ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250017
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PETER WEHNER
ASSUME YOU had never read the New Testament and were asked to draw some conclusions about Christianity based on the conduct and statements of today's many politically active Christians, on both sides of the spectrum. You would probably conclude that Christ and his followers spent a lot of time forming coalitions, networking among the politically powerful and writing laws; that in order to advance his ``social agenda,'' Christ demanded political access, influence and a ``place at the table''; and that the best way, as he saw it, to re-moralize Jewish and Roman society was to become rulers of the nations.
You might therefore conclude that the modern church ought to be a political nerve center; that the Scriptures offer a detailed policy blueprint; and that controlling the citadels of power is crucial to advancing the Kingdom of God.
Yet these views - which increasingly dominate Christian thinking and action - find virtually no support in the life or teachings of Christ. This is an inconvenient fact for many politically active Christians. I say ``inconvenient'' because many of them have achieved what they have long sought: political power, influence, even dominance. But at what cost?
A compelling case can be made that Christians ought to care about politics precisely because political acts can have profound human consequences. But the principal threat Christians now face is not disengagement from politics but absorption by it. Christians need to resist a creeping political idolatry.
Much of the criticism directed against Christians in politics comes from secularists who have contempt for religion. It is worth pointing out, therefore, that I am a Christian who has been nurtured, encouraged and loved by those in the family of Christian faith. I speak as a member of that family, concerned that the full embrace of politics vulgarizes our religious witness.
Trying to ascertain the proper relationship of Christian faith to political power is an inherently ambiguous undertaking; we have obligations to both God and Caesar. But we do know some things. It was expected that the Messiah would come as a political leader. Instead, he came to us as a lowly servant, born in a manger in Bethlehem. The disciples Christ recruited did not have (in worldly terms) status or influence. On a high mountain in the wilderness, Satan tempted Christ by offering him the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Jesus declined. Emphatically.
Christ and his disciples demonstrated a profound mistrust of power - especially political power. Malcolm Muggeridge pointed out that Jesus' entire ministry was directed against the pretensions of earthly power. The focal point of Christ's ministry - the object of most of his energies and affections was the downtrodden, social outcasts, the powerless. Regarding a Christian's place in the world, Christ said, ``My Kingdom is not of this world.'' None of the disciples led anything approaching what we would consider a political movement. Finally, there is Christianity's most sacred symbol: the cross - a symbol of agony and humiliation that is the antithesis of wordly power and victory.
Passionate political activism - for example, presidential candidates calling for Christians to ``break the doors open'' and ``take over the party'' - is simply not a model of biblical Christianity. Christ understood the corrosive effect power can have on the church as well as on individual believers.
History largely bears this out. The social philosopher Jacques Ellul wrote that every time the church has gotten into the political game, it has been drawn into betrayal or apostasy. ``Politics is the Church's worst problem,'' Ellul wrote. ``It is her constant temptation, the occasion of her greatest disasters, the trap continually set for her by the Prince of this World.''
According to Charles Colson, during the Nixon administration, religious leaders were those most easily seduced by political power. There is an insidious danger that is particular to Christians - namely, the tendency to justify their actions by assuming that (a) Christians are inoculated against the seductions of wordly power and (b) they are advancing God's purposes. The results are often moral arrogance, pride, self-importance, hypocrisy, excess.
Consider, too, how the political arena undermines traditional Christian virtues such as love, humility, forgiveness, forbearance, kindness, mercy and gentleness. These virtues are not the coin of the political realm - including the Christian political realm. The fuel driving much of modern-day Christian activism is anger, bitterness, resentment. Political campaigns seem only to inflame these emotions.
``If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next,'' C.S. Lewis wrote. ``It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one.''
Many modern-day Christians are aiming squarely at Earth. The result is that the church begins to look like just one more special-interest group; faith becomes a weapon employed by political ideologues of every shade and hue; and ugly divisions occur among believers. Christianity itself is debased at the altar of politics.
The corrective is not complete retreat from the affairs of the world; it is, rather, selective political engagement characterized by distinctively Christian attitudes. That means (among other things) that Christians ought to be voices of decency, civility and moral sanity; that we recognize our own (and not just other people's) human imperfections; that we strive for justice, righteousness and mercy; that we speak out and act against evil; that we regard political power with suspicion and acknowledge its limits; that we be less partisan and more prophetic; that we remember that the biblical model for ``loving thy neighbor'' is a servant model, nonpolitical and personal; that we maintain a detachment from, and hold loosely the things of the world; and that our interest in the temporal should never overshadow our longing for the eternal.
If we conduct ourselves in this manner, we will affect the world for good, maintain the integrity of our faith and honor our Lord.
Peter Wehner is director of policy at Empower America.
- The Washington Post
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