They Don’t Go Together

Peanut butter and jelly.  Biscuits and gravy.  Grilled cheese and tomato soup.  Abbott and Costello.  Lucy and Ricky.  Some things work well together and make one another even better than they were by themselves.  But some things should not be put together, and do not make each other better.  We can certainly think of some foods that shouldn’t be mixed, or perhaps you have people in your life that seem to fight every time they are together, but two things that shouldn’t be coupled tightly together are faith and politics.

Yes, our faith ought to inform our politics, especially thinking of politics in the general sense of the functioning and flourishing of a society, but the problem comes in when our faith is tied to, or coupled to, a certain political party, a certain political movement, or even a certain politician. 

The terminology of coupling and uncoupling is often used regarding train cars.  When coupled, the train cars are hooked together in such a way that the one behind has to go where the one in front goes.  Uncoupling them means they are separated and the one in front is no longer controlling where the car in back goes.  This imagery is helpful because I believe that this is the way that faith coupled with politics often goes, but it’s the political car that is too often directing the faith car where to go.  They need to be uncoupled. 

As followers of Christ, as Christians, our lives are to be lived in Kingdom-focused living.  We are to be immersed in Christ and filled and guided by Him.  Our thoughts, attitudes, motivations, modes of thinking, affiliations, allegiances, behaviors, and relationships are all to be made more and more Christ-like as we seek His Kingdom.  That means whatever is not Christ-like in us and about us needs to go and needs to be chiseled away, needs to be uncoupled.  Full-throated support of any one political party, political movement, or politician is not (and never has been) Christ-like because no one political party or politician can fully capture the breadth of life in God’s Kingdom.  We must recognize this truth and  short-coming of political parties and politicians, not in a way to bash them, but rather to see things soberly and humbly.  God’s Kingdom purposes are not held within any single political group and therefore we should not confine our beliefs and good work in the world through the lens of one group.  Our work and moving in this world should transcend the work of politics.  But there is an even deeper concern here.

The nature of politics is one of winning and consuming.  As our political affiliations grow, we become more and more divided and tribal, and the political affiliation that we have coupled ourselves to demands more and more of us.  There is less room for accommodating others who have some disagreements with us. There is less room for casual and reflective political affiliation.  The politics, particularly of our day, have become demanding taskmasters; they demand our allegiance.  Any whiff of compromise or accommodation or even hearing someone out is seen as capitulating to the political enemy, and that risks losing power and control.  And here is the key: grasping at power and control is what lies at the heart of our political world.  Power and control is the prize that is constantly being battled for.  

Every two and four years politicians talk about different issues and where they stand and these sorts of things, but the specific issues will change as political winds change.  The issues, even those issues that we followers of Christ deem very important, only end up being pawns to be played in an attempt to gain power.  If a particular issue no longer has the cachet that it once had, it is discarded and the newest shiny issue is taken up and used, all towards the end of gaining control over others.  (A troubling example of this is that neither major political party, on the national level, in the 2024 US election stood up for the rights of the unborn.  This issue, that has been vitally important to many followers of Christ, was sadly set aside in the pursuit of political power.)

My argument here is that we followers of Christ need to step back from the game a bit and reexamine what it means for us to actually participate in politics well as a Christian.  The more we uncritically participate and affiliate in politics, the more the politics will strip pieces of our faith and drag us along.  That is the nature of politics and power.  Our values and belief in what is right will be negatively affected by politics.  Christ calls us not to wield power over others, but to serve one another for the mutual flourishing of the world.

Seeking Power is an Old Tale

J.R.R. Tolkien’s, The Lord of the Rings, gives us a valuable insight regarding wielding power.  The central element that carries the entire drama forward is what to do with the ring of power (forged by Sauron in the fires of Mt. Doom).  The ring is powerful, and though it has caused much damage and trouble in Middle-Earth, there is a consistent strain throughout the story that “good” people or characters can use it in a “good way.”  That much power can be used to do so much good, the thinking goes.  To connect the illustration, this is the same sort of argument made by Christians regarding gaining political power.  “We are the good people who will use this power well.”  The point throughout The Lord of the Rings is that that notion is simply not true.  Even the purest and strongest of characters recognize that this ring needs to be destroyed and never to be used.  Power over people, which is how power is understood in these instances, always corrupts, and it always causes destruction, it cannot do otherwise, no matter which of us is wielding it.

Does that mean Christians should never vote or seek public office?  No, for we do have a responsibility to care for others and the world around us, and that partly is the work of politics in our society, but it means that if we do, we do it with wisdom and humility.  We need to recognize the limits of what political work can actually do and accomplish.  If our view of working to help society is limited to a vote every couple of years, we are missing so much of what it means to be an image of God in this world, reflecting God to the world in all that we do. 

Also, being placed in a position of earthly power has so much threat of corrupting us that, for the believer, it should only ever be very carefully engaged.  Because, I would argue, that often the very pursuit of earthly power reveals the corruption already in us and that the pursuit itself corrupts us further along the way.  The pursuit and wielding of power over people corrupts and destroys.  

Example from Another Social Arena

I would like to turn this notion of power towards an arena that I am more personally familiar with, ministry.  As I reflect on my own life as a pastor, I would have been one who said,
“I could handle the ‘success’ in ministry. I could handle having the power of captivating a large crowd, and like Peter on the day of Pentecost, preach and have hundreds or thousands respond. I could do that and remain gracious and humble.” 

I had these visions of grandeur years ago, and they were propped up with accompanying thoughts like, “Think about how much good I could do for God’s kingdom.” or “Wouldn’t that be great to be used by God in such an incredible way?”  It doesn’t take too much digging to see the arrogance and need for human validation that lies beneath statements like this whether they are in my own mind or ones I’ve heard from others.  Further, I’m certainly not beyond judging my success in life and ministry by numbers and other’s thoughts and opinions of me rather than God’s definitions of success and His thoughts about me. 

Another Definition of Success

I am learning more and more that Christ gives us another way to live and other ways to measure success than by power or worldly definitions of success and failure.  He calls us to be loved as His children and live fully in His goodness.   He calls us to do what the great song simply says, “I Surrender All.”  A life, surrendered to God, living faithfully in Him, fueled by His strength, that is the good life, regardless of earthly definitions of success. 

If we look at Jesus’ own life and ministry through the lens of our modern and earthly definitions of success in life and ministry, He was an abject failure.  He had it all, but lost it.  He was commanding crowds of thousands.  People flocked to get a glimpse of him – a true rock star, but He knew success and faithfulness was not in the eyes of the crowds, but in the eyes and heart of His Father.  He consistently lived His life connected to and seeking after the Father.  After He died, and even after He resurrected and ascended, there was only a small group of about 120 gathered together.  Gone were the cheering and longing crowds.  Only a few, still bewildered, people huddled together.  That was the picture of success and faithfulness that Jesus’ ministry left at that time. 

What does it mean for you and I to be faithful?  Eugene Peterson calls this life in Christ “a long obedience in the same direction.”  This life is vast and complex.  We have so many choices and analysis that we have to do.  May it be God and His word that guide us, not the political winds of the day. 

God demands all of our worship and all of our devotion.  Any ounce of our ambition that is spent on seeking power over people is an ounce too much.  It is in serving that we find the path of life.  It is in humility that we can have eyes that actually see and ears that actually hear.  It is in using what God has entrusted to us to lift others up that we are actually lifted up.  These things we can do and be every day, regardless of the politics raging around us.