Religion and Politics

“Never talk religion or politics in polite company”, they say. I would agree, as most people have fairly strong feelings about both subjects and the chance that we are in complete agreement about them is pretty slim.

But there’s one subject that is by far even more divisive: religion AND politics. Our politics are usually driven by our core values and beliefs, so to try to persuade someone politically means we must also try to change who they are religiously.

In our politically charged climate, I’ve found that religion is by far the safer subject of the two, and I rarely feel the need to talk politics in any of my Gospel outreach efforts, such as a recent conversation with Fabian, whom I discovered to have a solid faith in Christ.

Fabian and I had a lot in common as fellow followers of Jesus Christ, and we enjoyed a pleasant conversation. Would we have had as much agreement if we had talked politics? Most likely not. And I think the seeds of those disagreements among Christians could be seen toward the end of our conversation, when we talked about our approach to sharing Gospel truths with people around us.

As Christians, we are “born again” spiritually as the Holy Spirit, who previously had only influenced us from the outside in, now takes up residence in us and begins to change us from the inside out. Two of the changes that occur often conflict with each other: as we learn what it means to “love our neighbor as ourselves” as Jesus teaches us, it means we want to share our greatest treasure – our salvation and faith relationship with Jesus – but it also means we want to be friendly and kind as we do so.

The good news of the Gospel only makes sense if we understand the bad news of our guilt and condemnation without Christ, so trying to be loving and nice as we try to explain this isn’t very easy. In fact, it is often offensive to people, especially as our society drifts further and further away from a biblical understanding of who God is and who we are in relation to God.

So, as Christians, we often find ourselves caught between trying to be a loving and kind person that always “gets along” with our neighbor, and one who honestly tries to share the hard but lifechanging truths of the Gospel.

Love, or truth. But are they really incompatible?

For his part, Fabian tries to do what I also tried to do for most of my Christian life – to be a nice, approachable Christian with a ready answer about the Gospel for anyone who might come to me and ask about it. Apparently, I wasn’t nice enough, because these kinds of conversations rarely happened.

I finally realized I was expecting people who aren’t born again – who only experience the influence of the Holy Spirit from the outside – to initiate the kinds of risky conversations that we can really only expect to be started by people who are motivated by the Holy Spirit from the inside. This is why Jesus said “go and tell”, not “wait and answer”.

So, what does this have to do with politics? How is it that Christians are so often divided politically? I think it has to do with questions of how, exactly, are we to love our neighbor when it comes to decisions between loving, friendly relationships or difficult but necessary truth.

For me, I fall on the side of “tough love” – a love that is tough enough to tell my neighbor the truth, even if they hate me personally for it. I am willing to risk offending my neighbor in the short term in order to share truth that will be for their long-term benefit.

And, especially in politics, it’s not just a question for individuals but one of policy. Take, for example, the question of our budget deficits and crushing debts, which both sides of the political divide struggle with. The Bible teaches in Proverbs that “the borrower is slave to the lender”. Is it really loving our neighbor, including our children’s children, to kick the can of slavery to debt on down to future generations? On the other hand, is it really loving our neighbor to impose harsh measures of austerity that hurt the poorest and weakest of society most right here and now?

Christians will deal with issues such as these in very different ways, so we shouldn’t expect to agree politically. For me, since our politics are so often driven by our religion, I’d rather avoid political side issues for the most part and try to focus on sharing the heart of the Gospel, simply because I trust the Holy Spirit to take it from there.

Thanks, Fabian, for allowing me to record our conversation. It can also be seen on my YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/k7hAaOzty0s