The Failure of Christian Politics

Yesterday, I wrote about some of the major themes of Hunger Games, but I ignored many others. Today, I want to write about one of the themes that I ignored - politics. I won’t reference Hunger Games at any point, and the movie didn’t influence my thoughts on politics in any way; but, it did remind me that politics is important, and that it needs to be discussed, even if this is difficult.

Simply put, I think that Christian involvement in politics in this country has been disastrous the last several decades. It has been disastrous for the country, and it has been disastrous for the church. If one were to look at the role of Christians in recent politics, one might well conclude that the church is in a very bad state. I’m not talking about particular policies here – I’m talking about political behavior. Let me explain.

We have two major political parties – the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. There are Christians in both parties, though it seems that there are more Christians in the Republican Party than the Democratic Party. In my opinion, both parties support policies that advance the gospel, and both parties support policies that oppose the gospel. Honestly, I’m not sure which party is truer to the gospel. In order to settle that question, I think that you would need to compare their records on a vast array of issues, from criminal justice to transportation. And, before you could do that, you would need to figure out what their respective records are. That’s no easy task. There is a great deal of diversity in both parties. So, how do you compare their records? Do you only look at what presidents of the parties have accomplished? What if they served under opposition Congresses? And what about Congresses themselves? What about governors, state legislators, and local officials? Any attempt to compare the records of both parties across all issues is bound to be incredibly general and probably vacuous.

I could go on, but I won’t. It would take all afternoon. Suffice it to say that I have no intention of arguing that Christians should follow one party over the other. That doesn’t mean that I think it is wrong to support one party over the other, or even that it is wrong to be a single issue voter. Again, I don’t want to criticize any particular political issue here. Instead, I want to take a hard look at the political behavior of Christians.

Friends, let’s be honest with ourselves. Politicians lie, and they bully, and they cheat. They knowingly misrepresent their opponents' positions in order to gain votes. Many times, they misrepresent even their own positions to gain votes. And this is true of the politicians in both parties. If you are a Democrat, then I am sorry to tell you that President Obama and his advisers have gone back on campaign promises, hired crooks, and deceived the electorate time and time again. If you are a Republican, then put down that stone, because your party’s track record isn’t any better. Do you know when politicians are lying? When their lips are moving. Journalists and political commentators are not much better. In fact, they are often worse. Democrats and Republicans each have legions of “journalists” and pundits who spin endless lies, half-truths (still lies), and misdirections (yes, still lies) to the public. In case you don’t know, Fox News is incredibly biased. But so are MSNBC and, yes, NPR. That’s right, NPR is a bastion of liberal bias. Sorry to break that to you. And yes, Fox News is even worse. But no one can claim victory here. It’s a race to the bottom. The right has Rush Limbaugh. The left has Bill Maher. They’re both fools. And liars.

It's important to note that politicians and pundits don't simply lie - they bully. During George W. Bush's presidency, many Republicans accused Democrats who criticized the Iraq War of being unpatriotic. Recently, many Democrats have accused the Tea Party of being a fundamentally racist movement. These aren't just lies - they are attempts to bully the citizenry through fear. Both parties have exploited lies to bully the American people, and such behavior is very wrong. But I want to focus on garden-variety lies today.

The acceptance of rampant dishonesty in our political culture has disastrous consequences for the country. When every issue is reduced to a sound bite, and when the sound bite itself is a lie, then the ability of the people to make informed decisions is thwarted. When politicians from the president on down consistently misrepresent the positions of both their party and their opponents party, and when these lies are regurgitated and embellished by the media at all levels, then the ability of the people to make informed decisions is nearly extinguished. If the issues in question concerned things like sports arenas, that would be bad enough, but the fact is that the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans are on the line. And I haven’t even touched on foreign policy. When politicians and journalists consistently and knowingly lie about such issues, and when they do so in full knowledge of the consequences of their lies, then they are causing great harm, and they must bear some moral responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

At the same time, if the electorate understands the charade but choses to play along and accept those lies, then they too are morally implicated in great harm, and they too must bear some moral responsibility for the consequences. Sadly, the American people do understand the charade. They may deceive themselves about it, but they know exactly what is going on. True, not every American voter plays along with the charade, but tens of millions clearly do. If they didn’t, then operations like Fox News and MSNBC would be out of business, and politicians would be forced to tell the truth. Friends, our political system is seriously immoral, and while the politicians and media are largely to blame, so are the voters. What really frustrates me is that millions of Christians willingly participate in the worst parts of this system, and that they do so in the name of Jesus.

Tens of millions of Christians belong to the Republican Party, and they rarely call out their politicians, political operatives, and pundits for their dishonesty and corruption. I won’t bother running through a litany of Republican lies and crimes that have gone unnoticed by the political right. It’s too long and depressing. It happens every day. Tune in to O’Reilly or Hannity tonight if you want evidence. Or listen to whatever speech House Speaker John Boehner or House Majority Leader Eric Cantor most recently gave. Or Senate Minorty Leader Mitch McConnell. They usually average about ten lies a minute. Without question, the same can be said about the Democratic Party. (Don’t even get me started on Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.) But I want to focus on the Republicans here because it seems to have more Christians than the Democratic Party, and because it is closely linked with Christianity in the popular media.

Tens of millions of Christians support politicians who lie, bully, and cheat, and they often say nothing about it. This is deeply wrong. It is also contrary to everything Jesus taught. It is an embarrassment to the church, and a stain upon it. We are the salt of the earth, and if we lose our taste, well, you know what happens then. We are supposed to be a light on a hill. We are supposed to set a model for non-believers. But we are just as bad non-believers. Actually, we’re worse, for we act as badly as they do, but we also preach against our own behavior. In other words, we’re hypocrites.

Do I claim that Christians shouldn’t vote Republican? No. Do I claim that Christians shouldn’t vote at all? No. What I claim is this: Christians should not accept dishonesty and bullying from their politicians. We must speak out against it, and we must speak loudly. We must work to make politicians in both parties understand that such behavior is completely opposed to the teachings of Christ. We can still vote, but we can also write letters, make phone calls, send tweets, and post Facebook messages that criticize the immoral behavior of politicians in no uncertain terms. We can organize rallies to make our voices heard. We must do this, and we probably need to do even more.

I think that many Christians want to hold their politicians accountable but that they’re afraid to do so. In particular, I think that they’re afraid that if they criticize the politicians in their party for engaging in such behavior, then those politicians will lose re-election, or that they will never be elected in the first place, and the other party will win. Tough cookies. We’re Christians. We trust in God, not politicians. If our preferred candidate loses election, so be it. God runs the world, and God saves it. We don’t need some human being to keep our country on track, we need Christ to do it. Yes, some politicians may oppose the gospel in fundamental ways, and others may support it despite massive character flaws. But we can never justify the use of lying and bullying to accomplish our ends. By all means, be a dedicated Republican. Or be a dedicated Democrat. But hold your party accountable for all the ways in which it fails to honor the gospel. And remember that your identity is not rooted in a political organization - it’s rooted in Christ, and in the gospel. I believe that the gospel has power. I believe that if Christians held themselves to a higher standard, then the rest of the country would follow.

We shouldn't expect our politicians to be flawless, but we cannot tolerate the culture of dishonesty that prevails in Washington D.C. I think that we should vote; and, if we do vote, then we will necessarily vote for dishonest candidates. So be it. However, we need to speak out against the culture of dishonesty before we go to the ballot box. Change will not come over night, and we might lose a few elections before things improve, but parties lose elections as it is, and things aren't getting any better.

The authors of the New Testament tell us that we should devote ourselves to good works, and that we should place Christ before everything. But we don’t do this. We place political victory before Christ. And we actively support a culture of lies. At the same time, we expect non-believers to flock to us to learn about the mysteries of God. This is known in comedy as a joke.

Let’s show some grace toward ourselves, and toward our politicians, and yes, even towards our media, and then let’s get to work reforming our political culture.