I have become convinced that politics are detrimental to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because of this, I am formally declaring my political agnosticism. Before you ready the torches and pitchforks, let me explain.
First off, what does agnostic mean? Dictionary.com gives this definition:
ag·nos·tic [ag-nos-tik]
-noun
1. a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.
2. a person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate knowledge in some area of study.
-adjective
3. of or pertaining to agnostics or agnosticism.
4. asserting the uncertainty of all claims to knowledge.
In my case, I am not doubting the existence of God, but instead am asserting uncertainty about the claims to ultimate knowledge by politicians and their ilk. Try as they might to convince me that they hold the keys to happiness and well being in the world, I remain unconvinced. I wholeheartedly agree with Pastor Mark Driscoll who recently said:
No functional savior in the form of a politician can save us.
Yet, is spite of this, Christians seem to be more engaged with the political process then ever. A recent story over at NPR posited that Tea Party members are more likely to be regular churchgoers and identify themselves as conservative Christians. Unless you live under a rock, it’s hard not to notice that a significant amount of money and effort is being expended by Christians to influence the ballot box.
While in and of itself, this is not a bad thing, I have real concerns about some of the implications of this effort. Steve Monsma has a piece over at the Q Blog where he comments on a recent nationally syndicated op-ed piece by an evangelical Christian who stated that Fidel Castro’s Cuba is abandoning communism while US President Obama is taking our county into socialism/communism. Steve writes of this assertion:
More than nonsense, it is destructive of what Christians can and should be offering the American people this election season. And young Christians—who increasingly are supporting creation care efforts, are taking part in feeding programs at central city missions, and in other ways are living out the gospel through acts of service—will be further alienated from the political process.
Don’t get me wrong. This is not an apology for the left, Christian or otherwise. From my experience the left and the right—including so-called spokespersons for the Christian right and the Christian left—are both guilty of oversimplifications and of being used by political operatives more cynical than they.
In fact, more than one writer has written of a coming demise of American evangelicalism based in part on evangelicalism’s identification with political partisanship and the “culture war” political ethos. This identification tends to make everything into an “Us vs. Them” proposition with no room for divergent opinions. Most of the problems we are facing in America cannot be reduced to simple black and white answers that usually spring from that type of thinking.
Even more problematic is that this evangelical identification with a specific political viewpoint smacks of an idolatrous worship of America itself rather than the worship of Jesus. More than once I have watched a political rally and noted the parallels between it and a modern religious service. Think I’m off base on this assertion? Both are usually opened in prayer, both have emotive music meant to stir our feelings, have a testimony from someone whose life was changed, and then culminate with powerful oratory meant to get us to place our faith in someone as the answer to the problems we face in life. I suppose if you consider the trip to the ballot box an altar call, you could even add that.
Yet, I know that even with’s Jesus’ admonition to “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” I owe my supreme allegiance not to Caesar but instead unto God to whom I belong. I am a citizen of his Kingdom first and foremost. Senator John Danforth was quoted as saying in his book “Faith and Politics” as saying:
If Christianity is supposed to be a ministry of reconciliation, and has become instead a divisive force in American political life, something is terribly wrong, and we should correct it.
As a citizen of this Kingdom it’s high time that I act like one and avoid divisive partisanship. Earthly kingdoms will one day turn to dust, I need to work for the Kingdom that will last.
