Post-Election Thoughts

BreakPoint WorldView » December 2008

Cal Thomas, a conservative evangelical syndicated columnist, who along with Jerry Falwell was one of the architects of the so called “religious right” is someone I have admired over the years. But in the aftermath of Obama’s historic victory, he has written a column with which I profoundly disagree. In his column entitled “Religious Right RIP,” he asserts that evangelicals should abandon their efforts to impact culture through political involvement and instead they should seek to transform hearts and culture by living the kind of radical life that Jesus of Nazareth lived. Here is what he has written:

“Evangelicals are at a junction. They can take the path that will lead them to more futility and ineffective attempts to reform culture through government, or they can embrace the far more powerful methods outlined by the One they claim to follow. By following His example, they will decrease, but He will increase. They will get no credit, but they will see results. If conservative Evangelicals choose obscurity and seek to glorify God, they will get much of what they hope for, but can never achieve, in and through politics.”

Thomas is both dead right and dead wrong. He is right in the sense that all of the followers of Jesus should indeed emulate his life and seek to love as he loved, lead as he led, and serve as he served. Thomas is also right in that some of those who have led the movement of evangelicals speaking into the political culture have been strident in tone and hungry for power.

Where Thomas is wrong is in setting up an either-or proposition. Either you are involved in politics seeking change or you live like Jesus and effect change merely by your exemplary life. Unfortunately, neither Jesus nor the whole of Scripture gives us that choice. Instead, we are called to work and live in all of the “departments” of our world—government, business, education, science, art, etc.—and we are to live like Jesus in the process. We cannot withdraw from any area—especially not politics.

William Wilberforce, an exemplar in affecting change, and one of the heroes of Prison Fellowship, understood that to abolish the slave trade in his day in England it would take working along two parallel tracks, changing the law of the land and changing the hearts of his countrymen. That’s why for twenty years he introduced and reintroduced legislation in the British Parliament to abolish the trade. Meanwhile, he worked with other like-minded believers and allies to change the values and dispositions of the day. Only by laying the two tracks, both equal in their importance, could the engine of change effectively run.

Thomas seems to come to his conclusion based on a sense of failure. As he looks back on the last 30 years of intentional political involvement by Evangelicals, he observes have little to show for their efforts. The unrestrained abortion of children remains the law of the land, our society is coarser than ever, and the culture of homosexuality is becoming entrenched. (Interestingly, Thomas does not ask what our country would look like today if believers had been absent for the last 30 years). I understand the frustration, but to despair after 30 years is shortsighted. We know from Wilberforce’s own journey, as well as other historic struggles for human rights, that most battles of these kinds last a minimum of several generations. And many who work for change never see it in their lifetime. It is understandable to be discouraged, but quitting is not an option.

So while I agree with Thomas that politics is not our Kingdom and that a Christ-like life is always our strongest witness to the world, I do not agree that we should leave our posts in the world and retreat into religious separatism. God is the creator of all of life—including government—and he is involved in the affairs of men. Likewise, we his children, should embrace all of life in the created order and be interested in and involved in the affairs of men.

These issues are not new. After Jesus’ ascension, the early church grappled with a similar issue. Some were ready to withdraw from life and the affairs of men and simply wait for Jesus to return. After all, why try to do anything if it is seemingly futile. Paul repeatedly had to remind them to go back to work, stay in the military, to do good to their fellowman, and to regularly meet together. He had to remind them that though they were waiting eagerly for Jesus’ return and his Kingdom, the Kingdom was also already there and they were to be busy being salt and light in their work and lives. They could not check out early! Neither can we.

In his book “Fit Bodies, Fat Minds,” Os Guiness also challenges this pietistic and withdrawal mentality. Such a mindset he says; “reinforces anti-intellectualism by its general indifference to serious engagement with culture.” It results in “overlooking creation while emphasizing salvation, overlooking common grace while emphasizing special grace, overlooking the Lordship of Christ while emphasizing the cross, overlooking the visible present while emphasizing the invisible future, and overlooking the normal and everyday while emphasizing the dramatic and apocalyptic.” (p.66-67)

Guiness also gives us a reminder of how dangerous such a mindset can be. Such an imbalanced emphasis on the “sphere of inwardness, personal bliss, and private salvation” characterized the church in Germany in the first half of the last century. In such a fog, they “could raise no altar strong enough to resist the challenge of Adolf Hitler.”

I think Carl Henry, one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, gets it right. Writing in “Christians in Politics,” in Light magazine, he says, “Christians should pray for rulers and for national righteousness, be exemplary citizens, promote justice in public affairs, and serve with integrity in public office as opportunity arises.’ He warns against retreat with words that are peculiarly ripe for today, “ [T]he Christian populace fails its contemporaries if it postpones all protest until a state becomes so corrupt that revolution seems the only course of action.”

Mark Earley serves as president of PFM, comprised of Prison Fellowship, the world's largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families, and BreakPoint, which equips Christians to live out their faith in the culture. His passion involves opening the hearts of America's more than 2 million prisoners to a message of hope that offers freedom like they've never known before and encouraging all Christians to develop a Christian worldview.