When it comes to politics, the followers of Jesus need to avoid two temptations, two equal and opposite errors. On the one hand, we need to avoid the temptation to think that politics-is-everything.
This, of course, is hard to do. We live in a highly politicized world. We live in a world where everything is thought of in political terms. From education and the environment to marriage and family, gender and sexuality, art and medicine, faith and freedom, we think about all these not-necessarily-political issues in highly political terms. We’re all victims of the slow and steady process known as politicization, whereby we increasingly look for political solutions to solve all of life’s problems.
This process of politicization—or politics-is-everything—goes a long way to explain why there is so much ideological conflict in America today, why everything from choosing bathroom signage to wearing masks is interpreted as a gesture of political significance.
Turn on the evening news for all the evidence you need of this phenomenon. Everything is talked about in terms of politics. Which means everything is framed up as an ideological conflict, a game of the will-to-power.
The sociologist James Davison Hunter is a keen observer of this trend, “Unless the topic is a human interest story buried at the end of the newscast or in the back pages of the newspaper or news magazine, news reporting on almost any issue is framed in terms of who is winning and who is losing in the contest for political advantage.” Precisely.
For many Americans, politics is everything. Which is why so many, Christian and non-Christian alike, give a sort of religious devotion to their political causes, and why they put biblical-like faith in political promises. This is also why every four-year election cycle—this one included—is such a big deal, why it takes on messianic and apocalyptic urgency.
This is because our lives have become highly politicized.
Sadly, Christians are complicit in this growing politicization. In their book unChristian, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons report that a huge percentage of (especially) younger non-Christian Americans think Christians are too political. “Three-quarters of young outsiders and half of young churchgoers describe present-day Christians as ‘too involved in politics’” (155).
Politics-is-everything is clearly a big issue for many Christians. But it’s not the issue for every Christian. In fact, an increasing number of younger Christians have swung to the opposite extreme. Disillusioned by the politics-is-everything of their parents, they have pivoted rather dramatically to the politics-is-nothing of their peers.
Many Christians now live in what New York Times writer David Brooks calls “the new age of complacency.” “These days most of us don’t want to get too involved in national politics because it seems so partisan and ugly. And as a result, most American citizens have become detached from public life and have come to look on everything that does not immediately touch them with an indifference that is laced with contempt. We have allowed our political views to be corroded with an easy pseudo-cynicism that holds that all politicians are crooks and all public endeavor is a sham.” (Bobos, 271). In short, Brooks says, many Americans have “turned a healthy skepticism about government action into a corrosive negativism” (271).
And so, too, I might add, have many Christians, especially those who reject the overly zealous political approach of their parents. They have reacted to that by taking on a posture (in Brooks’ words) of an indifference that is laced with contempt toward all things political. Why vote? What’s the point? They’re all crooks. The system’s rigged.
At first, you might think this is the right response to the idolatry of politics-is-everything. But if you look closer you find that just beneath the surface of the cynicism there is a similar idolization of politics. It’s not that the younger generation has toppled the god of politics; it’s just that they’ve lost faith in the god of politics. While their parents still pray to Caesar, they’ve lost all hope that he’s even listening.
And the result? Disillusionment with the god of politics. It’s not putting politics in its proper place. It’s rejecting politics altogether. But as someone has rightly said, “to avoid political action is the worst kind of politics. In most cases one can avoid it only by an attitude of self-complacency, by keeping silent, and by acting as an accomplice without assuming any risk.” In other words, this attitude of politics-is-nothing isn’t extreme enough. It’s an easy substitute for the hard task of love.
When it comes to politics, then, followers of Jesus need to avoid two equal and opposite errors. On the one hand, the idea that politics-is-everything, the idolization of politics. But we also need to avoid, on the other hand, the idea that politics-is-nothing, which (although more subtle) is still an idolization of politics.
Both are errors, and both are extremes.
And yet what is the right balance, the wise path forward for the Christian? How should followers of Jesus engage politically? What does it mean to be “salt and light” in our time, much less “citizens of heaven” in twenty-first century America?
Over the next thirty days, the Center for Pastor Theologians is going to explore these questions under the theme of Christian political witness. We do so, of course, cognizant of the fact that we are on the eve of a momentous presidential election. Our hope and prayer is that these theologically informed and pastorally suffused reflections will serve you and your congregation, indeed that they might offer more light than heat in these tumultuous times.
This resource is part of the series Kingdom Politics. Click Here to explore more resources from this series.
Todd Wilson is the President and Co-Founder of the Center for Pastor Theologians. He previously served for 10 years as the Senior Pastor of Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, IL. He holds a PhD in New Testament from the University of Cambridge. He is the author of several books, including The Curse of the Law and the Crisis in Galatia (Mohr Siebeck, 2007), Mere Sexuality (Zondervan, 2017), and The Pastor Theologian (Zondervan, 2015).
