God' Politics

Jim Wallis, founder to Sojourners magazine and national Christian speaker has written a powerful call to American Christians to evaluate their position on social issues in his book, God's Politics: Why the right gets it wrong and and left doesn't get it.

The way the church can be the most effective is to not be ideologically partisan or tied to one political party. When we raise issues of moral rights and justice we will challenge both parties. Religion is not rooted in rights but in the image of God.

A biblical understanding of evil and the fallenness of man will make us wary of concentrated political or economic power. The abuse of such power is something we should speak out against.

Our faith should exude compassion and justice. These are values that should drive the education of our children as well.

Our religious congregations are not meant to be social organizations that merely reflect the wider culture's values, but dynamic counter-cultural communities whose purpose is to reshape both lives and societies.

In recent history there has been a rise in secular fundamentalism in response to the growth on religious fundamentalism. But both religious and secular fundamentalism are dangerous they deny the foundations of a democratic society. Religious fundamentalists try to force a theocracy on everyone else while secular fundamentalists try to eradicate morals and values from public life, destroying the very foundation of democracy.

"No one gets to heaven without a letter of reference from the poor." How you treat the poor determines the genuineness of your faith. Jesus himself said he would judge the world based on their treatment of the poor, hungry, homeless, imprisoned and needy.

How should Christians respond to the terrorist attacks of 9/11? What do Jesus' words, "Bless those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you" have to do with our response to terrorism? To say that THEY are evil while WE are good is both bad theology and leads to dangerous foreign policy. Loving your enemies does not mean submitting to their terrorism or hostile intentions. But it does mean we must treat them as human beings who have been created in the image of God. The threat of terrorism does not overthrow Christian ethics. We must respond biblically and not give in to anger, revenge or expediency. The "Myth of Redemptive Violence" has taken over much of our political discourse. We actually believe that violence can save us. As Christians, we cannot buy into this ideology.

Evangelical Christians then to be selective on their moral and ethical issues, picking and choosing those issues which are helpful for our political agenda while ignoring those that harmful for our political ends. Sexual and family issues are only one part of morality and ethics; there is also the issues of social justice that need to be taken into account. Questioning the religious right does not make you a religious leftist.

We cannot change our society by merely replacing one politician who is swayed by the wind of public opinion by another politician who also is swayed by the wind of public opinion. We can change society, not by changing the politicians, but by changing the wind. We need to change the social context in which political decisions are being made. Societies have been changed by movements with a spiritual foundation.

Poverty and social unrest is the result of a lack of vision. Where there is no vision, the people perish because they cast off restraint. Until we have a clear vision of social justice we will never defeat poverty and social injustice.

God is personal but never private. Private religion tries to avoid the consequences of public faith. Affluent nations tend to mainly Christians who have only a private faith because the public expression of faith would put the rich person in a dangerous social and economic position.

Today, religion serves to silence the politics of God than to announce it to the nations. In the Old Testament, however, the prophets publicly announced the Word of the Lord to the nation. What was the content of their message? Quite secular topics really. Land, labor, capital, wages, debt, equity, taxes, homes,courts, prisons, immigrants, other races and peoples, economic divisions, social justice, war and peace. This is the stuff of politics. To whom were the prophets often speaking? Usually to rulers, kings, judges, employers, landlords, owners of property and wealth, and religious leaders. The powerful were most often the prophets' target audience. The prophets most often spoke on behalf of the dispossessed, the poor, the widows, the orphans, the homeless and the helpless.

God does not call for class warfare, but only desires the common good, equality and justice.

God is personal, and without a personal God there is no personal dimension to faith, and thus, no spiritual transformation. However, this personal God is never private. God is very public, and to deny the public God is to deny biblical faith itself. Exclusively private faith degenerates into a very narrow religion, and its adherents become obsessed with sexual morality to the exclusion of public social justice. Private faith then becomes merely a cultural religion focusing almost exclusively on assurance of self-righteousness.

Week after week we pass by the poor and needy, yet in our congregations and fail to offer a searing indictment of our society which has become a nation of endangered souls that is governed by values that are quite foreign to our religious convictions. We are failing to be a prophetic voice in our nation and have fallen far short of what God intends for us to be, no matter how religious we like to think we are. We merely have a religiosity that is characterized by privatized belief systems, void of the prophetic and social witness of Jesus and the prophets, offering nothing more than small "s" spirituality, that is really no more than ad hoc wish-fulfillment or a collection of self-help techniques we use to take the edge off our materialistic lives. What if we made the values expressed by Jesus and the prophets a litmus test for our political candidates, social agendas, and foreign policy? A personal God demands public justice as an act of worship.

Protests are not enough. We must offer a better alternative. Protests must be instructive to succeed. They must illuminate and educate society about the ills one is protesting. Protests must not be destructive but constructive, not merely complaining but offering creative alternatives. Protests should not only denounce what is but open the way for change by offering constructive and useful alternatives. When protest is both instructive and constructive society must deal with it.

We must not underestimate the power of evil and the brutality of evil people. When the peace movement is soft on the problems it will be seen as weak. To avoid war we must have realistic plans to deal with the real problems and solve the underlying issues. These peaceful alternatives must be more effective than war.

Just decrying the facts of poverty is not enough to end poverty. In a global economy it is easy to overlook the poor because we really don't need them. But God calls us to care for the poor because they are made in his image. The question is not whether faith should influence society but how faith should influence society.

For a social movement to succeed it must be spiritually based and politically independent. It will attempt to change political structures while not being tied to one political party or system. The focus needs to be on grassroots outside the political system and working towards the inside instead of trying to get political power and work from the inside out. We need to persuade the general public by moral argument that is lived out instead of trying to force a political agenda from the top down.

Many politicians use scripture and biblical phrases to gain support from Christians. But it is dangerous to use biblical prooftexting to support a political ideology. Don't ask if God is on your side but if you are on God's side.

Much of religion today is driven by fear, especially fear of losing the faith. Much rhetoric coming from religious leaders is histrionic and tries to motivate Christians to support a particular political agenda out of fear. However, the best response to bad religion is not to get rid of religion or secularism but to replace it with good religion. While there are many bad interpretations of the Bible, the answer is not to get rid of the Bible but to promote better interpretations.

Not only are there religious fundamentalists in America, but now there is a growing number of secular fundamentalists. Biblical faith is not merely to comfort believers but to transform the world. Such transformation must always be done in a way that enhances democracy and personal freedom. Religious faith should serve the common good.

Biblical Christianity has always had difficulty with the concept of empire. Until the time of Constantine, the church was persecuted by the empire and the church critiqued and sought to change the empire. However, when the church became equated with the empire Christianity changed and became the persecutor and resistant to critique and change. Today, as we once again embrace the concept of empire, it is easy to vilify the enemy and claim to be on the side of good, but repentance is much better.

Blessed are the peace-MAKERS not the peace-LOVERS. Christians need to develop new and creative systems of non-violent resistance patterned after those which have proven to be effective in the past. Humility is essential for peacemaking, while self-righteousness is politically destructive.

Is there a Christian alternative to empire? Peace and security are not found in military supremacy and economic dominance. The prophet Isaiah proclaimed that peace and security come from social justice and economic fairness. If you want peace, work for justice. There is no global security apart from local and common security. No one will be secure until everyone is secure. There is no national security without global security and there is no individual security apart from collective security. Fear leads to violence; take away the fear and you will take away the violence.

Taking care of the poor and needy is central to the Bible. As Christians, we must be committed to helping the poor and downtrodden.

Politicians find a problem and publicize it, then they make the public afraid of it, blame the problem on their opponent, then use it to win an election. After they get elected, they ignore the problem and do nothing about it.

Poverty is a spiritual and religious issue, not a left-wing political issue. Economic poverty is often associated with spiritual poverty. However, affluence often masks moral and spiritual poverty. This is clearly demonstrated in the many school shootings around our country where white, suburban,middle class students from two parent homes perpetrated horrible violence against their peers. So, the problems of poverty are not just political but also spiritual and religious.

Ignoring the poor has distorted the theology of the church in affluent nations. This neglect and distortion has made any prophetic role for these churches impossible.

Budgets are moral documents.

Bill Gates Sr. said, "I believe that one's obligation to society grows in proportion to how much one has benefitted."

We have the knowledge, expertise, technology and resources to solve the problems of poverty and poor health of the world; the problem is that we simply don't want to. The political will does not exist. In the nineteenth century you could argue that it was inadequate science, knowledge, technology and resources, but that is not true of today. The real barrier is indifference.

Racism isn't natural; it must be taught. Racism serves a purpose; it keeps certain people down so other people can succeed, and it also is an effective way to blame one's social and economic problems on a different group. While racism originally had an economic motive it touches every part of our lives and society.

As Christians, we must be separate from our culture. If the culture around you doesn't work, don't buy it; create your own.

Change is a real prospect. We can experience change in our lives, families, communities, nations, and the world. That's the promise of faith, and that's what makes change possible.

The prophets always start out with condemnation and social critique but end with hope. Hope is not a feeling but a choice. Hope is a decision that is based on your deepest beliefs. Hope is not a naive wish but a choice with your eyes wide open.

It is important to remember to enjoy the world while you are out changing it. God has given us life as a gift and he wants us to enjoy it and help others enjoy it. That is what drives us to bring social change to to the world.