I've always used Micah 6: 8 as a good biblical foil in thinking through political issues:
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Being horribly reductionistic justice has been the war cry of the right where as mercy was the preserve of the left ... and humility has no place in politics!?
With this in mind I think Trevor is on to something. When I was first becoming aware of politics (in the UK in the early 80s) Christians voted Conservative. As far as my parents were concerned sexual ethics and abortion were the deciding issues - justice trumps mercy, as it were.
But the times they were achanging. As I became a teenager, church youth groups were increasingly concerned with compassion to the poor and loving the stranger - mercy came to the fore. The right of centre Conservative party was considered to be individualistic and selfish. This gained momentum until finally the Tory party imploded and Tony Blair swept NuLabour to power in 1997. I was at Theological college in 1997. By then most Christians at college seemed to support Labour. Mercy trumps justice.
Are we seeing that now happen in the US? (Or am I just enjoying saying that Britain leads America in something?)
The western world is fed up with the Republican party at prayer. They are seen as being anti-gay, anti-women's rights and extremely hypocritical. All justice, no mercy and definitely no humility.
The message is clear - the political climate is changing. As usual that is both a good and a bad thing. No longer can Christianity be used as a pragmatic way to win votes. We cannot, no must not, appeal to the instinctive right wing agenda of justice unless we visibly demonstrate mercy at the same time, and all of this with a humble attitude. People will not listen to our position on abortion without seeing our care for pregnant teenagers. Our stance on homosexuality is easily dismissed without visible compassion shown to the gay community.
The bottom line is that votes are not cheap - the only way people will listen to us again is if we live the gospel we preach.
6 comments:
The western world is fed up with the Republican party at prayer. They are seen as being anti-gay, anti-women's rights and extremely hypocritical. All justice, no mercy and definitely no humility.
There may be ways in which this is right. But isn't one of the most important planks of the anti-abortion position about showing mercy to the unborn child? I don't think I've heard evangelical Republicans arguing this as a justice issue.
How can you expect me to generalise Gordon, if you insist on mentioning specifics!?
More seriously - you may be right in theory but in practice all I hear is a clash of rights based language - the right of the unborn baby pitted against the right of the mother... isn't that justice language?
Hi John,
A quick summary of my take on Christians and politics.
It always concerns me when I encounter a Christian with an entrenched political position. There are “sins of the political right” and “sins of the political left”, and I don’t think we can ever throw our lot in entirely with either camp. It seems to me that we must always be willing to work out our political views (not to mention all other aspects of life) biblically. This will mean in practice that on some issues we will properly take a “right wing” stance, whereas on others we will tend to be more left leaning. If we “toe the party line” – whichever party that might happen to be – we will probably not be thinking Christianly about some issues, or parts of issues. As you point out, if, for instance, we are pro life but fail to care for young unmarried mothers – or vice versa – we will not be thinking biblically.
Personally I see “justice” as more the preserve of the left, with its strong emphasis on social justice. When taken to an extreme, however, this can sometimes result in a hatred of the wealthy which becomes a more powerful motivating force than love of the poor. The other great sin of the left is excessive liberality, usually based on notions of freedom which fail to take proper cognisance of the moral dimension.
As for the right of politics, its greatest failing is probably the assumption that there truly is a level playing field, and that anyone can become prosperous through diligence and effort alone. At its extreme, this leads to a philosophy that lacks mercy and compassion, and fails to care for the underprivileged. Here again, though in a very different sense, false notions of freedom might be at the root of the problem. The right wing mantra is that the freer market conditions are, the more all will benefit in the end. This, however, is based on the spurious “level playing field” theory noted above.
It is interesting to consider how false notions of freedom – at both ends of the political spectrum – might be traced back to the fundamental human desire to live our lives free of divine “interference” – which is the ultimate folly.
All of this is not to say, however, that the answer is necessarily to steer a middle course, politically speaking. Rather it is to apply biblical principles to each and every issue – swinging voters whose houses are built on rock!
Greg T
I looked away for a fortnight and suddenly all the action is here on the PBC blog!
This is a very important topic and one that the Church is agonising through [in different contexts] globally it seems.
I'm reminded of JH Yoder's quip about voting: "It is one way, one of the weaker and vaguer ways, to speak truth to power."
Behind this is of course JH Yoder's conviction that the Church is itself the true representation of the Polis, and hence in our common practices (eating together, sharing possessions...etc) we signify true "politics" - politics of the Kingdom.
I agree with John about the dominance of 'rights' discourse. This 'rights'-basis is perhaps necessary for a world that seems to be bereft of substantial mercy/charity, but for Christians it is a weak substitute for love.
Consequently, I'm not convinced that we mean the same thing as most politicians when Christians say "justice". Christians wouldn't know what justice looks like apart from God revealed in Christ. Anything else dies the death of self-deconstruction and infinite qualification.
It seems like for many [probably very earnest + well-meaning] politicians, the word "justice" is rooted in the liberal-enlightenment view of justice that bases social relations on an idea of fairness where fairness is defined as granting each person maximum freedom possible to pursue his or her self-interest.
A good example is Obama's speech [and John McCain's too!], where the quasi-theological overtones about America as Salvation into boundless opportunity, wealth and freedom were deafening. And if this is justice, and America is its supreme bearer, then why shouldn't this be dished out around the world by force if necessary?
So I agree with Greg T that we have to resist partisan voting. I would go further and challenge the Church not to think of voting as the sum total or even politics in the strong sense.
Rather, as Stanley Hauerwas put it so nicely, "for the Christian, the church is always the primary polity through which we gain the experience to negotiate and make positive contributions to whatever society in which we may find ourselves."
I often wonder why we don't do much public teaching on issues that might be seen as 'political'. This silence speaks very powerfully to our congregations, I think, about just where Jesus belongs.
When I was a student minister, I was even rebuked for thanking God from the front that Mark Latham had brought the issue of gambling into the national consciousness.
Also, in the lead-up the 2004 Federal Election, I asked a number of my fellow-students at Moore for whom they would be voting. More than one person told me they would be voting Liberal, "because they had more Christians."
Now, perhaps this was not a representative sample, but if this is the level of political sophistication of at least some of the next generation of church leaders, I shudder to think what it might be in the pews :/
I think Greg put it really really well when he wrote that we need "to apply biblical principles to each and every issue – swinging voters whose houses are built on rock!".
I have heard Christians pray about how they should be voting (and asking in prayer that other Christians would also be prayerful about this kind of decision). I have heard these prayers for the recent US election - and for the recent local government election here. This is really positive and could help with some of Stuart's concerns.
(Slightly off tangent) I also think that as Christians we need to be active in our democracy - writing to our local member of parliament and other politicians, both when there are policies of concern and when there are very positive policies being discussed. We can't just complain about the bad stuff without affirming the good things that many be happening. This also needs to be done prayerfully. Democracy is not about voting once every few years and then complaining about the government (at whatever level) in between. It is about voting and then interacting with our local member of parliament/council. TEAR has been doing some really good work in this area - including providing training to people to be able to do this.
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