According to a recent poll conducted jointly by LifeWay Research and the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, a majority of Americans – though only a slight majority – do not believe that Christians are too much involved in politics.
Don KirklandWhen the survey figures zeroed in on Americans who attend religious services of any kind at least weekly, that modest majority of 52 percent increased to a more substantial 65 percent of our citizens who find no fault with Christian participation in politics.
And for the record, most Southern Baptist pastors – 65 percent of them – expressed their disagreement with the notion that believers are too greatly involved in politics.
The results of the poll, taken at a time of heightened, if not yet peak, interest and involvement in the political process give a timely indication of the level of acceptance by Americans of the role played by Christians in shaping public policy that is not at all surprising.
Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, found the survey “in line with the involvement of people of faith throughout our nation’s history with political issues that have a moral component,” citing the abolitionist movement against slavery and the civil rights movement in opposition to racial injustice as “religiously motivated.”
Politics, which by one definition is “the process by which groups of people make decisions on who gets what,” is not limited to government. It is evident wherever people interact, whether in corporate, academic or religious settings.
Especially as the time for annual meetings of the Southern and the South Carolina Baptist conventions draw near, and often when decisions are made having a major impact on convention ministries, criticism over the prevalence of politics in the denomination is voiced.
Nevertheless, the political process has been and will continue to be a vital and visible component of denominational life for Southern Baptists and for believers from all walks of Christian faith.
Central to – and for that reason inseparable from – the political process is the acquisition and application of power and influence. How the power and influence are acquired likely provides the key to understanding how they are applied, and that will determine in most instances whether the political process works for the benefit or detriment of the denomination.
We as Baptists would be wise to embrace the political process as neither inherently evil nor inevitably good, but rather for its potential as a helpful tool in building the kingdom of God on earth when power and influence are used appropriately by those who seek to be our denomination’s servants, not its masters.