Country Parson explores the relationship between religious faith, public policy, and politics. Conventional wisdom declares that pastors should stick to religion and leave politics to others. It can’t be done. God has a great deal to say about public policy, what is moral and what is not. Failure to heed God’s words never leads to the good of the people and history is the story of peoples refusing to do just that. God has given us the way to godly justice and opportunity for wide spread prosperity. Yet what God has revealed in holy scripture has nothing in common with today’s so-called Christian nationalism.
2024 will be the most important election year in my lifetime. By the end of November we will know whether we still have a democracy or something more like fascism under a false flag of Christianity.
What God has said about public policies leading to godly justice is revealed in stark words through the prophets and sealed by the words of Jesus Christ. In short, the rich are not to take advantage of the poor, no one is deprived of their human dignity, and justice is to be utterly impartial, always erring on the side of mercy. More specifically and in summary, God’s prescriptive commandments are:
- To honor the right of the less affluent to be secure from efforts of the wealthy depriving them of their means of livelihood.
- Without discrimination, to assure security of person for all.
- Even against enemies, the food of the people is not to be used as a weapon.
- To refrain from ethnic cleansing.
- To maintain integrity in international dealings.
- To respect legitimate civil authority.
- Insure taxes and related economic policies are fair to all.
- Usurious banking, loan and credit practices are not to be used against the poor.
- To assure fair and honest practices in all areas of trade, commerce and personal relations.
- To remove public and private barriers preventing anyone from the opportunity to succeed.
- To receive the alien, for we have all been aliens.
- To demand integrity from public officials and a moral standard expected of all persons.
- To see that taxation is equitably and fairly distributed.
- To prevent anything that places undue burden on the poor.
“Ah, c’mon, “one might say, “God didn’t really command any of this.” Oh yes, God did, in great specificity. It’s articulated all through the prophets and is tightly condensed in the prophet Amos. God has left little waffle room for our usual menus of ‘yes, but’ and ‘nice sentiments but impractical,’ and ‘God belongs in church, not on Wall Street or Main Street.’ God reveals no preference for and form of government, but has high expectations for the moral content of what government does.
Nothing in God’s holy Word suggests the U.S.A. or any nation should be a Christian nation, nor can anyone slap a Christian label on any social value they want to specifically impose on someone else. What God has said is neither conservative nor liberal. It is godly, plain and simple. Under the American form of democracy, Christians are to hold themselves and the candidates they support to God’s standards of godly justice regardless of the religion they might follow.
Doing that runs into several obstacles. Candidates tend to present themselves as icons of civic virtue with high moral standards. Verifying their integrity means examining the track records of their lives and the wisdom they have demonstrated in their relationships. Any candidate, charismatic or not, assuming the persona of political messiah or promising to personally solve problems only addressed through democratic negotiation, cannot be trusted.
“All we like sheep have gone astray” and that includes candidates for public office. Never expect perfection, but do expect informed empathy for constituent needs and determined effort to work for the common good. Voters mislead themselves when single issues determine who they will or will not vote for. No single issue, no matter how important, is the linchpin on which the nation’s well being depends. Too many voters are swayed entirely by emotional appeals that prey on their fears and prejudices. Christian voters must weigh emotional appeals against the commandments to love God, neighbor, and self in the way Jesus loved them.
Demanding instant solutions to issues or inerrancy in public policy is a non sequitur in American democracy and has led only to national ruin in every authoritarian regime. It can be said of every administration at every level of government that the best record always leaves behind important matters of justice and the public good that have not been addressed. It’s not failure, it’s life. We keep at it, sometimes making huge leaps forward, sometimes only small steps, and getting this right more than half the time is success by any standard.
Wonderful Steven; Thank you!