Real Christian Politics
Sep 5th, 2008 by ljkim
It’s that time of the decade…again. And I’d like to suggest three (and a half) marks of real thoughtful Christian engagement in politics:
1. Enlightened Partisanship
You can belong to a party and support candidates, but you may not marry it. Jesus is not a Republican or a Democrat. People have said that before, and they’re right. The usual reason they give is Jesus can’t be a Republican because he cares too much about the poor, and he can’t be a Democrat because he cares too much about family values…whatever that means. In fact, I think politicians in communist countries that fear and prohibit Christianity have a more accurate view of Jesus’ politics: He claims to be a king. The King. And therefore his authority and ways supersede and challenge to whatever local government his people live in. So you can be a Democrat or a Republican the way a child can be Superman on Halloween, but you must drop the claim before you jump out any windows… No political party fully reflects God’s will for government, but we want to be active in our present political system, working for the good…
2. Adversarial-Lite
Our form of democracy is based on an “adversarial system.” Two sides go to war (of words) and let the best side win. So in court it is the job of a prosecutor to absolutely slam the defendant, and it’s the job of the defendant to absolutely deny any wrongdoing (in all of life) whatsoever, and we place faith in the hope that the right side will usually win. A casualty of this process is oftentimes…truth. Neither side is encouraged to actually tell the truth. They each must play up their strengths and hide their weaknesses.
Just the way Jesus saw right through the claimed “righteousness” of the Pharisees, we need to see through the claimed righteousness of our parties. So you may pick a side, just don’t drink the Koolaid.
3. Truth Seeking
There’s a political game played by both sides that goes like this: You reduce your opponents views to something ridiculous (e.g., “Democrats just want to raise your taxes”, “Republicans just want to bomb Middle Eastern countries”) and present your own the way you see it. In debate that’s called a false dichotomy. If you did that at home you might be accused of lying. As far as I know in the Democratic tax plan, people making less than $250k a year would pay less taxes, and those making above $250k would pay 4% more (that’s not an unreasonable tax plan). And as far as I know the Republican plan in foreign policy is to not meet with leaders of countries like Iran until they make concessions in their nuclear program, because tactics like this have worked in the past, and countries like Iran have much to gain from negotiating with the U.S. It’s not really true that Democrats don’t care about family values, everyone cares about family values (and both conservative and liberal politicians have been caught in illicit affairs). It’s not really true that Republicans don’t care about the poor (they just don’t believe social services are always the best way address poverty, but favor a healthy capitalism).
3.5 Anti-Mockery, Slander, and Spin
Along with truth seeking, we ought to avoid and even be annoyed at political mockery by candidates. Making fun of someone’s words out of context is not a credible argument. Mockery is what you do when you don’t have a strong argument and choose instead to incite a kind of bigotry. It doesn’t matter how many houses John McCain has. Barack Obama was not insulting people’s religions when he talked about people losing hope in government (and “clinging to guns religion and xenophobia” the mockers usually don’t try to defend xenophobia). By the same token being a POW does not qualify a person for office, and it does not mean he’s already passed some kind of presidential test. But neither does eloquence and optimism qualify someone to preside over a country.
What is being lost is that the two candidates and parties are operating out of very different (and valid) governing philosophies and viewpoints. One is better than the other. No one knows for sure which until many years after it happens. Our job is to take up a side with humility while cutting through all the smoke and mirrors that is American politics.
But shouldn’t Christians vote for the most “Christian” candidate?
To put it simply: No. For a number of reasons:
1. Practical reason: You are not in a position to really know. It will only encourage politicians to fake Christianity better and better… This is what happened eventually in Rome and Medieval governments.
2. Moral reason: Your job is to pick the best president. You would be a corrupt teacher if you passed a student in your class simply because he had a strong faith. You’d be a foolish patient if you chose someone to be your doctor simply on the basis of their faith. And the person who asks for a job promotion because of his faith probably does not have a very Jesus-like faith, but he’s actually being self-seeking and manipulative. Paul warns Timothy of those who think of faith as a means to worldly gain.
3. All rulers, even bad ones, can be used by God. St. Paul told early Christians they must submit to Caesar even as he was terrorizing people of faith. If God can use ruthless dictators, he can use misguided politicians, so we really don’t know the outcomes… One of the best people to become president (Jimmy Carter) was one of the worst acting presidents (or admitted himself that he wasn’t very effective). Some of the worst presidents (in terms of foreign policy and personal scandals) presided over periods of great peace and prosperity. So we really don’t know. But since we have the privilege of being part of the government, we must do our best in humility, trusting God over all.
[About the photo: I think part of Jon Stewart's popularity can be attributed to the fair and light hearted way he makes fun of politics - this is different from the kind of mockery you hear from most politicians.]
* By the way, if you feel this way at all, pass along this link and help other people to start thinking along these lines…
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preach it brother!
On this morning’s news, I heard a popular celebrity complaining that the cause of this country’s problems is that 60% of the population believe religious “mythology,” which is preposterous and dangerous. He calls religion “a pile of comedy.”
He said this “childish thinking” is ruining the country, and we need to follow the example of other countries, enter the 21st century and give up our ridiculous religious ideas. While I already knew that many liberals felt this way, I was shocked to hear the sentiment spoken on the morning news.
Another shock came when I heard a female candidate criticized for a personal decision she had made. People called her an uncaring, uncompassionate person because she chose to give birth to her Down’s Syndrome baby rather than abort him.
Just the other day, I heard someone who’d been asked about his views on abortion state, “I value freedom to do what I want more than I value life.”
I’m disturbed when I hear sentiments like the one from a candidate who said he was against abortion, but he supports the right of individuals to choose. What he was actually saying was power is more important than life. People love power, and what greater power is there than to decide who should live and who should die?
This reminds me of the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. They enjoyed having the power to make decisions for everyone. They believed they had the right to judge whether a life had value. Mark 4 tells the story of a deformed man whom Jesus chose to heal, but the leaders opposed the son of God because they cared more about power than life. They considered the man worthless and undeserving of compassion. Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” They didn’t answer, and Jesus was “deeply disturbed at their stubborn hearts.”
Revelation 4:11 says God (not man) is worthy of power, because He is the creator of life.1 Timothy 4:4 says everything God created is good and not to be rejected; but opponents of Christian values seek the power to decide what and whom will be considered good or if it should be rejected.
We Christians are not to allow what is good to be spoken of as evil. We may disagree about some things, but what we do agree on is that God (not ungodly men) can decide what is good. No human should take the power that belongs to God alone. They cannot determine what is to be rejected, and we cannot remain silent when they call evil good.
Christians have a responsibility to seek, understand, and take a stand for the will of God.
Matthew 5:14 reminds us that we are the light of the world. Let’s stand up for what’s right and shine our lights in the darkness of this “crooked and perverse generation” (Philippians 2:15).