Why Christianity and Politics Cannot Marry
I grew up
believing that as a Christian, I had to take a certain political stance. This
was what was engrained in me from an early age. However, as I grew older and
particularly in my late 20s, I began to rethink the way I thought about
politics. My argument had always been that my faith in Christ should be at the
forefront of every aspect of my life including politics. While this is
certainly true, the manner in which this is carried out is now vastly different
for me, and in many ways, because my faith is central to my life, I separate
politics from religion. I now argue that orthodox Christianity and politics
cannot marry each other. They are indeed separate, and I would like to give
four reasons why.
When We Christianize Politics, We Compromise the Gospel
First of
all, marrying politics to the Christian faith compromises the gospel.
Immediately I can hear people arguing that this is the easy way out. In other
words, taking this stance removes our responsibility to be involved in the
God-ordained political system of the land we live in. Do not hear what I am not
saying, however. Christians certainly have a responsibility to take a stand for
truth and justice and to be involved in the political process as much as
possible. There is no cookie cutter political stance or party for the believer
though, as many might try to argue. It is likely that you have heard Jesus was
neither a Republican or a Democrat. While this is true though, many still seem
to link him to a political party. What does this do? It compromises the gospel
of Christ. The Galatians had problems with telling new Christians that in order
to honor God in their salvation, they had to add things. It was Jesus plus something
else. The gospel though is Jesus plus nothing. He is enough; he is sufficient
period. Therefore, to proclaim that honoring God means Jesus plus a political
party or stance is to add onto the gospel, which, in essence, is no gospel at
all. The gospel is all about Jesus, not about our personal points of view.
Marrying politics and Christianity compromises the gospel.
No One Can Legislate Morality or Faith
Secondly,
it is impossible to legislate morality or faith. I firmly believe that the
United States was founded on Christian principles. We can’t take it further
than that though. It was not founded as a Christian nation but rather upon
Christian principles. What does this mean? It means that we are not a
theocracy. Our founding fathers knew that no government can legislate morality
of faith because even if they try, for many citizens, it would not be genuine.
Humans are radically depraved and evil by nature, despite the popular opinion
that people are good by nature. Any good that comes from people, even those who
do not know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, is directly from God. God
is the standard for good. Even our most basic instincts that tell us that
murder is wrong comes from God. My belief is that government should be small
and legislate as little as possible. In fact, I believe laws should only be
created to stop infringement on people’s rights and well-being. This means that
many laws should not even be in the books because they benefit no one but the
government. Many laws are written based on morality. This should not be though.
Morality is an individual choice, and good morals come only from God.
Therefore, unless an action infringes on someone else’s rights and well-being, it
should not be illegal. We often see elections as a way to determine the
direction of a country. In reality though, the truth is that elections point to
the direction the country is already heading. This is not something any law can
change. Only the power of the Holy Spirit and his work in a nation can cause an
entire people to turn to God; nothing else. Legislating morality is a feeble
attempt at changing people’s hearts. It can’t happen. It has never happened. Our
government’s job is to protect, not to legislate morality and faith.
As Christians, We Are to Become all Things to all People
In 1
Corinthians 9:22, the Apostle Paul says that he has become all things to all
people. His point is that as Christians, we must be flexible in our approach to
engaging relationships. If an action does not contradict our biblical beliefs,
we should not plant our flag of war on the issue. This, in no way, implies that
we will not disagree with people. We must be wise in how we approach issues
though. Major on the major issues, and minor on the minors. There are certainly
things we must take a stand upon, and in the process, yes, we will disagree with
people including our own brothers and sisters in Christ. We must still love
them though and treat them with dignity and respect. We must pray for our
leaders and respect them. This includes the President of the United States who
is often hated by half of our country. There are particular black and white
issues that deserve no argument. For example, abortion is murder. There is no
argument. Scripture points to this, as does science. Does this mean though that
we hate people who believe abortion is OK? Absolutely not! We love the, and it
might even benefit us to hear their perspective. By all means, if you believe
something is wrong, stand against it, but do so in a loving way. Becoming all
things to all people has to do more with attitude than actually doing what they
do. Reason out what is primary and what is secondary, and act accordingly. So
often we plant our flags on the secondary issues when the primary issues are
what we need to focus on. Scripture says that they will know we are Christians
by our love, not by our knowledge or ability to argue. Pray and love. That is
it.
We Cannot Effectively Minister to Everyone While Tied up in Politics
This is
true especially for ordained ministers. It is incredibly difficult to minister
to everyone if we are tied up in politics. This is a reason I have a serious
problem with pastors who run for office. They are severely limiting their
ministry base of people. We should never exclude anyone from the gospel message
of Christ. Christ died for all walks of life. Our ministry, therefore, should
reflect that. Every believer has a responsibility to reach everyone. We must be
careful then not to exclude those different from us. Again take a stand for
what is right, but do not associate justice, truth, and mercy with a particular
political party. Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Independents, etc. do
not have a corner on the godly market. It is possible to be a Christian and be
either one or none of those parties. Vote your conviction, but leave it at
that. Life is about glorifying God, not a political system or government. We,
his people, are the bride of Christ, and we cannot be married to politics. It
is impossible to be the bride of Christ and the bride of politics at the same
time. Let Jesus be at the center of life for all of his people, not politics.
