Rethinking Political Involvement
In 1979, Jerry Falwell established the Moral Majority, an organization with the goal of pushing for conservation moral values within the American political sphere. At the time, persuading Christians to join together politically was a logical way to influence the direction of the nation. At the time, 58% of Americans identified as Protestants, along with another 29% who were Catholic (Gallup). These numbers gave conservative Christians tremendous power in the political arena. In its 10 years of official existence, the Moral Majority helped elect a socially conservative president 3 times. Now, over 3 decades later, the scene has shifted dramatically. In 2018, only 35% of Americans identified as Protestant, and the number of Catholics have also fallen (Gallup). In this context, a sense of fear seems to have gripped Christians across America. Because, after decades of political influence, we, as American Christians, are losing our grip on the power that we’ve fallen in love with.
I enjoy discussing political opinions and ideas, although I have no intention of doing so now. Instead, I want analyze and discuss the situation that the American church is in. I don’t care which party you vote for, or if you vote at all. What I care about are the methods that Christians intend to use as they follow Christ’s command to be salt and light to the world. And above all, I care about what God thinks about us, Christians in America in 2019. As I read about what Jesus said, and more importantly, did not say about the politics of his own time, I am deeply burdened that He would not be pleased with the church in America.
On that note, I want to look at what the New Testament says about Christians and their relationship to their respective governments. It is important to point out that the New Testament believers lived under a very different government than our current American government. However, this difference does not change the fundamental principles of the commands in the New Testament. Jesus himself said very little about the political situation of his day. He told his followers to pay their taxes, and his instruction to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s (Matthew 22:21, ESV)” was a warning not to give Caesar the glory that God deserved. Paul instructed the Christians in Rome to respect their authorities, which was a government led by Nero. However, beyond this, there is virtually no mention of politics in the New Testament. Since the political situation of the day was undoubtedly an important subject, this omission in the New Testament is fascinating. Personally, I think that this omission points to the fact the God did not intend his people to be focused on political goals. Whether or not any degree of political involvement is permitted could be debated, but I believe that God did not intend for his church to invest time and energy into political goals. To further prove this point, I want to examine the effect that political involvement has had on American Christianity.
There are probably a number of related reasons why Christians in American became increasingly more politically active. However, the single biggest reason that I would point to is an obsession with the idea of “protecting our rights.” While Christians are worried about their right to worship freely, other traditional American rights have also become a concern for many Christians. The right to own guns, the right for your church to hold a tax-exempt status, and the right to do business without government interference are just a few of the rights that Christians in America have come hold very tightly. And here, I believe, lies the problem. These “rights” were never really ours to begin with. God warned his followers that they would face trials and persecution in life, and for Christians in America to expect freedom as a right is inconsistent with Scripture. As believers, we relinquish all of our personal rights when we commit our lives to Christ. The rights that we receive at conversion are strictly spiritual in nature. Unfortunately, the rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” are found the in United States Constitution, but not the Bible. An obsession with “our rights” has led many Christians to expect blessings that Christ never promised us.
With the possibility of losing many of their most prized rights, many American Christians looked to political involvement as the only way to save liberties. Encouraging others to vote for your candidate, giving money to political candidates, and attending political rallies and protests have become methods used by ordinary American Christians to try to influence the political process. On a different level, businesses and special interest groups lobby in Washington D.C., and party members sign up to serve in various election campaigns. As I examine this political involvement, I am fearful that it has cost us, as American Christians, far more than we realize. Of course, my judgment in this area is fairly subjective, simply because these things are very hard to measure. However, I challenge each of you to think carefully about what political involvement may have cost your family, your church, or yourself.
Political involvement has cost the American church the ability to focus on its most important goals: discipling believers and evangelizing the lost. Because, while it is possible to be involved in many different things, it is only possible to focus on a few things. If politics are the focus of a church, other important things will inevitably get less focus. While it is theoretically possible to be involved politically without making it a primary focus, many churches and denominations across the United States have been miserably unsuccessful in doing so. In fact, many Americans have come to think of evangelicals primarily as a conservative voting bloc. This hardly seems like the identity that Jesus intended for his followers.
Beyond simply being a distraction, participation in political affairs has pushed the church to compromise many of its values. This does not mean that every church and every individual Christian in America has compromised its values; it simply means that political involvement creates a very strong temptation to do so. This is due to the fact that all people are inherently biased in their views of the world. As a result, if I support a certain political figure because his policies would benefit me, I will find it very easy to overlook his character flaws. Similarly, if I support certain legislation that I believe will help me, it will be very tempting to ignore how that legislation will negatively affect someone else.
An excellent example of this tendency toward bias is found in the way evangelicals responded to Donald Trump. For years, evangelicals claimed that personal character was the most important factor in evaluating a person’s qualifications for the presidency. Conservative Christians raved against Bill Clinton for his moral failures, and tirelessly attacked Barack Obama for his views on marriage and abortion. However, when Donald Trump became the Republican nominee for president, these same Christians were more than willing to forgive his dishonesty and moral failures. This is curious, since Trump’s character, by nearly any measurement, was no better than Clinton or Obama. The difference, it seems, was that Trump was more willing to support gun rights, lower taxes, and strong immigration laws, all issues that evangelicals cared about very deeply. When looking at this blatant inconsistency, it seems as though conservative Christians, like most other Americans, are willing to overlook character flaws in order to support a candidate who favors their political views.
An example of this inconsistency can be found by tracing the views of James Dobson, a popular evangelical teacher known for his focus on political issues. In 1998, Dobson wrote an open letter to Christians in the United States about moral failures of President Bill Clinton. In his letter Dobson stated that “As it turns out, character DOES matter. You can’t run a family, let alone a country, without it. How foolish to believe that a person who lacks honesty and moral integrity is qualified to lead a nation and the world! Nevertheless, our people continue to say that the President is doing a good job even if they don’t respect him personally. Those two positions are fundamentally incompatible. In the Book of James the question is posed, “Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring” (James 3:11 NIV). The answer is no.” Dobson’s viewpoint seems understandable, even if it was politically motivated. However, eighteen years later, Dobson had a much different viewpoint on a candidate who supported his political viewpoints. In giving his assessment of Donald Trump as a candidate, Dobson downplayed Trump’s shortcomings in character, saying in an open statement that “Only the Lord knows the condition of a person’s heart. I can only tell you what I’ve heard. First, Trump appears to be tender to things of the Spirit.” Dobson later added in the statement that “If anything, this man is a baby Christian who doesn’t have a clue about how believers think, talk and act.” It is curious that Dobson’s trusting, forgiving attitude toward Trump was not present when Bill Clinton failed morally, nor was it present for Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton. Instead, Dobson seemed to pick and choose when to forgive shortcomings based on whether or not a political figure agreed with his political viewpoints.
There is one more danger that I believe American Christians need to recognize on this issue. Political issues can be very divisive, and Christians who are politically active run the risk of building walls between themselves and other people around them, particularly unbelievers. It is heartbreaking to see people who desperately need Christ refuse to consider the gospel because of the political ties of the church. The perception that Christians want to force others to follow their morals may or may not be fair, but the American church has done a poor job in dispelling this idea. Ultimately, the political involvement of the American church does not seem to have attracted people to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Because of the intricacies of these issues, I feel confident that no one reading this post will fully agree with me. This is perfectly OK, because my goal is not to have everyone arrive at my own conclusions. Rather, I think it is important for all of us, myself included, to regularly evaluate this issue in our own lives. In spite of the differences believers may have on the subject of political involvement, we should all agree that our attitude toward politics and political involvement will have significant consequences on the American church. We should all carefully consider whether our own approach toward these issues is the approach that Christ would have us to take.
Sources.
Dobson, James. Letter to Friends. September 1998.
Dobson, James. “Dr. James Dobson on Donald Trump’s Christian Faith.” 2016.
Gallup. Religion. 2019.
