Time was, many people thought there should be no talk of politics in church. I get that. I don’t agree with it; but I understand it. Sort of. There was a basic agreement in the churches that one could be a faithful Christian and also a Democrat or Republican. This reflected a consensus in our country about truth and democracy. Both of the major parties agreed on the basic framework of the American republic, and neither was considered incompatible with Christianity. Then it could be argued that political advocacy was not appropriate in church, and that churches should not “take sides” in political arguments.
Those days are over. Now it is absolutely imperative that we talk about politics in church. Because today democracy itself is at risk. And followers of Jesus Christ are committed to advocate for a broadly inclusive, egalitarian democracy.
The Lord Jesus, during his lifetime, is famous for his radical inclusion of all kinds of people, especially those dismissed by the establishment as sick or sinners. He lifts up and empowers women, he feeds the hungry, he welcomes children, he summons sick people into his circle, he affirms workers, he associates with Samaritans and other people considered alien. His movement is wildly inclusive of all kinds of people.
Democracy, of course, was not a thing in the first century; politics in Palestine was locked down by the Roman Empire. But Jesus demonstrates in his ministry a democratic sensibility in which all are equal under the One God, the arrival of whose Kingdom Jesus comes to proclaim. In the Kingdom of God, all are equal, all are welcome, all have their voices heard and receive what they need.
Therefore, advocating for a radically inclusive democracy is itself a witness to Jesus Christ.
When Martin Luther King Jr. led the civil rights movement, it was under this basic assumption about both Christianity and America. King appealed not just to the Constitution and the democratic vision of the founding Fathers; his was also and primarily an explicitly Christian movement. American democracy is thought to be fundamentally rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition that begins with a band of slaves whom God liberates from Pharaoh’s Empire. If America was founded on Christian principles, as some like to affirm, the main Christian principle upon which it was founded is this inclusive equality of all before God, Thomas Jefferson’s primary self-evident truth.
The conflict we are experiencing in America now is way beyond mere “politics.” This is past being something concerning which reasonable and faithful Christians might disagree. It is not just disagreement about different methods to achieve good, common goals.
The conflict today is what we call a status confessionis. That is, this is a matter of the integrity of our confession of faith as Christians. In short, to reject the basic principles of inclusive democracy is to reject Jesus Christ and the Christian faith.
The Church is therefore required to talk about politics in this situation. When one side of the political conversation is opposed to democracy itself, and advocates in effect for dictatorship, intentionally inventing, following, and justifying falsehoods, then we have to mention and condemn it. We have a duty to guide church members away from such ideologies and practices. Indeed, the Church is even bound to cut off from its communion anyone persisting in advocating such views.
Had the Church been more willing to have political conversations before, during the decades when one party was sliding down the gutter away from democracy, inventing lies about things like “voter fraud,” weaponizing the practice of gerrymandering, militating against equal rights for all, demonizing opponents, and stoking racial division, we would be better off today.
But we are where we are. Now the Church must explicitly embrace and advocate for democracy, which means rejecting one of the two major parties. More specifically, the Church has to renounce the bigotry and lies that led to the deadly riot against the U. S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. It must separate itself categorically and unequivocally from what is called “Trumpism.”
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