Right War, Wrong Weapons - Concerning the Church and Politics

 It’s difficult for me to pinpoint where this concern originated for me, but I know fundamentally WHY it is a concern, so that is helpful. Each election year brings cultural political furor into our living rooms, onto our lawns and bumper stickers, into our family dynamics and relational networks, and awkwardly and sometimes unfortunately into our churches.

Is this new? No, probably not. When a person looks closely at Baptist history they will find a mixture of views. The earliest Baptists were adamant about separating church and state because they were closer to the religious persecution that led the Pilgrims to make the arduous journey across the Atlantic to begin with. Upon arriving in the Colonies it wasn’t long before religious establishment began to take root again, and along with it the bloody persecution that religious dissenters had previously fled from in England.

These Baptists championed separation of church and state (disestablishment) because they were being taxed to support state churches (Anglican and Catholic) with whom they conscientiously disagreed. Their argument would not have been against the right of Anglicans or Catholics (or others) to practice their faith freely, but they opposed the government establishment of a state religion through taxation. The Danbury Baptist Association famously wrote to Thomas Jefferson asking him to help enforce the existing legislative redress in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.⁽¹⁾ In a sense, early Baptists saw religious pluralism as a component of religious freedom.

This is all probably more complicated than I’d personally like it to be. Already it is plain that religious people saw the importance of a fair political process to enable the free expression of worship. They also demonstrated an uncommon fairness in their religious temperament. There is not room to elaborate on this here, but reading about Roger Williams, William Penn, or John Leland will bear this out.⁽²⁾

My concerns about how politicizing the church can be problematic:

1. First, do not hear me saying that Christians have no right to engage in the political process. I do not believe that is what separation of church and state means. However, personally, I would advise that the early church depended more on prayer, evangelism, discipleship and building godly community and had at best an uneasy arrangement with the state. When that changed under Constantine, the result was the first state church which was the worst possible development for authentic Biblical Christianity. It could be argued that the rest of church history is an exercise in attempting to reform the church to its First Century distinction.  

2. I’m concerned with how politics may cause us to view people with whom we disagree. I know that many Christians feel passionately about policy issues because those issues usually derive from Biblical convictions about morality. Simultaneously I am concerned that we will end up with an attitude about people who disagree with us that is deeply dissimilar to that of Jesus. I can’t think of a single example of Jesus treating an immoral person like His enemy. Really, it was just the opposite. He was criticized for being a friend of sinners (Luke 15:1-2).

3. I’m concerned that politics may become an idolatrous distraction. If social media is any indication, many believers have far more passion for the expression of their political views than for sharing their faith. The Bible teaches that transformation occurs in the lives of people because they have internalized the truth of the Gospel (2 Corinthians 5:17). I can’t tell people what to care about, or how much to care, but I certainly agree with Lt. Colonel Steve Russell, who led the capture of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and later represented the state of Oklahoma in the House and Senate. He said, “Christians have been fighting the right war with the wrong weapons.” I was actually flabbergasted to hear him say this. It was at FBC Statesboro, GA at a men’s rally. Russell, a Christian, had me furiously taking notes. He said everything I had been thinking. He said that political movements like the Moral Majority had done little if anything to move the needle. Sure, they give voice to our tribalism, but in the end of all the lobbying and power brokering hadn’t affected societal change.

4. I’m concerned that political moralizing can become a poor imitation of regeneration. Sam Williamson, in a book subtitled, How Moralism Suffocates Grace, wrote, “People in the world often reject Christianity simply because they can't distinguish it from mere morality. The world needs morality--oppression thrives when consciences are abandoned--but we need more than that alone. We need the gospel of grace. A gospel that has largely been lost amid the dos and don'ts and preoccupations of religious culture. People often pit grace against moralism. And they should. Moralism circumvents heart-changed morality.”⁽³⁾ What good is a politically victorious church in the middle of a broken society if we have lost our central message?

Conclusion – In the movie The Bourne Identity, a dying assassin, thwarted in his mission to bring down Jason Bourne says with resignation, “Look at what they make us do.” That’s how I feel about politics for the most part. Look at what they make us do. We are programmed to devalue one another in the quest for party supremacy. I’m not blind to the very real battles being physically fought on our city streets in America. I just wonder if Lt. Col. Steve Russell is right. The culture wars have no real winners because we are fighting the right war with the wrong weapons.

⁽¹⁾https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/thomas-jefferson-and-religious-freedom

⁽²⁾https://www.freedomforuminstitute.org/first-amendment-center/topics/freedom-of-religion/religious-liberty-in-america-overview/history-of-religious-liberty-in-america/

⁽³⁾ Is Sunday School Destroying our Kids? How Moralism Suffocates Grace, Sam Williamson, 2014.