MIXING RELIGION WITH POLITICS

 

Many serious Christians believe that Christians shouldn’t participate in the political arena or even vote. But just think of the implications of this.

Perhaps slavery would have remained in effect in the West had not the Christian parliamentarian, William Wilberforce and his group, battled tirelessly in the political arena for 32 years to end the slave trade.

Perhaps if Christians had raised their voices and cast their vote, there might not have been the Holocaust or the genocide of Christians in communist nations.

It is our Biblical responsibility to raise our voices against injustice and deception in all areas, because all these areas belong to the Lord, and He never designated any arena where the Light should not enter. This means that the Church should not abandon any aspect of this world to the darkness, even by not participating in the political process.

Our silence is guilt worthy. We are guilty when we don’t raise our voices and warn, as God had explained to His Prophet Ezekiel:

• “...I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.” (Ezekiel 33:7-9 ESV)

We are all watchmen, children of the light. We are required to place our light on a hill to expose the works of evil (Ephesians 5:11). If we say that this isn’t our job, we are held to account:

• If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work? (Proverbs 24:10-12)

But aren’t we hated because of our participation in the political process! Yes, but Jesus told us to not hide our light:

• “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12; 2 Timothy 3:12)

Jesus warned that even if we do not participate in the political arena and vote, we will be hated anyway:

• “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.” (John 15:18-20)

But won’t our political words cause division within the Church and turn people away from the Gospel? Truly, we are living in an increasing hateful and polarized world. We don’t want to unnecessarily add to it. However, there are times that we must speak:

• “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” (Isaiah 1:16-17)

In this world, we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. We are condemned when we speak, but the world will also hold us to account when we don’t. We were justifiably criticized when we failed to raise our voices against “separate but equal,” and are still facing disdain because of this failure.

The German Church is still vilified for not offering sufficient opposition to Hitler, as in regards to the rise of communism, which slaughtered 100 million in a few decades.

Consequently, we cannot live for the approval of man but of God, as the Apostles had explained to the Sanhedrin:

• “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard...We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 4:19-20; 5:29)

Winning the approval of man must take second place behind the approval of God. When He is not our first consideration, we sin:

• So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17)

Won’t this make us seem like extremists? We will never be able to please the tastes of men. Instead, God has to be first:

• “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

Therefore, let us not fear the opinions of man:

• The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. (Proverbs 29:25)

But we cannot change lives by trying to legislate morality. However, all laws are attempts to legislate morality and define what is right and acceptable. They speak loudly. Even, if they don’t, they still exert a profound influence upon society. M. L. King well illustrated this principle:

• It may be true that a law can’t make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.

I also think it’s important to pass laws against the “lynching” of the pre-born. Mere social work is not adequate in either case.

It takes courage to follow Jesus and to love our Lord, through His teachings, more than our temporal lives. We will always be in opposition to the tsunami of public opinion and their threats (2 Timothy 3:12), but this must not silence our mouths or vote.

Pope Francis and Faithfulness: When have we Gone too Far

We have a lot of freedom in Christ. We can work as we want, eat and dress as we want. However, truth belongs to God. Therefore, we are not free to manipulate with it for political reasons, even good ones.

Understandably, Pope Francis is deeply disturbed by the treatment of Christians throughout the Islamic world. He therefore laudably proclaimed:

• "It is essential that all citizens – Muslim, Jewish and Christian – both in the provision and practice of the law, enjoy the same rights and respect the same duties."

However, he followed this with a pandering, pragmatic statement:

• "They will then find it easier [once they enjoy the same rights] to see each other as brothers and sisters who are travelling the same path, seeking always to reject misunderstandings while promoting cooperation and concord. Freedom of religion and freedom of expression, when truly guaranteed to each person, will help friendship to flourish and thus become an eloquent sign of peace."

There is little doubt that if citizens share the same rights on the law, this “will help friendship to flourish.” However, equality is found nowhere in the Islamic world, even in Islamic nations having “secular” constitutions. This shouldn’t be a surprise, since Sharia and Koran provide absolutely no basis for equality. Here is one example from the Koran:

• [Surah 3:27] Let not the believers take the disbelievers for friends rather than believers. And whoever does this has no connection with Allah unless it is done [deceptively] to guard yourselves against them, guarding carefully.

What are the “misunderstandings” to which the Pope alludes? The Daily Mail reports:

• Pope Francis said last night that equating Islam with violence was wrong and called on Muslim leaders to issue a global condemnation of terrorism to help dispel the stereotype.

• He told reporters aboard his plane returning from a visit to Turkey that he understood why Muslims were offended by many in the West who automatically equated their religion with terrorism.

How many jihadic verses does the Pope need before he will connect Islam and violence? There are already many hundreds, even thousands when we also consider the Hadiths! How many more Islamic terroristic groups, all claiming to find their inspiration from the Koran and Hadiths, will it take before he will connect the dots?

I appreciate the Pope’s desire for peace, but will such political maneuvering achieve it? All of our Western leaders have long hastened to call Islam the “religion of peace.” However, Islamic terror has gladly proliferated alongside of these political proclamations. It seems as if the Islamic world interprets such affirmations as weakness and a green-light to escalate the terror at the expense of millions of lives.

However, the Pope’s words raise another question. Do Christians have the freedom to distort the truth for potential political gains? The Pope stated that we “are travelling the same path, seeking always to reject misunderstandings while promoting cooperation and concord.”

Instead, we clearly have different aims. The Koran envisions a world dominated by Islam, whether through peaceful or violent means:

• [Surah 8:37] Make war on them until idolatry is no more and Allah’s religion (Islam) reigns supreme.

• [Surah 4:5] When the Sacred Months are over, kill those who ascribe partners [like Jesus] to God wheresoever ye find them; seize them, encompass them, and ambush them; then if they repent and observe prayer and pay the alms, let them go their way’.”

• “…kill the disbelievers wherever we find them” (Surah 2:191) and “murder them and treat them harshly” (9:123), and “Strike off the heads of the disbelievers” (8:12, cp. 8:60).

These are standing orders, as the many terrorist organizations and their supporters confidently understand. Are Christians free to misrepresent these central tenants of Islam in hope of political gain – cooperation, for example? An adjacent question is this – “Are we free to disown our faith if our lives depend on it?”

I don’t think that we have such freedom. Jesus explained to a Samaritan woman that truth is a inviolable element in a marriage to God. The woman was a multiculturalist and thought that religion was merely a geographical issue – Samaritans worshipped on Mt. Gerazim who the Jews worshipped on Mt. Zion. Jesus wouldn’t allow her religious pluralism to stand:

• Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from [the revelation given to] the Jews. (John 4:21-22)

We cannot relate to God in any manner we so choose. We are mandated to relate to Him in truth with our entire being:

• Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:23-24)

Truth belongs to God. We are not free to distort it according to our own purposes. “We must worship in spirit and truth” – no wiggle-room there.

God illustrates this point in His denunciation of Job’s three friends:

• "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (Job 42:7-8)

The three friends had been very sacrificial. They had spent days with the ailing Job in a vain hope of correcting him of his putative errant ways. Yes, they had misrepresented God in their denunciations of Job. However, it seems that they had been speaking in this manner for Job’s own good. Nevertheless, this didn’t make up for the fact that they had not “spoken of me what is right.”

We are not free to worship God in any manner we choose. Our worship must also reflect truth. We cannot bow down with knees or even words before the god of expediency. Mordechai understood this:

• And all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage. Then the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai, “Why do you transgress the king's command?” And when they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai's words would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. (Esther 3:2-4)

Mordechai was no one’s fool. He understood the price he would have to pay for his faithfulness to his God. However, he also understood that faithfulness to God’s truth was more important than political gain.

The three faithful Israelite young men also understood this. All Babylon had been commanded to bow down before the golden image of the King. However, they would not. Even after King Nebuchadnezzar gave them a second chance to bow down and worship, they still would not, even at the threat of a most horrible and fiery death (Daniel 3).

Faithfulness trumps pragmatic gain. Paul had charged that Peter’s behavior had denied the truth of the Gospel:

• But when Cephas [Peter] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned [before God]. For before certain [Jewish believing] men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel. (Galatians 2:11-14) 

We are not our own. We belong to God and must never betray the truth of the Gospel, whether in word or in deed, as Peter had done. How did Peter betray the Gospel? He acted in a way which said, “We are not all equal in Christ.”

We also belong to our brethren. When we betray the Gospel, we also lead others to do so! After all, if Peter could bend the truth of the Gospel, so can we, right?

The Pope has acted in a way that says, “We can manipulate the truth for political gain.” If he can, why can’t we! If playing fast-and-easy with the truth “works,” what can be wrong with it? Just ask Paul!

I wish instead that the Pope would stand for truth and go to the UN and denounce the horrors committed by Islam against non-Muslims and continue to denounce them with all of his strength and authority.

Persecuted Christians and Christian Political Involvement

What is the calling of the church? How should we show off Christ to this world? Should we become political and speak out against injustice, namely the genocide against Christians? The jacket of The Global War on Christians by CNN writer John L. Allen Jr. gives us some idea of its extensiveness:

•  From Iraq and Egypt to Sudan and Nigeria, from Indonesia to the Indian subcontinent, Christians in the early twenty-first century are the world’s most persecuted religious group. According to the secular International Society for Human Rights, 80 percent of violations of religious freedom in the world today are directed against Christians.

•  The Open Doors Estimate, based on decades of tracking the realities of persecution in some of the darkest corners of the earth, is that roughly one hundred million Christians today suffer interrogation, arrest, and even death for their faith, with the bulk located in Asia and the Middle East. The overall total makes Christians the most at-risk group for violations of religious freedom. (37)

I don’t think that we can turn our back on such suffering, even if it is taking place over-seas. However, many evangelicals teach that any form of political engagement represents a betrayal of the Gospel. One wrote that:

• [Political engagement] is culturally impotent in dealing with the depraved hearts, minds and souls of a pagan world. Satan is pleased when any discourse designed for Christ and His gospel is turned into a political rally to pacify unsaved people in their sin while at the same time creating a superficial morality that is not based upon the salvific work of Christ alone! The tragic result is unredeemed people are left to feel comfortable and safe in a ‘Christian morality’—yet they are still lost, still dead in their sins.”

While many evangelicals would agree with these sentiments, others regard this stance as extreme, arguing that turning our back on our brothers, when we can do good, is sin (James 4:17). Instead of the model of “Gospel-in-opposition-to-politics,” they argue that the Gospel requires our involvement, even in politics – that the light of Christ should be reflected in all areas of life. At the least, we are called upon to be a light on a hill, exposing all forms of evil and oppression:

• Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the court (Amos 5:14-15)

• Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:16-17)

• Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (Eph. 5:11)

Will this activity change the heart of the oppressor? Perhaps not, but this should not be our only concern. It is not God’s only concern. He is also concerned about restraining evil (Rom. 13:1-4), and so should we be!

Meanwhile, others claim, “You can’t legislate morality.” Perhaps not, but legislation can restrain evil, as Martin Luther King poignantly argued:

• “It may be true that a law can’t make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.”

In essence, the argument against engagement goes like this: “We have to trust in God and not political involvement.” However, this argument is neither biblical nor logical. It sets up an unbiblical distinction between God’s workings and ours. For instance, no one would say:

•  I am not going to see the doctor for my broken arm; I will just trust in God… I will not attempt to fix my toilet; I will just trust God to fix it… I will not dress my open wound; God will do it for me.

Instead of our efforts contradicting God’s efforts, they often work together. We trust that God will work through our efforts and the doctor’s medicine. The two are not in opposition! We therefore can entrust the welfare of the persecuted Christians to the Lord as we attempt to raise an outcry against the persecution.

Similarly, others argue:

• God prophesied that the Christians would be martyred. It’s also according to His will. Therefore, we should not oppose this martyrdom.

However, appealing this argument might be, this too it is neither logical nor biblical. Let’s demonstrate the incoherence of this argument:

• Everything that happens, our omnipotent God either causes or allows – even the evil. Consequently, everything that happens, is according to His knowledge and will, even those things that grieve Him (Eph. 1:11).  Therefore, we should never oppose anything – genocide, rape, kidnapping…

Of course, this is logically and biblically absurd! The Bible requires that we oppose many things, even knowing that God allows them to happen.

Evangelical, Michael Spencer, criticized his fellow evangelicals for neglecting the Gospel in pursuit of political activity:

• Christians have been so wrapped up in the political process and especially over the last couple of years…that we have ignored our number one mission, which is to tell the world about a loving and merciful God.

Of course, the political arena is filled with dangers. However, we cannot draw an impassable line between politics – the greater arena – and the rest of life. Politics and evangelism are not in opposition! It is possible to show Christ to the world through political involvement. William Wilberforce did this through his 30 year struggle in the British Parliament to abolish the evil of slavery. And he still speaks today of the Gospel!

Political involvement can be an expression of Christian love and oneness – one of the most potent forms of evangelism. Jesus prayed that all believers would be one in love:

• “I pray… that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)

The world will be more inclined to believe when they see the reality of Christ in our midst. How are we to express this love for the brethren? Not through our silence regarding their genocide! In the Times of Israel, Michael Lumish writes:

•  One of the great tragedies and hypocrisies of the current moment is the Christian and western-left failure to speak out against the persecution of Christians throughout Muslim lands… What I find absolutely flabbergasting is the fact that while western progressives claim to care about universal human rights they show virtually no interest in the human rights of Christian minorities in the Middle East and much of Africa.  Western-left moral hypocrisy is, of course, nothing new to those of us who concern ourselves with such things.  I expect the progressive-left not to care when Muslims attack and murder other Muslims or when they attack and murder Christians or Jews.  What surprises me a tad, I suppose, is the fact that so few western Christians care either.

Lumish understandably interprets our silence as a lack of concern - a lack of love and unity. What kind of Christian witness is this?