Yesterday, on election day, I voted and I prayed.
I’m a citizen. I’m a Christian. These things are weighty obligations. And being a Christian citizen is complicated at election time.
Whatever I say about the outcome, I stand a decent chance of offending about half the population. And my blog is not a political forum, but a place to mine Christian history and theology for wisdom.
So I don’t tend to chime in directly on current issues — though if you put your mind to current issues, what you find here about history and theology will apply. I just tend to leave it to you.
But I had to explain the outcome to my kids this morning. When I think it through, for myself or for them, I always have Christian history and theology in mind. So today, I’ll share some thoughts here too.
And if you disagree with my political views, that’s fine — you won’t find me talking about them very often or very directly.
On the other hand, many of my readers are from outside the USA, and the world is wondering what is up over here right now. So as I try make sense of what my country is doing I’ll share the elements of the stew.
My mind goes searching for parallels.
- Many a country has been led by voices of religious or ethnic fear and hatred.
- Many a country has chosen leaders who claimed they alone could solve big problems if only they were given a freer hand with more authority.
So I fear for my country, even with its constitutional protections of religion, assembly, and the press.
Being a Christian citizen — when leaders aren’t role models
My dilemma this morning was how to tell my children that there is a difference between being an official leader and being a role model.
- I never, ever want them to say that the people of a whole country should be rejected as rapists and criminals.
- I never, ever, want them to say that people of a whole religion should be even temporarily barred from the country.
- I never, ever, want my children to think it is acceptable to touch another person sexually without that person’s consent — and I would not let them be in the same room with someone who does think so.
Such things are not direct verbal denial of faith in Christ.
They are, however, obvious breaches of the great command to love our neighbor as our selves.
So I told my kids that being a Christian is challenging. We need to start with three basic points.
1. Pray for the Leaders
God calls us, always, to pray for our governmental leaders.
Here’s how Paul put it to Timothy:
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. (1 Tim. 2:1-2, NRSV)
It happens in every Vespers and Matins service of the Orthodox churches:
Leader: For our country, the president, and all those in public service, let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord, have mercy.
That’s brief, but it brings the issue of praying for leaders to mind every time you attend worship. And it fulfills the biblical obligation more consistently than I’ve ever seen in my own Presbyterian congregations.
Being a Christian is genuinely challenging in the kind of love it calls us to.
It starts with praying for leaders we may or may not agree with. We need God to guide them wisely for the sake of all. And we need them to receive God’s transforming grace for their own sake.
But the call to Christian love moves well beyond that. We are to pray for, even bless, even love those who we find to be our enemies.
2. Remember that your citizenship is in heaven
That’s where the second thing to keep in mind is particularly useful. Especially if ever the government tries to lead us to do what Jesus forbids, we need to realize that we are all dual citizens.
- I am an American citizen.
- I am a citizen of the Kingdom of God.
- These are not the same thing.
Paul made the point directly when he wrote to the church in Philippi:
But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:20 NRSV)
If the two citizenships ever conflict, my allegiance to the Kingdom of God trumps all.
Jesus spent his days proclaiming that the Kingdom of Heaven had come near, carefully explaining and showing what life in that kingdom was about.
Jesus is my King, and a worthy role model for every step of life.
3. Follow Jesus
It does take discernment. I can’t muddle the concepts. If I assume that American citizenship is basically the same as being a Christian, then I’ve failed to notice the reality:
I am a dual citizen, and I follow Jesus, my king.
The first sermon I ever heard by Mark Labberton was back in the 1980s. He is now the president of Fuller Seminary, but he preached this one before he was even ordained.
It stuck with me. He called it “Follow me, and follow me.”
He pointed out that when Jesus first called Peter the order was simple:
Follow me (Mark 1:17, NRSV)
Leave your previous priorities, even your vocation if need be, and follow.
And he pointed out that after Jesus rose from the dead, when he met Peter on the beach, shortly after Peter had denied Jesus three times, the call was the same:
Follow me. (John 21:19, 22 NRSV)
That is what Christians need to do in America and in any earthly country. We need to follow Jesus in the way that loves neighbors, no matter what the culture around us tells us to do.
If we don’t keep that distinction, and keep going the Jesus way, the historical precedents are ominous.
Thanks for a thoughtful comment on the elections.
I think it’s helpful to distinguish between two things: politics vs. our civic character.
The pursuit of politics — no matter how well-intentioned — always involves the exercise of power. Our civic character, by contrast, consists of all the beliefs, attitudes, and practices that restrain us as we seek to use power.
Without civic character, power becomes strictly about self-interest — and political structures themselves are destroyed. This is the definition of tyranny.
In the United States, one source of civic character is something that might be called biblical individualism.
On the one hand, we are free and equal. No king or pope to tell us what to believe! That’s the individualistic part.
Here’s the biblical part: Even our exercise of freedom is constrained by moral limits. We are aware of our own fallibility and tendency to sin — so we are suspicious of all the ways we might exercise power. We also are aware of God’s grace — and our need to extend grace to others.
Awareness of grace and sin is an antidote to “all or nothing” thinking. It checks our tendency to self-righteousness and makes us aware of the dubiousness of our most loudly proclaimed ideals. And, perhaps, most important, grace and sin provide us with alternative set of lenses that we can use to view public life — and one that might open up other alternatives for action other than the obvious.
A big problem today is that the only moral language available both to those on the right and on the left is utilitarian: whatever maximizes utility for me or my group equals what is right.
We may be about the pay the consequences of our impoverished moral vocabulary.
Thanks Gary, for comments that are thoughtful as always.
Distinguishing between politics and civic character is wise advice for the society as a whole — though the non-Christian portions of the populace might not want to claim the “biblical” part of the individualism, even if it influences them as part of the society. I wonder what one might articulate as a more purely secular imperative to a good civc character. This is what seems to be lacking in the workings of congress where they talk so much of the loss of civility, and which now has become acceptable in national campaigns.
My point, though, is to call the Christians within the society to their specifically Christian character — their responsibility as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, which trump earthly citizenship while calling them to exercise earthly citizenship in fullness.
(By the way, I took the liberty of correcting the typo you alerted me to in your comment.)
Thank you, Gary, for your reflections on “Christian Citizenship.” I shared it on Facebook with my small group of friends–and as expected received several “likes” and positive comments. As we have all reflected in the 7 days since the election results, and after hearing and seeing an overwhelming number of comments and statements in the presidential debates and television interviews, this has been a “wake-up call” to many Americans–and especially those of us who are “Christians first” and “American citizens and voters second.” I cannot recall any presidential campaign in which we had to shield our children from the disgusting rhetoric and “X-rated comments.” It’s one thing for children to be exposed to that in schools, usually toward later elementary or junior high years; but to not even be safe from such language in their own homes…?! (but I digress…!) I appreciate your reflections in this Blog for treating the unfortunate events the last several months as opportunities for “learning moments”– for Christian citizens, for parents, and especially for those of us involved in Christian education, ministry and pastoral care.
Your classes in Church History and Theology of John Calvin have been exceptionally helpful for me in placing the recent political process in perspective. From the life and teachings of Jesus, to the travels and writings of the Apostle Paul, on and on through the history of the Christian Church through the ages…. we’ve “been here before”– we know we’ll go through similar discord and conflict again; but the important thing is how we who are “citizens of the kingdom of God” will recognize that as American citizens we have a greater allegiance to our Lord God. Thanks for helping us put this recent event in perspective!