Like many people who grew up in evangelical contexts, the local church was my second home. My Sunday mornings were reserved for service and Tuesday nights for youth groups. I went to church camp every summer and played Mary in the Christmas pageant every holiday. Reflecting on these experiences, I now see how formative the biblical stories we learn as young children are. These stories shaped me into the woman I am today. However, I have also seen problems with how these stories are often told and the consequences on our political and social engagement.
Think about the biblical stories you were taught as a child. How were you taught these stories? More specifically, how did you factor into the stories?
It seems that we are too often brought up to see ourselves on the “right side” of these stories—as the heroes or victims, rather than the perpetrators of injustice or violence. We are always the “in-group” rather than the “out-group” and the “good guys” instead of the “bad ones.” We are David, not Goliath. We are the prodigal son returning home, celebrated by his father rather than the jealous brother. We are the 1 sheep Jesus searches for rather than the 99 who must join him in the long and faithful pursuit of the lost. We are taught to view the biblical narrative through the lenses of “hero” and “villain” and to always identify ourselves with the victor. By always thinking we are on the “right” side of the stories, we fail to see the in-between space where we must do the hard work of reflection and discernment of our own lives. This framing affects not only how we see ourselves in the biblical narrative but is also formative of our political and social theologies.
Sometimes, we are not the one sheep that Jesus is chasing. Sometimes, we are the 99 who must welcome the lost.
Let’s consider how this rigid dichotomous framework affects our political thinking. There is a growing group of Christians who see themselves as political heroes; the “right” side fighting against the “wrong” side in support of “Christian” policies and candidates. It is no secret that most Americans believe Christianity is synonymous with Conservatism and assume that all evangelicals vote Republican in primary elections. Indeed, the recent election numbers seem to harden this assumption.
Defining a Christian candidate, however, and what makes a policy Christian, is actually really difficult. In ascribing one side to the “Christian” label, we exchange the difficult work of discerning Christian praxis for a dogmatic adherence to a political group and its figureheads. But how did we get here? Has it always been this way? Has there ever been a time when Christianity wasn’t culturally synonymous with the Republican or conservative party?
To understand the connection between Christianity and Conservatism, we should look back and start with the rise of the Moral Majority and Jerry Farwell.
Reverend Jerry Farwell was a fundamentalist preacher, religious broadcaster, and author. He is also known for being a force in the political arena and was particularly popular with Evangelicals. Farwell was the leader of a movement known as the Moral Majority which sought to rally together Christians on cultural and political issues such as abortion.
As Farwell grew in popularity, specifically through his televised program, “Old-Time Gospel Hour,” his following multiplied. The Moral Majority raised millions of dollars and was supported by countless volunteers. The organization was credited with playing a role in the election of former president Ronald Regan. The rise of the Moral Majority was the first time Americans saw a noteworthy connection between Evangelicals and the Republican Party.
We are too often brought up to see ourselves on the “right side” of these stories—as the heroes or victims, rather than the perpetrators of injustice or violence.
Before Farwell and his campaign, however, Evangelicals were rather mixed in politics. While, Billy Graham, the pioneer of the neo-evangelical movement, was sympathetic to Republican administrators he was also a registered Democrat and had a close friendship with Martin Luther King Junior. He paid King’s jail bond after his 1962 arrest in Albany, Georgia, and remarked after King’s death that the country had lost “a social leader and prophet.”
This all changed with Farwell and the Moral Majority, for if it wasn’t for Farwell and his campaign many Christians would have likely still voted for Jimmy Carter over Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election. Indeed, Carter seemed the more moral choice. While Reagan was an actor from California and would become the first divorced president, Carter was a committed Southern Baptist and Sunday school leader. Farwell’s evangelical support for Reagan now seems an ominous foreshadowing of the recent evangelical support for Donald Trump.
The Moral Majority and the legacy of Jerry Farwell help explain much of how we got to our current political climate and help us understand the “right side” and “wrong side” dichotomy we see in much of our Christian thinking about politics (where one has to vote Republican to be considered a “good” Christian) has not always been the norm.
This also means that, in the not-so-distant past, Christians did not see themselves as political heroes fighting for a political party. They saw their true allegiance to Christ and not a “Christian” party. Many evangelicals today, however, tend to think allegiance with Christ is synonymous with allegiance to a certain political party. They make political decisions based on what is best for the victory of their party, rather than first considering the poor, the hungry, and the vulnerable—people whom Christ seemed most concerned for.
In ascribing one side to the “Christian” label, we exchange the difficult work of discerning Christian praxis for a dogmatic adherence to a political group and its figureheads.
This can be seen in the growing “hero archetype” within Christian culture. By associating the victory of their party with the victory of Christianity, a growing sect of Christians have grown deeply concerned with engaging in culture wars. They spend hours a day on social media or watching the news. They become expert conspiracy theorists and find themselves constantly on edge and angry. Rather than feeding the poor and clothing the naked, they are “crushing” their opponents on Twitter. Rather than seeking peace, they are sowing further discord. This seems far from the example of Christ in the New Testament.
We must shift away from this dichotomous political model in which one is inherently right and the other wrong and instead align ourselves with a political theology that reflects Mark 12:31: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
When engaging with Biblical stories and politics, we should not begin from a state of self-righteousness but rather a state of humble love. We need to stop seeing ourselves as David overcoming Goliath and see ourselves as the hands and feet of Christ: the suffering servant who loved the unlovable. We must be less concerned with winning battles and coming out on top, and more concerned with the active advancement of peace and justice. As Christians, we are not called to vote a certain way but to lay down our lives for others, to turn the other cheek, and to give away all our resources to those in need. We need to check our hearts the moment we find ourselves more concerned with winning culture wars than loving our neighbor, more concerned with being the hero than the servant.
Sometimes, we are not the one sheep that Jesus is chasing. Sometimes, we are the 99 who must welcome the lost. Sometimes we are not the prodigal returned, but the older brother who must learn to love. We are not always the center of the narrative but always get to partner with Jesus in relentlessly pursuing the lost, advocating for justice, and putting others’ needs before our own. When we learn how to identify ourselves with not only the heroes in the biblical narrative but also with the lost, the wanders, the sinners, the tax collectors, the Pharisees, and the background characters – we find ourselves shifting away from a faith that is inward focused to one that is outward focused. We move from a Christianity that is one-sided to one that encompasses every side – one that is boundless in love.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Mark 12:31
