How Much Should The Church
Be Involved in Politics?
I guess
the whole premise behind writing a blog entitled “Seeking” is that I don’t
claim to have all the answers. And here
on the week of the national elections, political involvement is one topic where
I’ve never sat down to clarify in my mind where we should stand. I have some broad ideas, but the details are where it gets tough. So while this could be dangerous, I’m going
to use this week’s post to “think out loud” on this issue biblically, and try
to draw some personal conclusions on the fly.
So this will be fun. I hope. ;) For
all I know, I could change my mind tonight, but here goes…
First of all, what’s the
issue? As you probably know, there are
all sorts of views on how engaged the church should be with the political
world. I understand David Lipscomb
believed that Christians should have nothing whatsoever to do with the “kingdoms
of the world,” including not even voting.
While most of us wouldn’t agree with that perspective, I know at Great
Oaks we have some who believe we should be more involved in political
discussions as a church body, and some who wish we would say even less about
political and national issues than we do.
But here’s the question I’m asking
myself: what if Jesus was the preacher at Great Oaks? Would
he encourage more or less political involvement? Would He be telling us to write our senators
or organizing petitions to send to our leaders on moral issues? Would His sermons include denouncing political
leaders or judges for failing to honor God?
Or would He think that we have bigger goals, focusing more on extending the
gospel in the community? Would He focus
on teaching the truth on moral issues to the people rather than trying to
enforce them through law? Wow, tough
questions.
So let me brainstorm biblically
about God’s people and political involvement, and then try to draw some broad
conclusions…
·
Clearly it’s OK for God’s people to be involved
in government and politics as individuals.
Joseph, Nehemiah, and Daniel are 3 easy examples of faithful men who
were high up in government positions.
(And in nations that were not God-honoring nations: Egypt, Babylon, Persia.)
·
Cornelius served as a centurion, a prominent
leader in the Roman army (Acts 10:1).
·
Mordecai and Esther give an example of God’s
people asking for laws that would protect the people of God, who were being
threatened (Esther 8-9). The Jews prayed
for their success at every step.
·
Nehemiah asking King Artaxerxes to give him the
resources to build the Jerusalem walls show God’s people requesting and using
the resources of the government to help fulfill God’s desires for His people
(Neh. 1-2).
·
The prophets often preach against rulers showing
a lack of justice toward those who were poor or powerless (for example, Jer. 22:2-3,
Ezek. 45:8). Zephaniah 3:3 denounces
princes and judges who use their positions to indulge themselves and take from
others.
·
John the Baptist publicly denounced Herod, the
Roman tetrarch over the regions of Galilee and Perea, for being in a marriage
God did not approve of (Matt. 14:3-5).
He was eventually killed for speaking out.
·
Paul demanded his legal rights in defending
himself from his accusers, pointing out his Roman citizenship to limit his
punishment (Acts 16:35-39 and Acts 22:25-29) and also appealing to Caesar to be
ensured a fair trial (Acts 25:9-12).
·
Jesus shows us virtually no political
involvement, outside of saying that we should honor the leaders and pay taxes (“give
to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s,” Matthew 22:21). This shows that it is possible to fulfill
appropriate responsibilities to government without encroaching on the honor our
lives should give to God.
·
Surely Jesus’ teaching that we should “seek
first” the kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33), which kingdom is “not of this world” (John
18:36) factors in this discussion somewhere.
·
But of course, we must not obey government if it
conflicts with the word of God. (Acts
5:29, “We must obey God rather than men.”
Peter said this after the ruling body of the Jews demanded that they
stop preaching Jesus.)
·
Perhaps it is significant that Jesus was not
born into a noble family where He would be an earthly king, which God certainly
could have chosen if He thought that was the best way to change the world. And Jesus avoided letting men make Him a king
when they tried to (John 6:15).
·
Romans 13:1-9 presents God’s vision for what He
wants governments to be: authorities that have the power to punish evil and
uphold good, serving as a “minister of God” in that role.
·
1 Peter 2:13-17 teaches, among other things,
that we should submit to governing authority and show the world by our lives the
ignorance of those who accuse Christians of wrongdoing.
·
1 Timothy 2:1-4 says Christians should pray–
including prayers of thanksgiving – for “kings and all who are in authority,”
so Christians can have the freedom to live godly lives and help other people
come to know God and be saved.
Well, that’s a lot of information to lay on the table and try
to pull together some conclusions! Many
good people have honest disagreements over the limits of each of these
thoughts, but here’s some broad-brush thoughts I get out of these biblical
examples…
1)
First, the easy stuff: we should pray for our
leaders, give them appropriate honor, but remember that we have a higher
kingdom that we are part of (Phil. 3:20).
Our highest loyalty must always be to God.
2)
Another one that seems pretty easy to affirm: it’s
definitely OK for individuals to be politically
involved, as many of God’s people have done before. If you want to campaign and vote and lobby
politicians, go for it. But if you want
to pursue political stuff, make sure that doesn’t distract you from pursuing
more important things like your personal growth in faith, teaching others the
gospel, Christian service, etc.
3)
Since the kingdom of God is my higher calling, I
sure don’t need to confuse being a “good Christian” with being a “good
American.” In worship especially, we
need to make sure that our prayers, songs, and thoughts are directed to God’s
goals and not just the goals of our country.
A July 4th “Let’s go, America, be a great country!” doesn’t seem like an
appropriate worship theme (depending on your definition of "great"). But a July 4th emphasis on praying
that God would bless us and help us be a nation of people who pursue Him and do
good for Him is certainly an appropriate theme.
Does that distinction make sense?
4)
A little more challenging: as a preacher,
perhaps I shouldn’t ignore pointing out political injustice and moral
deficiency in leaders and judges, as the prophets and John the Baptist
did. God certainly shows His displeasure
with those things, butI might be tempted to ignore them, lest someone think I’m
meddling in politics. Sometimes our
country has done and will do things that are wrong in God’s sight. I don’t need to ignore those missteps for
fear of seeming unpatriotic. God’s
people need to see that God’s judgment is the most important measure, and that
earthly powers are still subject to Him.
(This could include criticizing things like allowing abortion, but could
also include criticizing using military force inappropriately or having
policies that hurt the poor.)
5)
The main goal of prayer and government petition by
people in the Bible is requesting government to allow God’s people to do what
God wants them to do: return to the Jewish homeland and rebuild in the Old
Testament, prayer for peace to practice faith and teach others in the New
Testament. It was God’s people asking
for permission to live out their faith. (For
example, if our freedom of religion or speech were ever hindered, God’s people
would certainly have a biblical mandate to pursue political change, asking the
authorities to allow us to keep living according to our faith.)
6) But God does expect the governing authorities to uphold right and punish evil (Rom 13, 1 Pet 2), so it seems appropriate to want our government's laws to line up with God's laws as closely as possible. But it seems that we would want the enforcement of the laws to not be oppressive in taking away the freedom to choose that God has given all men. (We sure don't want a Christian version of Muslim Shariah law, where those who step out of line can be killed for it.)
7)
And perhaps the toughest lines to draw: While
individuals were involved in politics, we do not see God’s people as a body making political change a
major goal, right? This is where it gets
the toughest. If I understand it
correctly, the body prays for those who pursue political goals (such as Esther
and Mordecai), but the church as a body
has higher goals such as the Great Commission and teaching the truth. In following Jesus’ footsteps, it seems wise
for churches to make sure our “higher goals” are not distracted by political
goals. We must as a body be known for the gospel more than be known for our
political involvement. This is one way
the “Religious Right” movement has probably made our culture less open to the
gospel, because political disagreements have become the culture’s first
impression of those who claim to be Christians.
All things being equal, it seems to me the church’s major efforts for
change should come from teaching the truth, praying, and personally acting,
rather than enforcing or publicly making the church’s mission a political agenda. Is that a fair way to put it?
(I realize that honest Christian men and
women have different thoughts on this point in particular, and I respect
their thoughts. Perhaps I should say it
is “unwise” for a church to make political activism a goal, though perhaps I can't say it
is “wrong” to do so. It just seems
to shift the church’s focus off of what is most important, changing who we are
and who people see us to be. Maybe it’s
just a matter of keeping first things first.)
Churches in America have the challenge of (1) standing up
for God in a culture where the people in theory make their own laws (which
encourages us to speak out to culture on God’s truth and perhaps be involved
ourselves) and (2) making sure our culture sees us for who God wants us to be:
a Christ-shaped community of redeemed believers calling other sinners to
salvation, not a group who pursues political power over others. Holding those 2 principles in balance is our
biggest challenge in determining whether our political involvement is too much
or too little.
Oh well, I don’t know how much progress I made in my own
thoughts. Some of these lines are tough
to draw. Keeping first things first is
the biggest thing I’m reminded of, and hopefully my off the cuff thoughts didn’t
overstate or understate too much around that core idea. Keep thinking and praying about it for
yourself, and I’ll do the same…
I confess that the contribution part of the worship service
hasn’t always been a time of meaningful worship for me. More often than not, I subconsciously feel
like it is a breather time that follows the Lord’s Supper before we get back to
singing. In fact, we often make an
explicit statement to remind people that the contribution of giving is separate
from the Lord’s Supper, which might have the unintended side effect of making
us think that the “reflection” time is over, and that thus that there is
nothing meaningful to think about during the time of giving to God. But that certainly wasn't the case with David in the above verse, who takes the time of giving as a time of prayer and meaningful worship. In fact, 1 Chronicles 29:9 says "they made their offering to the Lord with a whole heart." I'm ashamed to say my whole heart isn't always there when I'm putting my check in the collection plate.
