Politics

The term politics is often used to refer to all situations in which power is important. Hence we speak of office politics, sexual politics, church politics, and so on. Occasionally we are told that everything is political, which might be true in a trivial way but is not very enlightening, since it means the same as saying that nothing is political. If war and cooking are both essentially politics, then the word cannot mean very much. This is like saying that everything is educational or everything is sexual. Politics is also used to refer to manipulation, lust for power, double-dealing and outright graft. This is well captured in Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary: “POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.” While this activity is widespread, it is clearly one we should avoid and repress.

This article will focus on two other meanings of politics. The first refers to the activity of governments and rulers and our activity in relation to them. The second is politics as electioneering, winning votes, lobbying, gathering public support and legislative horse trading (see Voting). Both of these important aspects of life merit our attention and support.

The Place of Politics

C. S. Lewis remarked that Christians make two equal and opposite mistakes about evil spirits. Either we ignore them, or else we become obsessed with them and treat them as the key to everything else. The same habits of heart and mind occur in Christian responses to politics. Some Christians, often evangelicals and fundamentalists, still reject politics as worldly. Others, increasingly including evangelicals and fundamentalists, tend to act as though the gospel had a particularly political focus. Neither view is biblical.

Politics is not the center of existence. The Bible stresses the importance of the individual, the family and the church as well as government. Government is not the ultimate or final authority in society; it is only one institution alongside others. At the same time it is equally wrong to try to separate the gospel from politics. The Bible focuses not only on the church but also on political authorities as those charged by God with exercising a ministry of justice. In fact, the Old Testament pays far more attention to the doings of judges, kings and lawgivers than it does to priests. In general the tenor of our proper response is well captured in the title of H. M. Kuitert’s Everything Is Politics, but Politics Is Not Everything.

The Bible and Politics

The ministry of government began when God gave to Noah and to humankind generally the authority to judge evil, up to and including murder (Genesis 9:6). This authority is delegated from God. Jesus declared that “all power in heaven and on earth” is his (Matthew 28:18). When Paul proclaimed that Jesus created, upholds and redeems every aspect of the world, he emphasized that this included political things: “thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him” (Col. 1:16 RSV). Hence politics is, or can be, the service of God, a ministry. Indeed John Calvin remarked, doubtless with some exaggeration, that “civil authority is a calling not only holy and lawful before God, but also the most sacred and by far the most honorable of all callings in the whole life of mortal men” (Institutes 4.20.4 [Battles translation]).

The diversity of government. The Scriptures do not present us with one model of politics. Abraham was a type of tribal chief: he was a father and priest of his tribe as well as its head. This stage of Israel’s life was a literal patriarchy. Moses was a priest and ruler and lawgiver, though no longer the father of the people. Later God appointed priests and then judges, so that the priestly and political tasks became distinct. Still later God reluctantly appointed kings to rule the nation (1 Samuel 8:6-9). The roles of kings and priests were kept clearly distinct. In fact, two kings, Jeroboam and Uzziah, were severely punished (one by death from leprosy) for taking over the role of the priests and offering sacrifices, even though their motives were not bad ones (1 Kings 12:25-13:6; 2 Chron. 26:16-23). In this sense the so-called separation of church and state is not an American invention but has roots in the Old Testament.

Guidelines for politics. While there is no one type of political order commended in the Scriptures, there are consistent guidelines for what the political authorities are to do as servants of God. Political authority is related to justice, that is, with protecting everyone’s rightful place in God’s world (Psalm 45:4-8; Psalm 72:1-4). The apostles express this as rightly rewarding good and judiciously condemning evil (Romans 13:1-8; 1 Peter 2:13-14). A major element of doing justice is defending and succoring the poor, the widow and the orphan (Exodus 22:21-24; Deut. 10:7, 18; Psalm 72). The Scriptures also stress that government should be impartial. Judges are to be like God, not least in the sense that they are not respecters of persons. God declared his love for the foreigner and the sojourner in Israel (see Immigration) and called judges to be impartial in conflicts between Israelites and strangers (Exodus 23:12; Deut. 10:17-19; Jeremiah 23:3). This implies that the people of God should not expect any undue favors from a godly ruler if they are in the wrong. A Christian ruler gives no special privilege to Christians.

Political rulers and jurisdictions are also limited. They cannot claim the total or final allegiance of human beings; otherwise, they have ceased being servants and have become idols, taking over God’s place and authority. While Paul affirms that the powers that be are God’s ministers (Romans 13:1-8), Peter tells us that “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29; see also Acts 4:19 and 1 Peter 2:13-14). These emphases are combined in Jesus’ admonition to give to God the things that are God’s and to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s (Mark 12:13-17). We are all responsible to God in distinct ways (Ephes. 5:21-6:9; 1 Tim. 3). Neither a president nor a legislature nor a court nor a constitution nor a people (or bishop or boss or teacher or parent) can claim to be the final authority.

The limits of politics. The biblical directives of justice, impartiality and limits mean, among other things, that we should not think of governments as the solvers of all social problems nor be surprised when we discover that they cannot deal with everything. After all, the major sin, the root of all sin, is failing to love God, and no government power can overcome this. The fact that something is properly condemned or properly advocated by the church does not mean that the government has to rectify it. Our politics should not be merely a listing of human ills coupled with a demand for political action. Rather we need to discern what type of actions properly fall within the government’s ministry, ability and jurisdiction. Consequently we cannot just develop our list of problems—which might include divorce, pornography, homosexuality, environmental degradation, sexual inequality and low wages—and expect political solutions to our hopes, desires and wishes. Instead we must try to understand the Christian task of government as we seek to follow biblical directives in diverse, and often post-Christian, societies.

Accepting the limits of politics does not mean that we are simply accepting sin; rather it means that we are careful about our means of combating sin. The Scriptures emphasize God’s patience in addition to God’s judgment. God will judge, but this will mainly take place in the future. So now we need to endure. Jesus told the parable of a man who sowed good seed on his field and whose enemies planted weeds among the seeds at night. When asked whether the weeds should be uprooted, Jesus replied, “No, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest” and then separate them (Matthew 13:29-30). Jesus went on to explain the meaning of the day of judgment when God would separate out evildoers (Matthew 13:36-43). If God is patient even with those who do evil, how much more should we be willing to live alongside others in peace. We do not have to believe that all other ways of life are good, that it does not matter what anyone believes or that all moral views are equal. We simply need to acknowledge that politics is not the means of resolving fundamental religious matters. Politics rather provides just conditions for people, whatever their differing beliefs. The question is not whether people are doing the right thing; it is whether or not it is the government’s job to stop them.

In fact, the Scriptures go beyond patient acceptance, showing not only that God allows people to live even in disobedience but also that God still cares for them even as they do so. Jesus told us to love not only our friends but also our enemies, just like God, who “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45 RSV). God doesn’t just tolerate those who oppose him; he actively cares for and loves them. Given God’s reluctant (and temporary) acceptance of some human sins, we should exercise discernment and focus our political attention on those matters we can most clearly discern as the government’s responsibility. This would involve, for example, the destruction of human life in abortion or the plight of the poor (see Poverty). Similarly, any conflict between other bodies in society will require the government’s judicial function. Other matters, such as the decline of the family, are perhaps much more the responsibility of the church and of families themselves. Of course, political decisions should protect family life and not discriminate against families, but this is not to be identified with asking political leaders to enforce a Christian standard of marriage.

Coercion. Since one of government’s tasks is punishing people, and people usually do not want to be punished, it is accepted throughout the Bible from Noah onward that political authorities may have to compel people to follow their dictates and that this can require the use of force. Such coercion is not so much taught in the Bible as it seems to be assumed as a necessary fact of life. While particular instances of political force are condemned, the practice in general is not. It seems to be an assumption, in the context of sin, that if the government cannot use force to carry out its duties, it would not be able to carry out those duties at all and so would cease to exist (see Crime; Law Enforcement).

Politics and sin. Especially because of the association between politics and coercion, some theologians argue that politics arises only because of sin. Almost nobody thinks that violence and coercion are God’s intention from the beginning and, therefore, a necessary feature of the created reality of the world. But there is still the issue of whether God intended human life to be lived without politics and allowed political structures to arise only to minimize the effects of human sin or whether some form of (noncoercive) political arrangement was intended from the beginning, an arrangement that, because of sin, took a particular coercive form.

Two questions hinge on the issue of God’s intention. First, to what degree can Christians participate in political activity that involves or depends on coercion? Second, does government have only the negative task of restraining sin and correcting its consequences, or does it also have a positive task of promoting justice that will continue in the new earth? If we accept the latter view, we are likely to want a more active governmental role. The book of Revelation says that kings will bring the glory and honor of the nations into the New Jerusalem, which suggests that the political enterprise has merit even apart from sin (Rev. 21:24-26). Moreover, this conception of the political appears to be implicit in the statement in Col. 1:16 that thrones and rulers—both invisible and visible—were created by Christ and for Christ (see Principalities and Powers; Structures).

Theocracy and Democracy

Many people think that the Bible does not really contain politics but only a theocracy, wherein God ruled directly. However, the term theocracy, literally meaning “rule by God,” is not found in the Bible but was coined by Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian, to emphasize God’s direct involvement in Israelite affairs as distinct from divine involvement in the monarchies of other lands. However, Josephus also described Moses as Israel’s lawgiver and could not make up his mind whether God is only the ultimate source of authority or also directly wields that authority.

This confusion between God as source and God as direct actor has plagued the term theocracy ever since its coinage. If the term is used to mean belief in God’s direct acting, then it would seem to require something like God’s continual appearance, a type of oracle or else a human being claiming to give unmediated divine guidance. Examples of the first can perhaps be found in the Old Testament before the time of Noah (ending perhaps at Genesis 9:6). Examples of the third might be the claims of Pharaonic Egypt, imperial Rome or imperial Japan. Since Jesus is really human and divine, the church could perhaps be said to have been a genuine theocracy while Jesus was on earth. This could also be the case when the Holy Spirit leads directly. But few people, even including charismatics, believe that this is the only form of rule, and most accept the need for some official mediation of the divine will for the political order (see Leadership, Church). If theocracy is used in this narrow sense, there is nothing in the Christian faith that should lead Christians to be theocrats in the present age.

Societies in which the source of political authority is held to be God or God’s law include many more than those usually described as theocratic. God’s sovereignty can be mediated or exercised by priests and kings, and also by judges, prime ministers, elected legislators and the population itself. Many theories of democracy maintain that the people exercise political authority, but they also believe that such authority is in turn given to the people by God and so is derived from God’s ownership of their lives. This is also the source of many influential theories of human rights. Similarly, many Western constitutional democracies maintain that their laws reflect a higher divine or natural law. The American Declaration of Independence speaks of political authority (“rights”) as being given by “Nature’s God.” The Canadian constitution speaks of itself as founded on principles that recognize the “supremacy of God.” Hence it is quite possible to be at one and the same time both a representative democracy and a so-called theocracy. Believing, as Christians should, that God is the source of political authority can be quite compatible with what is generally, if somewhat loosely, called “democracy.”

The Bible does not advocate democracy or, indeed, any other form of government. It is much more interested that the governing powers act justly. Nevertheless, there are grounds for believing that democracy (or, better, government that is representative of the people) better reflects God’s will for political arrangements than other types of government. Monarchy entered Israel’s life only reluctantly and with dire warning from God about its negative consequences (1 Samuel 8:11-18). After the exodus the Israelites saw themselves as God’s free slaves, subject to him alone (Judges 8:23). The Bible is consistent in viewing any form of authority as a form of servanthood (Matthew 20:8; Mark 9:25), and it also stresses the themes of office, responsibility and covenant. For example, elders (variously described as “princes,” “foremen,” “heads” and “leaders”; see Exodus 5:6, 15, 19; Exodus 19:7; Numbers 1:16; Numbers 11:16; Numbers 26:9) derived their authority from God and were often appointed by such people as Moses or Samuel. But at the same time they are described as being chosen by the people of Israel (Numbers 1:16; Numbers 11:16; Numbers 26:9; Deut. 19). The people of Israel were called to agree to the laws and to commit themselves to God’s commands (Exodus 19:7). When Saul was chosen as king by God, he was also elected from among the people by lot (1 Samuel 8-10). The people shared in the responsibility of political office by helping to choose their leaders and committing themselves to honor and obey them.

The notion of covenant is central to an understanding of politics. A covenant was not simply a deal, a quid pro quo: it was a commitment of mutual promise and responsibility, a relation that set the pattern for life (1 Kings 9:4-5; Psalm 132). Israel’s political life was marked by covenants between the kings, the elders, the people and God, wherein Israel took on a corporate responsibility to uphold the law of God (Deut. 27; 2 Samuel 5:3). Hence leaders and people are responsible to one another and mutually responsible to God. Political authority is not a theocracy but an act of self-government. This is the root of a biblical notion of democracy, or representative government.

Politics as Winning Public Opinion

A biblical view of politics requires being both responsible to do God’s will and also responsible to the population at large in deciding what that will is. Hence politics involves the need to do what is right and also the responsibility to win popular support for what is right. If either of these is lacking, we will degenerate into pragmatism or authoritarianism, respectively. Since a Christian view of politics necessarily has these “democratic” elements and since the people are usually divided in their views, we must be open to the whole jumble of the other meaning of politics: the attempt to persuade people of what it is right to do and to gather popular support for a course of action. Since this takes place in an arena of hundreds of thousands, or millions, of people, it requires a principled attempt to make deals, build coalitions, share power, trade off, give everyone a place and get half a loaf rather than none.

Christians are often uncomfortable with politics in this sense, for it seems unprincipled. They would much prefer some direct official implementation of a true principle. Yet the alternative to politics as vote grubbing and opinion shaping is authoritarianism or totalitarianism. Typically elections and political life are messy. If we take the divine responsibility of all human beings to be doers of justice and stewards of political power seriously, we must take politics seriously. Often the compromising nature of politics is summarized in the apt cliché that “politics is the art of the possible.” A useful expansion of this was given by French president Jacques Chirac: “Politics is not the art of the possible, but the art of making possible what is necessary.” Perhaps we could even expand this to say that politics is the art of gaining support and making possible that which is right.

The Manner of Our Politics

One of our greatest needs is for political discernment. Most political matters cannot be related to only a few biblical texts; hence, we need to work with an overall view of the political task. We also need to be careful of the manner of our work. Too often Christian political efforts are imagined and described as crusades: the word itself is even used. This has several drawbacks. One is that it suffuses politics with military and warlike metaphors. Sometimes this might be necessary, but often it merely poisons the atmosphere, demonizes opponents and does more harm than good. It also implies a campaign with a single end and one soon to be achieved. But this ends up reducing politics to a set of issues instead of the ongoing and never-ending task of running the public life of a people (which, of course, always has issues within it). It also drains energy in a short-term effort, so that when the “crusade” is finished, whether in success or failure, the effort, and often much future effort, is abandoned.

As Jim Skillen has pointed out, we must realize that “politics is not something done in a moment of passion with a simple moral zealousness. Politics is more like raising a family, or running a business, or stewarding a farm. It requires lifelong commitment, patience, steadiness, and great attention to detail day after day.” It is a difficult and necessary ministry, and we need to take it up.

» See also: Negotiating

» See also: Networking

» See also: Power

» See also: Principalities and Powers

» See also: Structures

» See also: System

» See also: Voting

References and Resources

J. Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. J. T. McNeill, trans. F. L. Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960); B. Crick, In Defense of Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973); H. M. Kuitert, Everything Is Politics, but Politics Is Not Everything (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986); P. Marshall, Thine Is the Kingdom (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986); J. W. Skillen, The Scattered Voice: Christians at Odds in the Public Square (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).

—Paul Marshall