Bridging The Great Divide in Politics and Faith

When I was a young girl, my mom counseled me to never discuss politics or faith, even with family. Especially, not with family!

That was hard for me to understand as a new believer at eleven-years old. Jesus was the most important person in my life and resided in my heart, which meant I wanted to talk about Him ALL the time. How could I, or why would I, monitor what I said about my faith around other people?

My faith was at the center of my life! And anyway, why couldn’t others just ignore what I said if they didn’t want to hear it? But I wanted them to hear it so they could be saved too and ask Jesus into their heart. Why wouldn’t they want to go to heaven and have eternal life? Who could turn that down?

Politics was not that important to me, so that wouldn’t be hard not to talk about; although I watched many uncomfortable political conversations take place around me. It seemed like people had definite opinions and it made them mad if you didn’t agree with them.

Maturity Changes Everything

Then I grew up.

I learned that people often held on tighter to their political beliefs than to their spiritual beliefs. They defend their political party more than they defend Jesus.

The cultural lines, once definitive, began to merge between the two beliefs. Politics started determining what was moral and laws developed that promoted sin, even though the Bible clearly said such actions are immoral. If you defended the Bible’s definition of sin, you were immoral, even hateful.

The civil law no longer cared about God’s laws. It was now acceptable for everyone to do what was right in his or her own eyes and woe to you if you objected. In fact, you were a legalistic religious fanatic and bigot.

Fast forward to today, where politicians try to make laws to forbid and even prosecute those who follow the teachings of the Bible, Christians. The difference between today’s two political parties in many cases is differences over freedom of speech and freedom of religious rights given to us by our political faith-filled founding fathers.

But we need to remember that human rulers often feel threatened by the higher loyalty of those who are committed to God. That’s why they try to silence us, but they can’t silence Jesus in us unless we let them!

Many people profess to be Christians, yet still side with a political party that hates Israel, supports and condones murdering of babies at all stages of birth, legalizes gay marriage, imposes homosexual values on society, tries to deny scientific genders, promotes sexual promiscuity and deviancy, bans God from the public square, tears down crosses and the 10 Commandments, and bases its agenda on liberalism, socialism, and suppressing freedom of religion.

How can a Christian defend this liberal platform?

How did this happen?

I propose because people continued to avoid talking about politics and faith. Christians stayed silent as they watched the world try to silence Jesus, the same Jesus who resides in every believer’s heart. And I ask the same question, I asked as a little girl, “If Jesus is the most important person in your life, how can you stay silent?”

I know it’s not always comfortable, in fact it can be downright unpleasant, to engage someone who has a differing point of view than you do. Somehow, we’ve lost our backbone, our courage, our grit and have taken the easy way out—avoidance and compliance.

We Must Find Our Platform and Use It

Because the lines have blurred between politics and faith, we cannot be silent. We let it happen, now let’s do something about it.

It’s such a blessing to see so many Christian conservatives run for political office to make sure our voice is heard in government decision making and overturning inappropriate laws.

You may be one of those people God has called to take your faith into the political arena. Do not be silenced. Represent us with dignity and honor to God and His glory.

Running for office may not be your calling, but you can support those who do run. Maybe it will be financially or serving on committees or campaigns and voting.

Give believers a voice wherever you have a voice.

You don’t have to run for office or be a minister to make a difference in politics and in faith. Every believer is in full-time service to the Lord. Every believer is a minister. In God’s eyes, there is no great divide between secular and sacred work.

Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Col. 4:5 NLT

Social media has become a popular platform to take a public and a faith stand. It can be difficult. I don’t recommend getting into arguments or trying to convince people who are belligerent and unkind. But you can post about God-honoring people and policies you believe are good for our country.

I find the best way to deal with people who want to antagonize or harass you is to either ignore them or ask them questions. That’s what Jesus did. Here are just a few of His questions?

• “Who do people say I am?” Mark 8:27
• “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Mark 8:29
• “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Matt 12:10
• And if you greet your brethren only, what is unusual about that? Do not the unbelievers do the same? Matt 5:47
• Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your lifespan? Matt 6:27

• Why are you anxious about clothes? Matt 6:28
• Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye yet fail to perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? Matt 7:2
• Why did you doubt? Matt 14:31
• And why do you break the commandments of God for the sake of your tradition? Matt 15:3

Some questions that help me in a faith or political discussion:

• That’s interesting; tell me why you feel/think that way?
• What do you believe about _________? (Lets you know where they’re coming from spiritually and/or politically)
• What do you agree with in your party’s platform? (Instead of trying to convince them that yours is better).
• Why do you like your candidate? (I find they usually just want to tear down yours, but can’t really tell you why the one they like is better)
• You’re entitled to your opinions, but I choose to follow the Bible’s teaching. Will you agree to that?

The goal isn’t to try to prove that you’re right, but to get them thinking about why they think the way they do.

Try not to argue and always let Jesus shine through your conversation. You never know when they’ll consider your comment or position. Maybe not now but later.

I’ve become Facebook friends with another author who often has different views than I do and many of her friends are in-your-face liberal. I want to avoid her posts, and yet, I’m drawn to them and to her. She and I have come to a good understanding, and I feel that gradually she’s listening to me and considering what I say.

What has been fun to watch is some of her conservative friends seem to feel like they can comment or agree with me or “like” my comment. Almost, like they have permission to talk and not just be quiet because so many are harshly vocal.

I don’t know if I’m making a difference or not, but every time I overcome the desire to just ignore her posts, I pray about it and feel led to engage.

And that’s the key factor. Pray before you engage in conversation or on social media. It’s so easy for our want-to-be-right ego to take over instead of letting Jesus shine through us.

Who knows, maybe this coronavirus that we’re all experiencing together will help us bridge the great divide in politics and faith that has become a chasm in our society.

In Forsaken God? Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten, I wrote:

“Often we see the most growth in our spiritual lives during hard times, when God is growing us spiritually and emotionally. We may think he has forgotten us, but God is good and God is great. He never forgets his promises to his people even though his people often forget their promises to him.”

Chris Tiegreen writes in The One Year Salt & Light Devotional: “Many modern cultures have grown soft with comforts and conveniences so common to us, and most people think something has gone terribly wrong when life gets difficult. But we know better. In the Kingdom of God, at least for now, we can be certain of difficulties. We will need to persevere. The rewards are immensely worthwhile, but the costs are real. Wherever you are facing them in your life today, let your higher calling and the name of Jesus make you ‘heartily’ willing to go on.”

“Every activity offers a platform to love, serve, trust, encourage, comfort, pray, and do the works of God.”

The benefits of serving and speaking up for God are well worth the costs and inconvenience!

This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me. Col. 1:27-28 The Message