Must evangelicals get involved in politics?
by John Wheaton, J.D.
“I’m the Devil, and I approved this message.” That’s often what evangelical Christians hear at the end of a campaign ad on TV or radio. For us, voting for the lesser of two evils is more than a hyperbolic metaphor. We take it literally. We know that all political candidates are, at their core, inherently evil (just like we are, and just like the Bible says), and our duty as good Christian citizens is fairly straightforward: simply vote for the candidates with the fewest sins in the public record!
Okay, there’s more to it than that… that is, if we bother to turn out and vote at all. Unfortunately, as with half of the eligible voters in the U.S., nearly half of all evangelicals consider politics to be a spectator sport. I used to be a political spectator myself.
Back in the fall of 1980, I was an 18-year-old college student attending the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. The biggest issues facing our nation were the Iranian hostage crisis and a faltering economy. The incumbent president, Jimmy Carter, was out to extend his political life four more years, and his challenger, Governor Ronald Reagan of California, was hot on Carter’s tail. As it moved closer to election day, things got nasty. It was mildly irritating for my friends and me to have “Monday Night Football” interrupted and sullied by back to back political attack ads instead of a few goofy beer ads. The voice over on Reagan’s ad would end something like, “Can we afford four more years of Jimmy Carter putting America at risk?” followed by Carter’s tactic, ”Is Ronald Reagan trying to hide his communist past?” My friends and I wondered if the sarcastic, accusatory, deep-throated voice in both ads belonged to the same guy: “Boy, I bet he’s making a boatload of cash this election. All right, back to the game!
”Needless to say, I was about as apathetic toward politics as one can get. Then again, who cares about apathy! Like many students, I didn’t have much time for or interest in politics. My priorities focused on achieving good grades, growing in my faith, getting some hands-on ministry experience, playing sports, and spending time with my friends and girlfriend. Politics didn’t really affect my life much, anyway. I was single and living in the sheltered world of a Christian college. I had little money, paid few taxes, and relied on my parents and a few student loans to get by. I also had very little in the way of personal property, save an orange Ford Pinto that my Dad called “The Rust Bucket” or “That Thing.” However, after receiving several reminder phone calls and strong encouragement from my parents, I did somehow follow through on mailing my absentee ballot back to Minnesota that year. I remember feeling a small sense of pride when the on-campus notary public put her official seal on it. I had fulfilled my civic duty.
As the 1984 election approached four years later, my attitude toward all things political had moved from inactive indifference to disillusionment – even cynicism. American politics was such a dirty business, and I reasoned that no good Christian should take part in it. I witnessed, as a mere casual observer, the acrimony arising between the major parties and candidates over seemingly petty differences. Without too much deep analysis, I concluded that politics only brought out the worst in people. Then 22, I viewed the political scene with a lot more head knowledge and a little more wisdom than I had at 18. I knew all the basics of a Christian’s civic duties: obey your earthly authorities,1 pay your taxes,2 and live at peace with all men.3 I also knew that my citizenship in Heaven far outweighed my citizenship on earth. The real battle was being waged in the spiritual realm, and that’s where I wanted to focus my energies. Compared to the cause of Christ, the cause of a bunch of ambitious, mostly immoral politicians seemed so worldly and temporal to me.
Several ideas guided my thinking, as I recall. First, since God was in control and ultimately appointed all human leaders, I didn’t need to get too caught up in the power struggles of this world. Second, since the gospel was pre-eminent, taking political sides might get in the way of my testimony for Christ, so I’d best keep my political opinions to myself. Third, Jesus, Paul, and other great heroes of our faith accepted the earthly leaders and political systems of their day. Why shouldn’t I? Therefore, I made the decision to stay above the political fray until Election Day; then I’d quietly stop by the polls to cast my vote (I still had a tinge of civic duty in me). The electoral process would run its course without too much input from me, as it always had before, and God would ordain the outcome, as He always had before.
Then, things changed. Having transferred to the University of Minnesota a few years earlier to complete my undergraduate degree, I couldn’t avoid getting hit in the face with the politics of the day. This time it was Ronald Reagan going for his second term against Minnesota’s own, Walter Mondale. Reading the campus newspaper, “The Daily,” almost required a pair of haz-mat gloves. Every article outside the sports pages spewed hatred and vile profanity against the government and leaders of the day. Walking across the campus mall was like ducking through a verbal war zone. As I moved passed the anarchists shouting down some College Republican trying to make a speech on “Reaganomics,” my ears were assaulted with the scratchy, amplified voice of a radical feminist screaming some kind of monologue into a microphone. Ah, the First Amendment in all its glory!
Reading some of my class texts – Marx and Engels, for example – also gave me pause for political thought. Maybe socialism had more merit than a lot of Christians realized. Capitalism, and the democratic system that supports it, only encourages greed and selfishness while ignoring the plight of the poor. All this helped me form a fairly shallow and cynical view of politics and economics. Combined with my thorough, yet one-dimensional, understanding of Scripture, it all made for a somewhat idealistic, naïve worldview. For instance, I couldn’t figure out why the modern church and, by extension my government, wouldn’t adopt the early churchpractice of sharing all things in common.4 It seemed to me that if God blessed communal-like living as a wonderful social arrangement back then, why couldn’t it work for us now?
Fortunately, these were just thoughts that bounced around in my mind and in private conversation with friends. My complacency toward politics kept me from jumping aboard one of the radical student movements of the day. Then, about a month before the election, I attended a church service where a film was shown highlighting the gruesome techniques used by abortionists and showing statistics about the millions of unborn babies who had died in America. This had a strong
impact on my thinking. Something had to be done about this! Suddenly, politics didn’t seem so “this worldly” to me any more. I started to make the heavenly
connections and began to see how politics was really an important means to an end – God’s end – in this case: the protection of innocent human life. I thought, “What were Christians doing leading up to that awful Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973?”
As Edmund Burke rightly observed, “All it takes of evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.” Someone had obviously been asleep at the switch, and now it had to all be undone. Sure, prayer was needed and changed hearts would be nice; that’s where the gospel comes in. But the bottom line is, and this fact remains to this day, that unborn babies will keep being slaughtered in this country until a few more life-loving judges are put on the Supreme Court. That will take a lifeloving president and Congress who are duly elected by the people. And, that requires me, and you, to become politically aware and active— to pay attention to the decisions being made that impact our lives both locally and nationally. Do they promote spiritual freedom or sinful bondage? With two or three justices likely to retire in the next few years, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
After that election in 1984, I began to appreciate the effect American politics had not only on the lives of the unborn, but on my own life, and the lives of most people around the world. It went well beyond abortion into all the issues we were facing at the time: the Cold War and national defense, education, economic stability, and equal opportunity for all, to name a few.
I realized that politics mattered! Perhaps not as much as the gospel—but it wasn’t a fallacious either/or proposition to me anymore. The gospel and moral political action were actually complementary ideals. I could and should actively participate in promulgating both messages of freedom: the primary, eternal gospel message of spiritual freedom in Christ AND the secondary, temporal message of political freedom on earth via democracy and governmental protection of basic human rights. These were no longer inherently contradictory concepts to me. My vote and my influence began to take on new meaning, and I began to take an interest in politics–from a biblical perspective, of course. What does the Bible say about citizenship in a constitutional republic like ours? About the role of government? About individual rights? About social justice?
I began to follow the campaigns, read up on the news and keep closely abreast of the issues. Discussing and debating those issues in conversations at home or with friends became something I enjoyed, and my intense interest in understanding all things political from a biblical viewpoint eventually led me to law school. During one semester, I even ended up working on a presidential campaign in Washington. Washington turned out to be a big eye opener for me, and I was surprised to find that the leading Democrat and Republican operatives are largely sewn from the same cloth. While they have different views on the direction America should take—and that’s important—they all have the same insatiable drive for power, prestige and position. These things repulsed me, but didn’t make me cynical again. I was beginning to learn that, beyond the dirty side of politics that the media and the political ads highlight, there is also a noble side.
Politics is essentially more about ideas than it is about parties and the people who run them. Sure, people are needed to inform and coalesce the voting public behind various causes and campaigns, but it’s the ideas (good or bad) that eventually get enacted into the laws that ultimately affect peoples’ lives. I’ve been grappling with those ideas, and filtering them all through a Christian worldview, ever since. Another part of our civic responsibility as Christians also includes carrying out our civic actions in a civil (duh!) way. It’s learning to “speak the truth in love” and with grace even when under attack. This is hard to do when we experience the incivility of politics all around us. Learning the delicate art of discussing controversial issues in a civil, respectful way doesn’t only apply to politics, but to theology and the gospel message itself. As Solomon puts it, “A wise man makes knowledge acceptable.”
I have enjoyed leading my students at Crown in discussions and debates about current issues facing our nation and our world. One of my goals is to help students understand and appreciate their civic responsibilities and how the political process works. For example, during this past election cycle we discussed and debated all the key issues: the all-important “swing states” leading up to November 4, the viability of Barack Obama’s economic plan (Would it be the best way to help struggling Americans?), John McCain’s approach to foreign relations (Would his policies keep us safe, or put us at risk?), and Sarah Palin (Could she fulfill the office of Vice President and the needs of her family?). I try to help students develop their own personal, biblically based political ideology as opposed to becoming a blind party loyalist. That’s one reason a few years back that we changed the name of the club I advise from the “College Republicans” to the “College Conservatives” since the primary goal of the club is to build camaraderie amongst conservative students and “promote the conservative and biblical values of life, liberty, traditional marriage and family, individual responsibility, a strong work ethic, service to others and limited government.”
Now, I know what some will say (I’ve heard it from several students): “Hey, our right to vote includes the right to NOT vote or get involved, right?” That’s absolutely true. Just like we all have the right to not recite the Pledge of Allegiance, not sing the National Anthem, not pray, not attend church, not protest, not bear arms—the list goes on and on. It’s great to have so many rights and freedoms, but each one of our God-endowed, inalienable rights carries certain moral responsibilities, too. As Christians, we of all people should understand clearly what those responsibilities are.
The responsibilities that come with our right to vote are not insignificant or trivial, and I believe God wants us to take them seriously. Beyond the basic act of voting,
they include being well informed, being influential, and being active in the political
process to the extent we are each able. Put another way, Christians should be the last citizens in a democracy to leave all the political decision making to other people – people who may or may not have God’s or our best interest at heart. In almost every election since 1984, I’ve felt compelled to volunteer for campaigns, plant lawn signs in my yard, put bumper stickers on my cars, receive and pass on myriads of political emails, donate money, and of course, I’ve voted. It has been so much more than a civic duty; it has been a true privilege – a regular reminder of the freedom that God and so many American patriots have afforded me.
Four years ago, I joined the club of politicians when I won a seat on my local city council. In fact, in 2009, I will be embarking on my second four-year term. But
the decisions facing me are nothing compared to the decisions facing those who hold high national offices. Their decisions will impact the lives of people both in the U.S. and around the world for years to come. The hotly contested and very intriguing Presidential race we just had should prove that no eligible Christian
voter or volunteer can ever just sit on the sidelines. Remember, “All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”
1 Romans 1:3-7
2 Luke 20:25,
3 Romans 12:18
4 Acts 4:32
