The Christian Century recently published a good article entitled “Do politics belong in church?“. It is a compilation of 11 responses from pastors and
leaders with a wide variety of backgrounds.
I plan to excerpt what I believe are the best of the bunch. You can find the entire article here.
I begin with my friend and former colleague, James K. A. Smith. Jamie wrote the foreword to my book, Encountering Jesus Encountering Scripture. I also have reviewed his recent book Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology on this blog.
I greatly appreciate Jamie’s perspective:
“You might expect the obligatory nod to the challenge of preaching in our polarized climate—except for the fact that our congregations are comfortably partisan and have been engines of polarization, not some lingering holdout against it. Like our housing and education, Christianity reflects rather than
resists what sociologist Bill Bishop calls “the big sort.” Congregations are predictable clusters of the politically like-minded. I expect that many pastors, whether on the left or right, can count on a certain slant of ‘us’ and reliably decry a ‘them’ on Sunday mornings.
“So the challenge is less how to avoid upsetting ideologically diverse congregations and more a matter of rightly upsetting the monolithic congregations in front of us. But how? What does faithful political discipleship look like?
“We don’t want to avoid being predictably partisan by falling prey to the illusion that the gospel is politically ‘neutral.’ If some partisan stands align with biblical concerns for justice, we shouldn’t soft-pedal biblical themes just to avoid appearing partisan. Here’s a way the lectionary is a gift. These biblical themes confront us. Preaching isn’t dictated by the pet priorities of a party but by the worldwide curriculum of the body of Christ at worship. And some days, by grace, that Word will come as a challenge to our own preferences.
“Nor does the unique ‘politics of Jesus’ give us license to sequester ourselves in alternative communities. Policy is how we love our neighbors, and purity doesn’t release us from the Great Commandment. The illusion of being nonpolitical is a luxury of privilege that only leaves the vulnerable exposed.”
