneys are crooked?
Should Christians not teach at the University level because many professors are morally bankrupt?
Respectfully, I think that the call to be in the world but not of the world means exactly that. We are to go to the worldly professions to which God calls us, and to make our mark for Christ in that arena.
Jesus tells us to render unto Caeser what is Caeser's. To me that includes participation in the political process. Jesus also made plain his beliefs when he called Matthew the tax collector and dined with Zaccheus. And met with Nicodemus. Government officials are as welcome into the kingdom of God as anyone. And I would believe strongly that the converse is also true--that those from the kingdom are enjoined to participate in the political process as they are called.
Ok, so let's posit that Christians can and should participate in the process.
How do you do that without giving up your Kingdom identity and without seeming like a "Christofascist" as I've seen Christians described before?
Are the temptations the same as at other professions, but just heightened because of the power involved in politics?
ahnog quote: Government is not about power--government is about protecting the righteous from the wicked.
I have a real problem with that statement. I find no factual basis for it, in fact empirical and historical evidence leads to the direct opposite behavior much too often, which is one of Phil's primary points.
Example of contradiction in your logic: Our fore fathers would have had no reason to rebel against England if their righteous gov't was protected the colonies against the wicked.
Our government was not developed for that express purpose stated. If you read the constitution and all the writings and debates leading to it, the purpose of our government was not to protect the "righteous" from the "wicked'.
Furthermore, who determines the righteous? As Justin pointed out, Hitler's idea of the righteous was as wicked as one can be.
As I read through this debate, including my own words, we are making Phil's point. In a simple discussion we are spending our energies on something other than Kingdom work. We are being distracted by debate. This has to cause Satan to chuckle.
"See, I don't have to convince man to agree with me, I just have to get them arguing with each other and loosing their focus on my enemy."
Tony
To add onto Katherine's comment: someone is going to govern. Someone will always be in secular authority. (Remember what happened when God tried to establish a true theocracy?) There will always be a need, whether or valid or not, for human leadership.
Therefore, to my way of thinking anyway, there is a need for right-thinking Christians to take on that responsiblity. The best politicians are the ones who come to the job reluctantly.
I've run into this way of thinking a lot, actually, being a lawyer. As a Christian, how can I be a part of an industry built on conflict and greed? The answer is that this system exists, like it or not. There is a real need for Christians to take on this mantle, and be a force for the Kingdom within a secular framework. There are some things in law that I will not do because of my faith. But I hope that those who work with me in the courts see Christ's love in me in what I do do.
I think the same thing applies in politics. Forgive me, but I think to argue otherwise is to be on the path to advocating complete withdrawal from anything not directly "Christian", which I know you don't believe, Phil.
However, let me state, unequivocally, that I do not believe it is the job of Christian politicians to impose their morality on anyone. The job of government is to ensure social justice, something the American political system does a poor job of indeed. Again, to me, there is a need for more Kingdom in the government (if I can distinguish that from "Christian" involvement in government, which we have too much of.)
How do you do that without giving up your Kingdom identity and without seeming like a "Christofascist" as I've seen Christians described before?
When you walk with the Lord in the light of His word, what a glory he sheds on your way....
Sorry. Hymn reference moment.
I really think it's a matter of being God-focused and God-directed, as are all things we undertake.
Being one of the annoying (and growing) crop of Christian libertarians out there, I have to say that I think it's extremely necessary for government to be constrained while simultaneously calling the Church to action.
I think it is necessary for Kingdom workers to do both.
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