In 2016, I wrote an article for the eWeekend, which was subsequently expanded for the Adventist Review, regarding how we should respond as Christians to right-wing or left-wing politics. From some of the conversations I have heard recently in the media and from some members of my own church, both denominationally and locally, I decided to share this article again in our electronic newsletter, with amendments and updated information. Here goes:
Modern society seems to have a fascination with pigeonholing everyone politically. No longer is it enough to see someone as just a citizen. Everyone now seems to be left-winger, right-winger or a moderate. Political scientists see “right wing” politics as appealing to conservatives, traditionalists, reactionaries and fascists, while “left wing” politics attract progressives and socialists.
Several European countries appear to be lurching more and more to the right. A similar pattern is seen in parts of Asia and South America. “Across the once placid political landscape of Western Europe, right-wing upstarts have created what Jean-Claude Juncker, former president of the European Commission, termed ‘galloping populism.’ He was referring to movements like the Sweden Democrats, the National Front in France, the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands and other voices on the far right calling for their once open countries to close up and turn inward.”[1]
The result of the 2016 presidential election in the United States is seen by many political observers as the triumph of right-wing politics. Simon Shuster commented, “All the rising rightist parties [in Europe] are aligned with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in what they encourage voters to fear: migrants taking your jobs, Muslims threatening your culture and security, political correctness threatening your ability to speak your mind and, above all, entrenched elites selling you out in the service of the wealthy and well-connected.”[2]
“The movement generally referred to in the U.S. as the Religious Right came of age in the late 1970s. While it’s extremely diverse and shouldn’t be characterized in simple terms, It’s a response to events that are seen by religious-right proponents as being connected to the sexual revolution. Its goal is to effect this religious response as public policy.”[3] We saw this in the recently enacted abortion laws in Texas.
On the surface, it seems that every Christian should feel obliged to cast their lot with the religious right, as it purportedly is concerned with returning to traditional family values and saving America from sliding down the slippery slopes of hedonism, moral relativism and decadence. This seems an extremely convincing argument in favor of Christian values. Who can successfully argue with the need to safeguard our Christian values and for Christians to stand as a bulwark against the tide of self-indulgence that threatens to destroy western civilization?
Many members in our local Seventh-day Adventist churches, who are respected and who are “salt of the earth” Christians support the ideas of the so-called religious right. I have heard it said with my own ears by good Adventist Christians that any Adventist who does not vote for the Republican Party is not a true Christian. One pastor shared with me three days ago that when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, one highly respected member of his church said that anyone in the church who voted for Obama should be disfellowshipped from the church, and he wasn’t joking!
The partisan divide in our society and the Christian church is redolent of the first three chapters of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. In the first part of these chapters, Paul outlines the sins and failings of the Gentiles. You can just imagine the nodding of heads by many Jewish Christians in the congregation when the letter was first read and the ‘yeahs, that’s right’ that they said aloud or in their hearts as they listened to the sins of the Gentiles. But little did they know that Paul was about to turn the searchlight on them and portray the Jews as no better than the Gentiles.
So, left-wingers, watch yourselves! It is of immense interest that the religious left, some might say, “the irreligious left,” is now seeking to assert itself in the United States as a foist to the religious right. The Rev. Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary, New York, and considered to be one of the leaders of the Religious Left movement, said, “The election of Trump has been a clarion call to progressives in the Protestant and Catholic churches in America to move out of a place of primarily professing progressive policies to really taking action,”[4]
The religious left seems to have as strong an argument as the religious right’s for Christian adherence and unreserved support. They state that their movement is based on Jesus’ teaching to love our neighbors as ourselves and the Christian obligation to care for those in need. Who can argue against this?
Those on the left may be a bit more subtle than those on the right with their comments, but their ideas are no less entrenched. Many in this category are not able to see how any Christian could support Donald Trump and might inwardly wish that his supporters who attend their church would be disfellowshipped.
The powerful arguments of the right are met by the equally compelling arguments of the left. So, on which side of the religious-political fence should the church be sitting? The answer is, in neither camp – neither left nor right. My forty-nine years of ministry have taught me that the greatest challenge the church and its individual members face is that of being true to its values and ideals, while at the same time applying them sensitively and compassionately to people who are broken, depressed, hopeless and weak. It’s fairly easy to throw those ideals and values at broken people and tell them to strive to be like us in living up to them. Often, members who take this approach are considered by some to be the guardians of the church and the defenders of the faith. The “defenders of the faith” are usually ambivalent as to how to view those who sit and walk with the needy, without obvious reference to Christian values, viewing them at times as preaching a social gospel or even abandoning the principles of the church.
We desperately need both groups in our church, and both should be respected and listened to. I have often said that a bird needs a left wing and a right wing to fly. We need those in the church who will constantly remind us to choose the high way and live in obedience to the revealed word of God. We also need those who call for the application of the principles of the gospel to the poor, the needy, the oppressed and the voiceless. Interestingly, when you analyze the teachings of Jesus, roughly half of what He says could be labeled as right-wing and the other half as left-wing. So, there you have it! Our church would be poorer if we did not have both groups in it.
So, the lesson from the life of Jesus, is that we can have disunity of views while being united in Christ. We must rise above politics and be Christians. Another way of articulating this point is that we must follow the example of Jesus. Jesus understood people more than anyone else did, so he would have made a great politician. However, He chose not to involve himself with one side of the political debate against another side. “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s,” He said. His focus was people and their needs, whether those needs were personal or salvific, and whether the one in need was a right-wing Pharisee or a left-wing fisherman, or a left-wing Pharisee or a right-wing fisherman.
The church needs to be where Jesus is – among the people, irrespective of political views, religious persuasion, nationality, residential status or even sexual orientation, in an effort to reflect God’s love and grace to those who are seeking meaning and hope. Seneca, a contemporary of the Apostle Paul, said of the time in which he lived that all men were looking ad salutem (toward salvation). He continued, “What we need is a hand let down to lift us up.[5] Epictetus wrote that men were seeking a peace not of Caesar’s proclamation but of God’s.[6] This is also the reality in our own time, and it is the work of the church to be the channel through which God’s hand touches everyone, offering a peace that comes only from being citizens of God’s kingdom.
[1] Simon Shuster, “European Politics Are Swinging to the Right,” Time, (September 22, 2016).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Tom Head, “The Religious Right Movement and the Sexual Revolution,” ThoughtCo, (March 19, 2017). www.thoughtco.com/the-religious-right-721631.
[4] Ann Corcoran, “The Religious Left in response to the rise of Donald Trump’s peoples and policies,” https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2017/03/28.
[5] William Barclay, The letter to the Romans, (Philadelphia, Westminster press, 1975, revised ed.)19.
[6] Ibid