If the church is to be the church, it needs to embrace political diversity.
So, I’m breaking my own rules here since this post is not based directly on something I am reading. It is inspired, rather, by a number of conversations I have had as of late, and by an episode in The Pastor Theologians Podcast (link here).
In this post, I would like to address the now-quite-popular theme of political polarization. Such polarization, as many know, has reached a staggering high in American society today.
If you pay any attention whatsoever to the media (social media certainly included), you’ll see liberals and conservatives fiercely upbraiding their “opponents.” You’ll see vitriol, misrepresentation, and flagrant rebuke. In the process, left and right are moving further and further apart, as the American populace becomes ever and more polarized.
What Gerald Hiestand helpfully notes in this episode of the CPT podcast (see link above) is that Christian churches are being tempted to follow suit with this pattern of polarization.
Tragically, the process has already begun. Conservative churches have publicly condemned liberal ones; liberal pastors have blatantly chastised conservative ones (vice versa to both); and, even worse, conservatives and liberals in the same congregation are being pushed further and further apart.
Christians are talking to Christians the same way the far-left talks to the far-right (and vice versa). Polarization, it seems, has already entered the church.
To be the body of Christ, however, to truly shine as a lampstand of Jesus (cf. Rev. 2:1-7), we must resist such polarization.
While Christians share the same sacred texts, worship the same Triune God, and follow the same Lord Jesus (the) Christ, we exhibit a vast diversity of opinion on our civic and political responsibilities.
The line from theology to politics, in other words, is anything but straightforward. You and I may agree on numerous doctrinal propositions yet disagree (quite starkly!) about what forms of civic action should emerge from such positions.
Such diversity of opinion is, I think, what makes the church so interesting! And in the current of American society today, it presents to us a key opportunity: to model unity-in-diversity for a fragmented and polarized world.
Toward this end, the church needs to plainly admit that there is no singular Christian party (political). To be a Christian, to be an Evangelical even, is not to be a conservative/Republican, nor to be a liberal/Democrat!
While in recent years, American Evangelicalism has been ‘popularly’ associated with conservative politics, statistical evidence shows that such an association may be changing (see chap. 1 of David Gushee’s, After Evangelicalism for precise figures and references). In 2014, for example, the Pew Research Center reported that 28% of evangelicals were left-leaning while 56% leaned right. 2014, however, was eight years ago, and antedates the watershed election of a certain American president.
Since then, based on trends I have seen, conversations I have had, and books I have studied, I would estimate that the percentage of Evangelicals who now lean left is much closer to the percentage who lean right.
The Evangelical church, if it is to survive, cannot afford to be aligned with a singular political party. In practice, what this means is that those Christians who lean left cannot afford to look down on those Christians who lean right. Conversely, it has to mean that those Christians who lean right cannot afford to look down on those Christians who lean left.
To be a Christian, friends, does not mean to be a Republican. Nor does it mean, however, to be a Democrat. Any suggestion that is does both compromises our witness to the gospel and impairs our ability to be Christ’s hands and feet.
If the church is to be the church, it needs to embrace political diversity. If we choose, on the other hand, to follow suit with American society by becoming singular, polarized, or divided, we will cease to be the church. Our lampstand will be removed (Rev. 2:5).
In view of this, I for one, am excited for the future of the church. This excitement does depend, however, on a considerable degree of openness.
Our church, the First Baptist Church of Freeport, can be this place of openness: a place of diversity, inclusion, conversation; a place of genuine listening and love.
At this pivotal moment in our culture, friends, let us resist the vice of polarization. Let us as the body of Christ, be a place of healing across the divide.
Jonah Bissell
Associate Pastor