Introduction
I’ve always felt a bit uneasy about the
relationship between religion and politics.
That’s probably because I’ve never been sure what the relationship
between the two should be. It is evident
in this country that religion and politics mix.
Often in good ways, at other times in bad ways. Regardless of what the relationship should be it is clear that our nation has made an uncomfortable marriage of faith and government.
What role
should religion play in government?
I think that there are three primary views people
hold about what the relationship between religion and politics should be.
1. Religion shouldn’t play a role in
politics. There is a very small part of
me that feels this way. In a nation with
a secular government that believes in the separation of church and state, as our
nation does, I feel that everyone, not just Christians, should be guaranteed the
freedom to worship as they please and feel comfortable to do so. I also feel uncomfortable when I hear a
politician invoke God because usually it seems that most use God as a political
tool, with little actual evidence of faith to back it up.
Even if people believe that religion shouldn’t
play any role in politics, there’s no way to completely separate the two. Any person who regularly practices a religion
will be impacted by their religious beliefs.
Their religion will help to shape their worldview and therefore
indirectly impact their political convictions.
2. Religion should affect a person’s personal political
convictions, but shouldn’t be the only (or even primary) influence on our
political leanings. This is probably the
most commonly held view in American politics.
People want to see their religious beliefs enacted into law, but they
also believe that there’s a limit. People
who hold to this view know that it’s impractical to legislate morality
completely. Also, if they support the separation
of church and state they know that imposing their religious convictions through
law runs a thin line, because it could infringe upon the religious convictions
of others.
3. Religion should be the primary and only driving
force behind political decision making. This is the
extreme at the other end of the spectrum and the opposite of the first view. Under this view, a person who is religious,
should seek to discover their religion’s teachings on various issues and should
vote to see those teachings written into law and played out in official
government policies. Many Christians
feel this way. The problem with this
again lies with the fact that many of these Christians generally also support
the separation of church in state. They
simultaneously don’t want the government to infringe on their religious
beliefs, while desiring to see their beliefs enacted into laws for everyone.
What does
the Bible say about politics?
The Bible isn’t terribly clear about what role our
Christian faith should play in politics.
This is mainly because the Bible knows nothing of democracy. The Bible only knows two forms of government:
theocracy and monarchy. From the time
when God established a relationship with His people on earth through Abraham
until the time of the first king of Israel, the Hebrew people were governed by
God himself. God sent prophets to be His
voice box, set up a priestly class to lead the people in their religious practices
and in their daily lives, established judges to be prophetic military leaders
and purveyors of justice, and gave us His law to be followed. Because of our sin nature, the people of God
rarely did a good job of following their King (God himself) or obeying His
laws. This often led to the Hebrew
people being conquered or led away into exile.
Eventually the Hebrew people cried out to God and
asked Him to give them a king so that they might be like the other nations
around them. God warned the people (through
the prophet Samuel) of the dangers of having an earthly king. He was also aware that the people of Israel
had rejected God Himself as their king.
Still, the people did not listen to the warnings and so God gave them a king. Saul was chosen as the first king,
and while he had his moments, he was also deeply flawed and all the things God
warned of happened. He was then
succeeded by David, who was a man after God’s own heart, and then David’s son
Solomon, who was a man who sought wisdom above all else. While both were great and godly kings (David
was a warrior-king and Solomon was a great diplomat), both suffered from severe
moral failures (David slept with a married woman and had her husband killed,
and Solomon had nearly 1,000 wives). After
Solomon’s reign ended Israel was lead by a series of immoral and egotistical
kings who strayed from God’s leadership and sough only earthly rewards (with a
few notable, yet brief, exceptions).
Christ himself remained incredibly politically
neutral. The people of Israel were looking
for a political messiah who would bring salvation in the form of freeing the
Hebrew people from the rule of the Roman government. Instead, they got a messiah who saved them
from themselves and who seemed incredibly uninterested in politics. Jesus was only asked about politics once, and it had to do with paying taxes to the civil authority, and Jesus said that we need to submit and pay the taxes that we owe. Outside of this instance, Jesus remained surprisingly quiet on politics (which perhaps is an indication as to how Christians should be when it comes to politics).
Paul gives perhaps the most direct instruction as
to how Christians should act when it comes to politics. In Romans we are told that we must “submit to
the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has
established.” It would do us well to
remember that the “authorities that exist have been established by God.” While this doesn’t mean that all earthly
authorities will be godly (and indeed, all will sin and make poor decisions) it
does mean that all have been established in God’s will and we as Christians
need to respect them. It also means that
if our chosen candidate loses that American didn’t make the wrong choice or go
against God’s will (indeed, as a believer in free will, I’m more inclined to
believe that both choices fall within God’s will and it is up to us to decide). Paul also warns that anyone who rebels
against the ruling authorities is rebelling against God who established those
authorities and that the authorities are God’s servants. Again, we need to respect the leadership in
elected office, and understand that they have been established by God.
Paul also tells us to pray for all those inauthority. This means all leaders. Not just our American leaders or our
preferred candidate. As Christians, we
should never pray for our candidate to win, but rather we should ask God to
guide us in making our decision and pray that whoever is elected will seek to
always follow God’s will.
The dangers
of mixing religion and politics
The danger with allowing our religious beliefs to
influence our politics is that the influence can also go the other way where
our politics will influence our religious convictions. One of the biggest problems with being an
American Christian is the word order. Too
many Christians identify themselves as being Americans first and Christians
second. They allow their patriotism and
political leanings to affect their Christian convictions. They allow their party to dictate to them
what is right and wrong and true, instead of leaning on scripture to dictate to
them what is right and wrong and true.
This year I have seen two flyers designed for
churches to pride to their members to help them decide who they should vote for
as Christians. While I’m not opposed to
a pastor helping his/her congregation understand the important issues and the
Biblical stance on those issues, I don’t believe that it’s their place to
dictate to their congregants who they should vote for. Each person must take responsibility to
become informed and make a conscientious decision based on what scripture has to
say and where the candidates stand. I
had high hopes that these flyers would truly be informative and unbiased, as
their “non-partisan” label claimed.
Unfortunately, both were clear endorsements of Mr. Romney. Both simply selected a few issues and stated
whether each candidate supported or opposed, with the clear intent of leading
Christians to believe that Mr. Romney is the only correct choice for a
Christian.
Here are the issues listed:
Issues listed on both flyers
- Repeal of Obamacare
- Same sex marriage
- Taxpayer funding of abortion
- Defense of marriage act
- Mandated contraceptive coverage
Items listed on only one flyer
- Overturn Roe v. Wade
- Government funding of Planned Parenthood
- Ban on human cloning
- Parental choice in education
- Banning lawsuits against gun companies in cases of
gun violence
- Repeal of Estate Tax
- 20% Tax Cut Across the Board
- Balanced Budget Amendment
- Cutting Medicare $716 Billion
- Cap and Trade Tax
While I could spend a lot of time talking about
how ridiculous some of these points are I will only make a few observations. These are only some of the issues relevant in
this election, and I would argue that some are incredibly minor issues, while
other major issues were left off. The
phrasing of the issues and the issues that were selected were clearly designed
to point people to vote for Mitt Romney.
There was no explanation of any of the issues or the candidate’s stance
on them, only whether they supported or opposed it. There was also no explanation about what the
Biblical stance was on any of these issues.
I would have no issue with a church providing it's members with a comprehensive list of major issues, a description of the Biblical stance on those issues (supported by scripture), and an accurate depiction of each candidate's/party's stance on those issues. However, instead of being helpful tools for Christian voters attempting to make
an informed decision, these flyers are little more than uninformative
propaganda that have absolutely no place in a church.
One of the most egregious instances I’ve ever seen
of a Christian leader allowing his political preference to dictate his
religious convictions happened this past week when Rev. Billie Graham endorsed Mitt
Romney for president. Normally there
wouldn’t be anything particularly significant or noteworthy about this, except
that when he did so, his ministry removed the Mormon faith (the faith of Mitt
Romney) from its list of cults. While I
do not know the reason why it was removed, I can make the assumption based on
the timing that it was because Rev. Graham had chosen to endorse Mr. Romney
because he was the Republican nominee, and he couldn’t, in good conscience,
endorse someone to be the standard bearer of Christian morality in American government
if he openly believed that person to be a member of a cult. I doubt the he suddenly came to the
conclusion that Mormonism is a legitimate religion or part of Orthodox Christianity
(as they claim to be Christians). It is
clear to me that he allowed his political beliefs to supersede his religious
convictions, and that is a disappointing thing to see from such a stalwart of
the faith during the past century.
Conclusion
As Christian, we need to remember that we must not
be swayed by our world, but that we must seek to create change within our
world. I wasn’t raised to be a Democrat
or a Republican. I was raised to be a
follower of Christ, who looks first to scripture, then seeks to make an
informed decision. We all need to look to scripture as our ultimate authority. We have a responsibility as Christians to become informed and make our decision based on where the candidates stand in relationship to what scripture teaches. We must be very careful
not to let our political leanings influence our theology.
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