Tag Archives: faith

Uncoupling Faith From Politics

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.

A House Divided – Finding a Path Beyond Division and Partisanship

Division

“If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”  – Jesus, as recorded in Mark 3:25. 

This theme is picked up by Abraham Lincoln, who, in June of 1858 delivered his famous “House Divided” speech before those who had just nominated him to be the Republican candidate for the US Senate at the Republican State Convention in Springfield, IL.   He spoke these words at a time when the country was greatly divided on account of slavery. 

Marks of this division are shown in multiple national Christian denominations splitting over issues surrounding slavery.  My own denomination, American Baptist Churches, USA, for example, split by North and South in 1845 when the Southern Baptist Convention was formed.  This era likely held the greatest level of divisiveness that Christians in the USA have ever seen.  I’m worried that we may now be in the second most divisive time for Christians in America.

While Christians in this country have never been a monolith, from my perspective of being involved in church life for all my nearly 45 years on this earth, I cannot recount a time when Christians have been more divided and, troublingly, more divisive than we are in this age now.  When we have a disagreement today, we so often jump to vilifying and even demonizing, drawing such harsh lines between us.  Even when we pick up hints that someone has a different opinion, on what we deem a crucial matter, we can begin putting them down in our minds and start finding all sorts of ways their life is bad and wrong.  I know this because I’ve sadly had some of these thoughts in my own mind and must catch myself when I do. 

Our wider culture seems increasingly divided, and those fractures spill into the church and Christianity.  Perhaps some of the marks of division have been around for decades, even centuries.  Some shaped from old wounds and scars from the racial divisions for as long as this country has existed, or perhaps the religious in-fighting over a myriad of issues over the years is rearing it’s ugly head again now.  Regardless, we do seem to be in a unique time of Christian history in this country where there is a strong emphasis on Christians taking, and wielding, political power to advance what many believe are Christian ideals.  This forcefulness and aggressiveness have become what many see as synonymous with being a Christian in this country today.

Now, in the abstract, some of this thinking makes sense.  We should try to positively influence others for Christ, sharing our faith.  And we do want others to operate with the morals that we think and believe are right.  But the reality is, this forcefulness does not bring about flourishing to our lives, others’ lives, or God’s Kingdom because the pursuit and wielding of power itself always damages something in us.  It goes against the way that even God himself operates.  God does not force any of us to believe and follow Him, yet, as His followers, we pursue making laws that people have to follow our morals. 

We simply are not meant to use power over people.  God’s power humbles itself and lifts others up.  Jesus came with all the power and authority of God, but as Philippians 2 poetically points out: he “did not consider equality with God as something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”  Further, when two of Jesus’ disciples wanted the places of honor with Jesus he told them this, found in Matthew 20:  “Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.  Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’”

Jesus’ example and his call and challenge to his disciples is also a call down to us today.  We are not to be the kind of people who rule over others and seek to forcefully change them to the way we want them to be, even if we have a deeply held conviction about something.  There is another way.

Unity

So, what is this other way?  How are we supposed to live well with other believers as well as our non-believing neighbors?  In John 17 we get a unique glimpse into Jesus’ heart.  In the gospels we have heard much about Jesus going off to pray, but here we have recorded for us this prayer of Jesus to His Father, and it is a treasure.  Jesus prays for himself, that God’s glory would shine in Him that people would know “the only true God.”  He prays for his disciples, sharing gratitude about them and praying for their protection from the evil one.  He then prays for all of “those who will believe” in Him through the disciples’ message.  This includes all of us who claim to believe in Christ today.  Jesus prayed for you and for me.  So what is that prayer?  His prayer is for unity: “that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity.”

What does unity in Christ mean?  Before we try to begin to answer that, I want to express that I fear we are so divided and divisive that we not only can’t imagine what unity looks like, we don’t actually even want it.

What I believe unity in Christ, at least begins to mean, is that any allegiance and aspect about us is displaced by our allegiance to Christ and love for Him first.  This means that any national, racial, political, family, class, etc. distinction that we might have about ourselves must never come before our identity as a human being created in the image of God and deeply loved by our Father.  That is what we must find common ground on first, and then seek to work together from there.  Disagreement we have about dealing with sin and right and wrong are ever-present and important, but we might come together as humans on the same level first.

Jesus modeled this for us in the very makeup of his own closest disciples.  With this group of 12, which was a re-forming and reconstituting of the 12 tribes of Israel in himself, Jesus put together some who had very similar backgrounds and stories, but some who did not.  Most strikingly are Matthew, who was a tax collector, and Simon, who was a Zealot.  What this meant was Matthew was working for the Roman Empire, those who are holding power over the Jewish people.  And Simon, was a part of a militant group within Judaism who sought to use any means necessary to oppose Roman rule.  Jesus puts Matthew and Simon together in this group and they have to figure out not only how to get along, but how to see each other beyond those divisions and work together for the unity that Jesus prayed for.  This may just be the kind of perspective we need now to begin this crucial work of unity in Christ in our own day.

Building a Heart and Vision for God’s Kingdom

Even as I lament our divisions as believers, I have hope that we can come together in Christ.  I read stories like the parable of the prodigal son, where we see the father’s immense love and compassion for his son who wished him dead to get the father’s money.  I see Jesus, knowing that Jerusalem would shortly be the place of his arrest, trial, and crucifixion, loving them and longing to gather them in, “as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” And, of course, some of his final words before his death were words of forgiveness to the very ones killing him.  This is the love of God that can propel us to see each other as fellow humans first.  “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.”  We fellow humans were not meant to be the enemy.  When we are, that is the long stain and effects of sin.  In Christ, in His church, among His followers, our love for Him and our love for one another must be what comes first, no matter what other divisions may exist.

May God build in us a vision to see one another as he sees us. 

May we be strengthened in such a way that we can love an “enemy” without feeling like we’re losing. 

May we stand on God’s truth, stand against injustice, but never stand above our fellow humans. 

May Jesus’ strength and courage, but also his love and humility be what marks us as His followers. 

May God forgive us for our disdain and vitriol towards one another. 

May our house not be divided. 

May we be a part of the new creation life that God is building here and now and fulfilled in eternity.