Common wisdom says that religion and politics should not be mixed. I think that is only half true. Let me explain.
When it comes to politics mixing with religion I agree the two should not mix. The reason is that it almost always becomes a very toxic blend. This is because politicians have agendas that usually contradict and undermine the best about religion. What is more, they have vested interests in using religion to their own advantage. History shows that when this happens religion is used to justify conflict, oppression, war, economic and social injustice. Indeed, when politics mixes with religion, the former becomes tyrannical and the latter loses credibility. .
But the opposite is not the case. Of course, if when we speak of religion we mean organized religion, then I would agree that it should not be mixed with politics. Our founders understood the dangers inherent in that and so chose to prohibit the mixing of the two while also guaranteeing the right of anyone to be religious. They could have written a theocratic Constitution, but chose instead to write one that was intentionally religiously neutral.
On the other hand, if we are talking about “faith” when we use the word “religion,” then I think the two not only should be mixed, but have to be in order for faith to make a difference in people’s lives. Politics is about issues, about agendas, about making laws and using them in certain ways. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that politics is about power, and morality is about the right use of power. This is because politics is about the relationship between people and their government.
Now, if faith has nothing to say about that relationship, nothing to say about the right use of power, then faith has nothing to say that anyone would need to hear. Faith, after all, is about how you live, the values, priorities, commitments, and ways of thinking that guide how you treat other people. That inevitably interacts with politics. If faith is isolated from politics, then it truly is so heavenly that it is not worth an earthly thing.
While visiting my mother in October of 2004 in Lynchburg, Virginia where I grew up, I happened to catch Jerry Falwell’s Old Time Gospel Hour on the television as I was flipping through the channels. He was talking about the presidential race between George W. Bush and John Kerry. In urging his congregation to vote he said, “I don’t want you to vote Democrat or Republican. I want you to vote Christian.”
I remember thinking, he is exactly right, and he also put it in very cleaver way. Christians should vote their faith. If your faith makes a difference in your life, then you cannot NOT vote Christian. The difference between Jerry and me then, and remains so with his sons who now follow in his footsteps, is how they and I understand what “voting Christian” means. We have different views on what it means to be Christian in the first place, which makes what we believe about how being Christian would affect the way I vote also very different.
But the “vote Christian” part Jerry talked about is spot on. And that is why I say religion, that is, faith, should mix with politics. Not in any institutional way. Not in a state sanctioned religion way. I am talking about mixing the two because religious people ought to be engaging the great issues of today from the perspective of their faith. Many Christians will do this in a way that I don’t like. I will do it in a way they don’t like. But I believe the American way is for each of us to have the freedom and responsibility to do it as long as we know and accept where the boundaries markers are.
What say ye?
