“That’s politics; I’m all about the kingdom!” That’s what I told a friend of mine when I was in college. He was in the Republican club, and occasionally tried to convince me to support his causes. I was in a different world though; I led worship and a small group for my campus fellowship. I was engaged with campus prayer and evangelism. Politics seemed like a world apart, and it wasn’t for many years until I began to see how wrong I was.
It started when I tried several years later to disciple some college students. I had graduated myself by this time, but had a discipleship group of five college guys that I met with weekly. As I discipled them I could see how some of them were bothered by parts of the Bible and bonded more closely with definitions of compassion and liberation that came from more left-leaning political sources. It wasn’t just them; I noticed that all the students in my church that were part of one particular campus fellowship began to become much more political and ascribed to a brand of Christianity that spoke more about social justice and oppression than about personal repentance and salvation from sin. Over time, almost all of these students stopped identifying as evangelical and some left the faith altogether.
This incident wasn’t isolated; I’ve seen the exact same thing happen to many believers in my lifetime. That’s because these political ideas are not just political–they are manifestations of another worldview. When Christians struggle to believe in prayer, it’s because they are living in a Western world where miracles seem unreasonable. They have to fight to believe the Bible against the dominant cultural worldview that assumes there is no spiritual realm and no deity that answers prayer. The reason why religion and politics are so contentious is because they touch so closely on issues of worldview. Many Christians are right to fear a politicizing of the Church, but they don’t recognize that an apolitical Church is equally deceived.
Jesus spoke into the most controversial political issues of his day. In one incident his opponents attempted to trap him by asking him whether Jews should pay taxes to Caesar. This question was a trap because it was highly politicized, and no matter how Jesus answered many were sure to be offended. His answer was that they should pay taxes to Caesar and “give to God what is God’s.” This answer was sure to have angered zealots and others who hated the Romans. Jesus further angered them when he taught that his followers should “turn the other cheek” when struck, walk two miles when forced to walk one, and surrender their cloaks when their coats were seized (Mat. 5). All these were characteristics of Roman oppression towards Jews, and Jesus was seemingly taking sides on a very controversial issue of his day.
Other biblical heroes likewise became controversial by speaking forcefully on politicized issues. Paul became quite the controversial figure by declaring the gospel of Jesus as Lord. In declaring this he strongly implied that Caesar was not and that all the deities of the Roman pantheon were fraudulent. Earlier in history, numerous prophets from Judah rebuked the kings of Israel for setting up alternative worship sites because they didn’t want their subjects traveling to Jerusalem to worship. This was a highly politicized issue in their day, as the woman at the well (John 4) touched on when she asked Jesus on which mountain worshipers of Yahweh were supposed to worship. Esther transgressed political protocol when she sought audience with the king for the sake of saving her people.
Christians have a long and noble history of speaking into political issues for the sake of the kingdom. Abolitionists in Britain and America argued forcefully for the end of slavery. Martin Luther King Jr. pressured the nation to honor its commitment to “liberty and justice for all.” Deitrich Bonhoeffer passionately opposed the Nazi regime in Germany. The list goes on and on.
As followers of Jesus we have an obligation to stand for the truth, especially when it becomes unpopular or earns us enemies, which is precisely what a politicized issue is. In our current times, evangelical believers represent one of the largest voting blocs in the nation. In a time when school boards are pushing non-biblical sexuality on our children, freedom of religion and speech is threatened by state governments, and almost a million babies are aborted every year, the Church should be mobilizing every believer to vote.
