THE CHRISTIAN AND POLITICS

I have just read Tom Wright and Mike Bird’s book on the responsibility of Christians to participate in contemporary politics. They make a biblical and historical case for the Kingdom of Jesus to come on earth as well as in heaven. They describe the role of Jesus in bringing the kingdom among us and his commission to Christians to bring the values of his kingdom to our social and political affairs. They relate how the Church revolutionized the Roman Empire and how we can contribute to revolutionizing the empires of today. They try to answer the question: How do you build the kingdom in an age of empires, where totalitarians tyrannize and our democracies appear dysfunctional? They distinguish between the kingdom of Jesus and the social gospel, theocracy, anarchism and liberal economics. Instead they set forth their belief in a theo-political gospel that declares that Jesus is Lord and Caesar (or the state), is not and that the kingdom of Jesus is about forgiveness and freedom to flourish as renewed human beings.

What does it mean to pray ‘may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ in an age of authoritarian regimes and democratic chaos? They don’t deal with controversial topics like abortion and climate change but love for God and neighbor. They want people to come to Jesus in faith and freedom. The basis for our thinking is the Bible’s message that God is the supreme authority over the nations and Jesus is ultimately Lord of all. While authority has been delegated to earthly governments, they must exercise it within the values of subordinate responsibilities to benefit all people. There are times when Christians must disobey local authorities as did the apostles. The writers discuss the issues of civil disobedience and the use of violent means such as in civil war and revolutions.

The Church’s mission today is to be ambassadors of reconciliation, speaking truth to power and to build for the kingdom. How do we do that as individuals? We must not be apathetic, thinking we can do nothing. Nor should we be escapist, avoiding our responsibility to speak up and act as a witness to the Gospel of the kingdom. Our church is not a retirement village for moralizing geriatrics but supposed to be more like a boot camp for soldiers of Jesus who go out into the world wearing the full armor of God, preaching the Gospel and becoming the scourge of the corrupt and the champion of the weak.

There should be no separation of the gospel and politics but we are to hold the State accountable and answerable to the Lord Jesus. However, we are not to expect the State to impose Christian faith on all its citizens. There has to be freedom to choose one’s religion. Christianity is a global not an ethnic religion. Christian nationalism, requiring state interference in religion and ethnic homogeneity, is a threat to the multi-ethnic nature of the global church. An example is in Russia where there is an unholy alliance between the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church. Non-Christian examples may be found in India with Hindu nationalism, Iran with Muslim nationalism and China with Communist nationalism. Progressive nationalism occurs when a state seeks to regulate as much of the individual’s belief and convictions, conscience and religion as possible. The dangers of such political over-regulation are:

1. Emphases on a hierarchy of ‘identities’ rather than the rule of law and equality before the law to negotiate relationships between citizens;
2. Adoption of moral reasoning that assigns all people into the binary slots of ‘oppressor’ or ‘oppressed’;
3. Legal preference for bespoke notions of ‘equality’ rather than accommodating religions and cultural differences;
4. The State conceived no longer as an instrumental good, but as an ultimate power with jurisdiction over every facet of life, in order to achieve a comprehensive renovation of society according to the State’s progressive vision.

The Christian values the right to dissent, the necessity of public debate, to be heard and not cancelled. There should not be ideological conformity that suppresses civil conversations. There is the fear of a post-liberal state that rejects liberalism’s tenets of free speech, political pluralism, individualism and multiracial equality. This is particularly a problem in state and private educational institutions where students are subjected to self-righteous indoctrination. The Christian must witness to the value of being able to live with differences, to respect others, and accept that in a democracy there will be disagreements that can be resolved amicably.

The authors make a case for liberal democracy and confident pluralism. Their arguments are thought provoking and worthy of consideration. The world we live in now is at a moment of social and economic turmoil, with new imperial powers rising and democratic nations tearing themselves apart. In such a combustible world, we need to think biblically. The urgency is not about the next election, the latest scandal or hot political issue; what is up for grabs is the place of Christians in the State and the type of state that Christians should support. This is nothing new. Christians have had to grapple with this down through the centuries. But now is our time to seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness in our nation.