While living on the West Coast I became tired of liberals and liberalism. Then in the Deep South I came to question conservatives and conservatism.
Oh my. If my deepest identity lies in my faith, I’ll start from there.
Followers of Christ are not called to align with political views. Jesus made clear that his kingdom is not of this world. If we call him Lord, it is misguided to focus on issues, viewpoints, or ways of thinking—even if they’re good—that are anchored to a spectrum that by nature is always and essentially political.
Jesus exists and operates beyond that. His kingdom exists and operates beyond that. He calls us to live and operate beyond that. Yet in the world we live in, political views and passions always tempt us to take sides and to be angry, afraid, or triumphal. And though our allegiance to Christ and to Scripture should obviously influence how we participate and vote in the public sphere, politics can too easily become the main arena.
Look at the early church under persecution during the Roman Empire. Their focus was not to get political about infanticide or about the unbridled debauchery of Rome. They did not have that choice because they had no position of influence in that society. So they focused on where they did have influence: the work of God in the world, which is to say, the Kingdom of God.
The church in the West, and more recently in a few places in the East, has enjoyed varying positions of power and influence. But in the long run that has rarely gone well. And along with the ramifications of wealth, the world has responded with increasingly turned backs.
As far as religion per se goes in the West, there appears both historically and statistically to be no turning back. We can pray and seek revival and awakening, but we cannot control anything.
There remains only one viable, universal, timeless, biblical, and Spirit-enlivened alternative to social/political problems and agendas—and to the Western church’s decline: the Kingdom of God.
Always remember the ultimate confrontation of political power and the work of God in this world: Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. There in the middle of it, Jesus said to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Never forget that.
We must be people who are all about the Kingdom of God (the reign and activity of God here on earth), not things political. Politically minded people may label us one way or the other. And though our words and actions may align with political positions or themselves be political, our self-understanding, our identity, our thinking, our relationships to others, and our actions must rise above politics and political divides. We are called to be a different kind of people who live different kinds of lives and make different kinds of impact in the world above and beyond any political spectrum.
I’m not objecting to holding a political view or whom you vote for. Feel free. I am saying we must primarily think and act above that—at a Kingdom of God level.
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