We are living in an age when politics seems to occupy more and more of our minds and hearts. There is a simple reason for that. The government was once a much simpler kind of affair with a relatively limited reach, especially in a nation with a vast geographic area such as the United States. Today, in an era of instantaneous communication and social media, we are all in touch and subject to a cacophony of voices seeking attention, money, and power. As a result, politics and government feel more near to us than ever.
We have seen that it is possible for gigantic social change to come by government. As an example, we have lived through a time when the government has acted to fundamentally redefine the institution of marriage. For the entirety of human history, marriage was understood to
be a male-female institution. While it is true the world had seen polygamy, it had not witnessed a model of marriage based on same-sex pairings. If we look back at the work of one of the most durable scholars of all time, Aristotle, we would see him calling the male-female pair the fundamental unit of society for the simple reason that society cannot exist without male-female reproduction and has no ability to project itself into the future.
Just as marriage has proven to be vulnerable to changes in policy and leadership, so, too, has sex and gender. We have a clear divide between the biblical understanding of these matters and that of our culture. The first thing the Bible tells us about human beings in Genesis is that they are made in the image of God. The second thing is that He made us male and female. In the attempt to blur the lines of gender and even to indulge the fantasy that hormones, drugs, and surgery can erase God’s handiwork and replace it with something new and more desirable, we are on a collision course with Scripture and its author.
A lesser example of rapid change is now occurring in the area of recreational drug use. Most Americans recall a time when the government labored mightily to convince them not to use drugs and penalized trafficking and possession. The actions taken against drug use were protective and addressed the reality that drugs bring many pathologies with them, including crime, broken families, wasted lives, homelessness, poor career outcomes, etc. Within a short period of years, things have changed drastically in this regard as well. Many have the experience of walking through the streets of big cities or entering major gathering spots and encountering the unmistakable smell of marijuana.
All of this is to say that government matters. Leaders matter. Our culture is highly shaped by what our government sanctions and what it forbids. Certainly, there is anxiety by many Christians about the degree to which government will attempt to penalize their beliefs and religious practice, especially when it comes to matters of human sexuality.
How are we to react to all of this as Christians? First, we must remember that the Bible tells us to obey the governing authorities (Rom. 13). That doesn’t mean we just passively accept what is happening, but we must recognize our duty to have a fundamental orientation toward obeying laws. Second, however, we must remain cognizant of the limits of the authority of secular government. Christ advised that we must render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s (Mark 12:17). With regard to matters such as sex, marriage, and abortion, there is reason to believe our government oversteps its rightful zone of authority and encroaches into God’s territory.
In so saying, I do not counsel a revolution or rebellion. Instead, I believe American Christians should use their rights as citizens to speak, organize, vote, and run for office. We have these rights under the American constitution and should treat them the same way we do any other resource available to us. That is to say, that just as we believe we must use our money to the glory of God, to support the church, to aid the poor, to pay taxes, we must also use our civil rights to try and steer our government in a better direction. This need not be a partisan instruction. I would urge Christians who are Democrats and Republicans to work within their political parties to turn their parties and their leaders in a more righteous direction.
Having encouraged fellow Christians to get involved in politics and to try to affect the overall direction of the activity to be more honoring to God, it is also important to avoid turning the church into some kind of political arena. I don’t say that so as to attempt to remove politics from the matters we discuss or perhaps even preach about, but it is essential that we do not allow the church to become an adjunct of politics. The church is more important than secular politics. It is the arena of immortality. We will not meet the United States in heaven. But we will meet the men and women around us in the church. We must continue to focus on matters of salvation and sanctification. Politics is important — but it is penultimate, not ultimate.
Another important thing to remember is that politics has a tendency to fan the flames of our passions. In consequence, we sometimes seem to assume a license to act in ways that are aggressive, hostile, and hateful. As Carl Trueman has said, there is no political exception to the gospel. We must remain fundamentally motivated by love, even when dealing with people who are essentially enemies of the faith. The church must remain the church, in election season and out.
Finally, the most important political statement I can make is a simple one: Jesus Christ is the only King worthy of the name. We must never be tempted to allow the idols of the modern world to direct our attention away from that ultimate reality.
— Hunter Baker is the provost and dean of faculty at North Greenville University.