To Be a Christian Politician . . . or Pesterer?

I am always heartened by election news. Without fail, it brings with it not only tables and charts of returns and exit polling but evidence of a Christian church voting as a body and voting for truth.

Now, that is not to say this church is dependably large enough to win a given election or even swing the outcome this way or that in any tactically recognizable way. And it is certainly not to say that this body of Christian voters is consciously organized in the way that a political faction or party would be organized, i.e., around personalities or issues.

Indeed, I join C.S. Lewis and other Christian thinkers in being alarmed at that very prospect.

Many years ago my pastor, recognizing a quarrelsome spirit, loaned me a small collection of Lewis essays entitled “God on the Dock.” One of those essays, “Meditation on the Third Commandment,” has since guided my thinking as a Christian involved in politics — especially in recent years as Christian groups have become more adept at political organization and therefore more tempted by it.

The essay boils down to these few points:

• When Christians set about forming a political faction or party they necessarily exclude other Christians who disagree with the means the faction champions.

• It is likely that on the full political field this faction or party will find itself a minority of a minority.

• Such a minority must form alliances with other minorities, alliances with those who are at best ambivalent about our Savior’s death on the Cross and Resurrection.

• And even if we are particularly skillful at this game, we end up with a political faction that is “christian” only in that it’s officers have a powerful incentive to claim to be followers of Christ. Worse, by calling itself a Christian this or a Christian that, the party unavoidably implies that those who disagree with it are un-Christian.

Would Lewis, then, leave us sitting around waiting for the lions to get hungry? Not necessarily. He has three specific and coordinated alternatives to modern political parties (“secret societies of murderers and blackmailers,” he calls them).

The first and best, or course, is to convert our neighbors one-by-one toward the eventual realization of a Christian majority or, in the end, a Christian unanimity.

Another would be to simply witness to those persons currently at the head of political factions, parties, nations or even empires (the Constantine strategy).

Yet another would be to form interdenominational “Christian Voting Societies.” Such a society might write letters such as the ones that fill the encouraging and inspiring pages of Veritas Rex. Or it might draw up more formal letters of assurances about political means and ends, assurances that members of the society would vow to extract from office-seekers as a condition of support.*

“So all it comes down to is pestering (legislators) with letters?,” asks Lewis in conclusion. “Yes: just that. I think such pestering combines the dove and the serpent. I think it means a world where parties have to take care not to alienate Christians instead of a world where Christians have to be ‘loyal’ to infidel parties.”

“Pesterer in Chief” has a good sound to it. Nominations are open.

* Indiana is blessed with many organization of both types. My favorite model, though, is the Brazilian “samba society.” Its members not only write letters about pressing community problems but learn to dance — and at the end of the year, win or lose, they get to ride in a colorful parade.

Comments

[eric schansberg]

Good stuff! I use many of Lewis' points in my chapter on the theory vs. practice of Christians and government.

All of this also begs the vital question about the issues about which we should pester them!

[Kenn Gividen]

Add to Lewis' observations that Christian entities and organizations are often not Christian. If a Christian political party functioned with the spirit of most churches I've attended, it would be a teapot tempest beset by perennial fighting. (Consider the recent row in the Constitution Party between prolife absolutistism.)

Some of the best Christians I know are atheists.

Chuch people are just too mean!

[Clark]

Thanks for this post Craig. You bring us back to what Lewis called "mere Christianity." The things that unite us are very few. The thins that divide us are many. God has spoken and the rest is just commentary, which, is to say, we are attempting to sort through life and live out our biblical mandates as best we know.