It is often said that politics and religion should be kept apart. In practice, that is impossible. They collide with one another in almost every issue of public debate.
To follow Jesus in the way of the Cross is more than simply declaring one’s faith. It requires engagement with the decisions we make about how we are to live with one another—and those decisions are always political. Decisions made at the state and national levels shape the conditions of our common life more than others, dChristians therefore must evaluate them by the standards God has revealed through the prophets, and most especially in the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.
The Pharisees of Jesus’ day did their best to live disciplined lives of righteousness according to the laws of the Pentateuch. Yet Jesus chastised them for neglecting the weightier matters of justice, mercy, and faith (Matthew 23:23). What God had revealed through the prophets could be trusted to be true—and those truths were not merely private religious insights. They spoke directly to the moral order of society.
A just society, as God reveals it, is one in which integrity is not merely expected but required. Social and economic conditions must be fair and equitable for all members of society, with special concern for the most vulnerable. No one should be prevented from living life to its fullest potential because of discrimination or lack of access to the resources necessary for human flourishing.
In an age when everyone seems to be labeled either liberal or conservative, it is easy for cynics to assume that anyone who invokes the teachings of Jesus in public life must simply be using religion to justify a political position.
In truth, it works the other way around.
Following Jesus is neither liberal nor conservative. The debates of the public arena must be judged against what God has revealed about justice and mercy. Sometimes that judgment may appear liberal; at other times it may appear conservative. Because we are human and cannot see everything clearly, our judgments will always be provisional. Yet they must always be guided more by what has been revealed to us by God than by the shifting winds of political ideology.