“You don’t mix church and politics.”
That was the mantra I learned growing up, almost as if it was some secret 11th commandment that only my parents knew about.
And yet it was so obvious it never needed an explanation – which perhaps made it easier to keep, as unchallenged ideas usually are.
“Church and Politics? Well obviously those shouldn’t be mixed. Everyone knows that. Pass the salt.”
But then one unfortunate day, you stumble upon the ravings of a madman, or in my case a prophet called Isaiah in the Bible, who in chapter 61:1-4 suggests:
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.
WHEN YOU READ THE WORDS
Ideas such as binding up the broken-hearted and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favour sounded very much like the kind of words I was used to hearing in church.
But reaching out to the poor? Proclaming freedom of captives? Rebuilding, restoring and renewing devastated cities? That was starting to sound a little more political.
I was further ruined by reading passages like these in Colossians:
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him [vs 17]
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. [vs 23-24]
Which totally shook up the spiritual vs secular partition that many people had worked tirelessly to keep prevalent in my mind. If everything you are doing is done in the name of Jesus and as if it were being done for Jesus, then surely everything is spiritual. And there is no divide.
ALL OF ME
That is the overwhelming idea that runs through Scripture. That God is interested in us as whole people and in us as communities and even in us as nations. If that is true then surely the church has to be involved in politics, because so much of life and His mission is connected to politically-linked things?
Now I do believe that there should be some kind of boundaries between the two. I’m not convinced that having a Christian as ruler of a country and trying to rule it by Godly principles is what we’re called to – Jesus often gave the idea that His kingdom is not of this earth. But when it comes to issues of education and healthcare and poverty and refugees and racial tension then I firmly believe that as the church we can’t not be involved.
And this thing is costly. When Jesus quoted that Isaiah message He was almost thrown off a cliff (check out Luke 4). Systems that have been built on some people being rich while others remain poor don’t tend to favour those who would look to address that imbalance. But when we chose to follow Jesus, we also chose to Deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and then follow Him. (Luke 9.23)
WHERE DO I BEGIN?
I love the idea of holding a Bible in your one hand and a newspaper in the other. In fact, Karl Bath had this wisdom to say on the matter:
‘Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.’
We need to be people who take the call to follow Jesus with every area of our lives seriously. We need to be reading and paying attention to the happenings (in our country and around the world). And we need to be looking to see where our faith journey intersects with the political happenings of the world around us.
We can’t be involved in every single political happening. But we can ask God every day to draw our hearts towards the issues and incidents that He wants us to be engaged with and acting upon.
What has your understanding been of the Church/Politics question growing up? Were you encouraged to ask questions and get involved or to stay far far away? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.