Tips for Christian discernment about political conventions and promises:
“Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1). God instituted government, whatever form it may take, for the care of all people. Government is important to the quality of our lives, but government is not our Savior.
Generally, and in politics specifically, we are attracted to what we judge good and worthy. Just as we have our affinity groups, our Facebook friends, and so on, our political preferences reflect how we see ourselves. In preferring those who reinforce our attitudes and conducts, we tend to justify before ourselves and God who we are and how we live. This is what we sinners naturally do.
Jesus says, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). Unlike human preferences for what we like, God’s love seeks to bring good to people rejected by majority society. In Jesus’ visible ministry those were the “tax collectors and sinners.” Today they are immigrants, homeless, addicts, incarcerated, unknown victims of crime, and all marginalized by life.
Political campaigns and agendas seek power for their purposes, and their purposes may be admirable, fulfilling purposes of God’s institution government (Romans 13:4). The Church operates differently. “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43-45).
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:28). Christians see the neighbor in every individual marginalized by society, but a Christian also understands that our neighbor includes fellow citizens whose life, property, and well-being are threatened and even destroyed by others. In this difficult public policy debate, Christians can see both sides. God’s love through us “would not merely point to that which is bad in people as an end in itself, but move toward thinking creatively about appropriate ways to bestow that which is good in them” (Leo Sanchez, “Beyond Facebook Love,” in “Let the Gospel Lead,” 96).
Today’s partisanship is distressing but points to the privilege of living in a participatory, representative democracy. Alexander Hamilton wrote, “What is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” (“Federalist, 51). I thank God for the insight Scriptures give in trying to discern how to think in today’s partisan times. I hope you do too.
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