Month: March 2006

What should the role of Christians be in politics? That’s a very tough question to answer, because different situations call for different responses. Also, politics is an area where Christians have been granted a large amount of liberty, so it’s important to remember that different godly people have come to different conclusions here. For discussion purposes, I will simplify the Christian response to politics through case studies of three Christian leaders during the reformation: Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. While I don’t find these three responses to be exhaustive, they are useful for looking at how we view and respond to politics. Also, to keep things simple, I will only be looking at each leader’s politics, not their theology or historical accomplishments.

Luther believed that the job of Christians is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. To Luther, political action had no place in the church. He believed that since God is in control of all governments, we should leave them to do their job and we’ll do our job of preaching the gospel. We change the world by changing people, not by changing laws. Leaders that parallel Luther today are Billy Graham and Luis Palau.

Calvin’s belief was that the church should use its political rights to influence the government to a more biblical view on issues. The best way to describe Calvin is that he wanted to work inside the system to make the government’s stance and actions more pleasing to God. Calvin didn’t downplay people’s need for transformation and salvation, but believed that people had a responsibility to interact with their governments and believed that it was their Christian duty to persuade the government to act in a God pleasing way. Today, Calvin’s political approach has been represented by Jim Wallis and James Dobson.

Zwingli believed that the church needs to work to bring righteousness to society, to the extent that the church should work for righteousness at all costs, even if it meant taking illegal actions. He died on the battlefield fighting in a Swiss civil war against the catholic states that opposed his teachings. His overwhelming conviction was that Christians need to align society with acting in a biblical manner, regardless of the cost or opposition. In recent history, Zwingli is paralleled by Dietrich Bonehoffer, who was put to death in a Nazi concentration camp after being caught working on plans to assassinate Hitler and for helping Jews to escape.

Now which of these three views is correct? It is possible to biblically defend any of these three views. I’d argue that in most situations, one of these views is more God pleasing than the others. For example, I think the Calvin style approach favored by civil rights leaders in the 1960s was the correct response. A Luther response would not have confronted enough of the root causes that led to the civil rights movement. A Zwingli style movement would have sent the wrong message to the white majority about the character of the oppressed minorities.

Especially when it is hard for us to see all sides of an issue, we need to recognize that our responses to issues have large gray areas and that we need to be respectful of other believers who disagree with us on the best approach (Romans 14:5). For the record, I generally am Luther in that I believe the best way to change people and (indirectly) society is by changing people’s relationship with God. However, there are times when our government’s inaction is pitiful, and I feel that it is appropriate for us to exercise our political rights then. I tend to believe that issues we push in government should be issues that resonate with people outside the church, such as global poverty and the AIDS epidemic.

Christians need to remember that God’s view of the world seems outrageous to those who are not in a relationship with Him (1 Corinthians 1:18). I urge Christians to think before exercising your political rights—by my actions, am I helping to advance the Kingdom of God through taking a stand, or am I making the Kingdom of God look out of touch to those who so desperately need to enter into it?

Thanks to the Fall 2004 politics lifegroup for may of these ideas.  Also thanks to Lon Solomon for his October 12, 2003 sermon “The Government and the Believer”.