Emergence

In the book UnChristian, a survey asked young people to identify the best-known Christians… anyone who comes to mind first. For both outsiders and churchgoers, the Pope and Billy Graham were top contenders, but in both cases George W. Bush came out on top of Jesus himself. The research also suggested strongly, that Christians are perceived to be primarily motivated by a political agenda and to promote right-wing politics.

From my own experience, I know that if I mention I’m a christian among friends, eventually I would get asked if I am a republican, conservative, or right-wing in my policy ideas. Of course the same kind of stereotyping happens for Christians as well, because I would bet that for many evangelical Christians, anyone who voted for Clinton or Obama puts them in the liberal/relativism/secular bucket and they must not be ‘real’ Christians.

In any case, we in the modern world like to classify ideas into sections. So we have the politics side over here, and then the religious side over there (usually private), and then the entertainment side, and somehow we are asked to keep ‘beliefs’ and ideas contained within these different areas. This became apparent to me when I was attending Jury duty once, and a Christian who was being interviewed for a Jury was asked if she could suppress her religious convictions when embarking on judicial decisions. She responded correctly by saying “no.”

The reality is that each of us process our ideas and actions through our worldview, which then manifests in different areas of life — private, public, entertainment, science, politics, etc… So, I believe that as Christians, we should actually be more political then less… more socially active then less… more engaging then less. The problem occurs however, when any one agenda hijacks the essence of the Christian message… when any one figure, such as a politician, is regarded as a more influential Christian than Jesus himself.

So how then do Christians change the perception of a politically hijacked faith?
Please note the problem here. I don’t think that Christians should be less political… the problem is that Christianity should not be equally associated with any one political party. Even if one party happens to embrace Christian values more than the other, it is a mistake to tie the two together. I also don’t think Christians should converge to create a separate ‘christian’ political movement (ex: christian coalition) to promote policy. Rather, Christians should engage policies and discussions within the ranks of all parties… intelligently and respectfully influencing and shaping the ideas within. It’s an inside out approach.

As I write this, I realize that this sounds good in theory… but am fully ignorant of the particulars in making this happen. However, I confidently believe that ideas in the political realm, as well as other cultural areas take root via people’s worldviews. A transformed heart will eventually direct motives, which then shape moral values, which will be a means to proper judgment in policy issues.

This concludes my series on “unchristian.” I hope you enjoyed reading through my thoughts on these difficult topics. There are no easy solutions here… but every solution begins with a realization of the problem.