By / Sep 26

I have been involved for several years now with an organization that seeks to reduce the political polarization that seems to be growing in our society. The group is called Braver Angels. It specializes in hosting conversations between people on opposite sides of the political spectrum. One of the notable things I’ve observed is that prior to these conversations, the participants tend to have an extremely low opinion of the people with whom they disagree. They assume they are probably bad people. They can’t imagine they would ever be friends with them. After they spend several hours together with a moderator who works to keep the conversation constructive, things seem to change. They don’t come to a place of agreement. That’s not the goal of Braver Angels. But they do seem to gain a new appreciation for their conversation partners as people. And that is the goal. Genuine conversation, as opposed to the series of battles we constantly stage on television and on social media, helps to rebuild connections.  

Unfortunately, the rest of the world is very different from a Braver Angels workshop. We have a long way to go to cultivate civic virtue in which we view each other as friends and countrymen with political differences instead of as opposing armies occupying the same land. Instead, we have become comfortable dismissing entire groups of people. Worse, rather than merely dismissing them, we are building them up into demonic figures. The truth is that human beings are those made in God’s image who are afflicted with sin, rather than demons. The appropriate spirit to take toward them is one of sympathy and patience rather than war. 

This phenomenon of demonization has unfortunately reached virtually every part of the American political community and into many churches. Whether it is Q-Anon conspiracies, the dismissal of “soy-boys” and “snowflakes,” the blowtorch rhetoric of President Trump, or even something like President Biden’s prime-time jeremiad against “MAGA Republicans,” American political discourse has moved in the direction of villainization as a preferred mode.

Serving the Lord of the Beatitudes

But Christians serve the Lord of the Beatitudes. Within those passages in Matthew 5:2-12, we see the praise of meekness, mercy, and long-suffering in the face of trials. Further in the chapter, Jesus counsels reconciliation, turning the other cheek, and loving enemies. There is a worthwhile and longstanding debate on the degree to which these teachings apply to individuals over against our broader political lives. But it would be strange indeed if we were to believe there is no connection. Let us accept that Martin Luther was correct in seeing those commands directed toward individuals, the kind of person formed by obeying them will not be one who is quick to anger, who lacks empathy, who cultivates strife, and who inflicts damage with no regard for the need to make peace again in its aftermath.

One of the major deliverances of Christian teaching in the Bible has to do with the problem of sin. It is not something that can be conquered habit by habit such as by extinguishing drug use or overeating, though it is highly laudable to do so. The problem of sin is far greater than committing more good acts than bad acts or even eliminating bad acts. Sin is something that is universal in its application to human beings. Every person is afflicted by a sinful will that ultimately, without God’s help, cannot avoid seeking to remove every obstacle to the fulfillment of our desires. If we accept that the situation of the sinful creature is applicable to all of us (which is certainly the teaching of the Bible and the consistent message of the church), then it should be easy for us also to believe that humility is utterly essential. We must always be aware of the innate battle we are all fighting. We must be wary that at the moment when we most greatly revel in our own rectitude, we may be in tremendous danger of surrendering to sin.

When politics fails in its social role, war rears its head. However, we in the United States do not live in a society where politics and civil government no longer function. Our courts still operate. Our legislatures still meet. Governors and other executives carry on their work. There have been some tremendous tests, such as the COVID pandemic, the financial crisis of 2008, and terrorist attacks such as 9/11. It would be a lie to say that our response to any of the crises we have faced has been truly satisfying. Instead, we have seen sinful human beings struggling to manage the public interest, their self-interest, the constant influence of political opportunism, and our general failure to be omniscient even in a world of rapidly expanding information.  

To fail to acknowledge the problems of human sinfulness and limitation will be to amplify our growing sense of unease. What we must all do, from the highest technocrat, to the most powerful policymaker, to the corporate analyst, to the blue collar worker, to the church member, to the father or mother, is to be humble in our recognition of what we can really know and what we can really do. With greater humility will come greater room for love and understanding. The way to keep political violence at bay is to remember who we are and that the only king who will not disappoint (whether a person or a movement) is Jesus Christ, himself.

By / Jul 28

Responsible citizenship is a steadily mounting challenge for Americans. Rampant isolation leaves us disconnected from our neighbors. Social crises leave us feeling powerless and perplexed. Digital screens and social media increasingly mediate these realities, often compounding our confusion.

Few citizens have a coherent vision for civic engagement, especially engagement in such an alienating and disorienting cultural moment. Amidst unrest and uncertainty, David C. Innes calls Christians to examine the first principles and foundations of civic and political responsibilities with his book Christ and the Kingdoms of Men: Foundations of Political Life. Innes is a professor of politics at King’s College and has written extensively on the intersection of political philosophy and theology. He is also a teaching elder at Trinity Church in Long Island. Innes’ positions as professor and elder have fostered an obvious skill for guiding laypeople and leaders toward thoughtful engagement with matters of politics in an accessible way.

Christ and the Kingdoms of Men is an introduction to “fundamental questions and challenges of political life.” Innes intends to speak directly to citizenship and political activity from a Christian perspective, drawing resources from theology, philosophy, and political theory. In doing so, he hopes to offer a grounded, coherent, and intentional understanding of politics that an average citizen can practically apply.

Kingdom-centered principles

Political questions and activities often touch on essential questions about human life. Innes sets out to help readers connect practical civic questions to the foundational ideas that undergird them and equip them to reflect and critically respond thoughtfully.

Innes draws from the kingdom narrative of Scripture to ground his ideas of social and political life. The themes of creation, fall, and redemption reveal an intelligently ordered world where humans made in God’s image are called to cultivate society. Sin and evil are pervasive and must be restrained. The hope of restoration lies in Jesus’ redemptive work and ultimate return. Within these foundational realities lie resources for discernment, analysis, and application regarding questions of justice, morality, social relations, legitimate authority, and other essential political matters.

Innes contends that government provides a public good and, within its exercise of legitimate authority, essentially merits obedience. He examines the purpose of government from Romans 13:1-7, outlining wh­at it means for governments to “punish evil and promote good.” Additionally, Innes deals with various “problems” of political life and governance. For example, he examines the tensions between the social need for governance and the reality that sinful people govern. Then, he explores how various modern traditions have sought to square these tensions. The book closes with practical application for citizens and civic leaders and an appeal to pursue the common good through politics.

Christ and the Kingdoms of Men presents a clear and convictional offering for how to think about political activity and governance. Innes models how to think critically about these issues by fleshing out his theological and philosophical rationales for the reader. This feature alone makes the book worth reading, as it challenges reactive and ad hoc means of thinking about politics that are often modeled in the public square and absorbed by Christians. By calling readers back to first principle questions of, for instance, cosmology and anthropology, Innes encourages deep reflection and intentionality in considering complex issues of politics and governance. Instead of offering simple answers and position statements, Innes provides tools to analyze and dissect practical civics matters.

Principles in the public square

Innes also helpfully recognizes the universal and contextual challenges of governance. Rather than offering idealistic principles, Innes engages by applying those principles amidst the complexities of political engagement. For instance, Innes acknowledges that any government in a Western context will have to navigate the barriers that individualism erects to constructive citizenship. He then demonstrates the resources biblical themes like the imago Dei offer to those seeking political solutions in an atomized society. By raising these challenges and showing how to think theologically about solutions, Innes exposes readers to realistic wrestling with tensions and complexities in political engagement.

In painting a thoughtful and dynamic picture of politics, Innes likewise calls for a more holistic engagement with the political sphere. For example, in his section on faithful citizenship and statesmanship, Innes contends that citizenship goes beyond voting. Concern for the common good will lead citizens to regular civic engagement, not just on voting day. Here, Innes challenges the temptation to fix political energy exclusively on elections to neglect further engagement like organizing or governmental participation.

At moments in the book, Innes’ explanations or prescriptions can oversimplify some issues. For example, Innes speaks of spheres like government or the market as essentially distinct without going in-depth on the manifold ways these spheres function. This presentation is liable to reduce the interdependent and complex nature of such spheres within, for example, a globalized economic system that transcends borders yet is deeply interwoven with states. In an introductory book, this is a reasonable limitation. However, Innes also articulates distinct and potentially wooden boundaries around what the governmental functions of praising good and punishing evil can mean. These hard limitations potentially obscure the actual scope of various spheres. They also limit the potential application of how Christians could apply Innes’ broad and valuable principles in genuinely prudential circumstances that might fall outside his stated boundaries.

Innes’ work is appropriate for use in both academic spaces and by local church leaders and laypeople. Innes recommends further reading at the end of each chapter, which is helpful for those looking to pair the book alongside other political theology books and books from related disciplines. For one, Innes’ prescriptions on various prudential matters of society and politics are worth comparing to different traditions and perspectives. Likewise, works from other related disciplines like political science or economics would complement Innes primarily theological reflections. Furthermore, as an introductory level book that covers a wide ground, Christ and the Kingdoms of Men is necessarily cursory on several of the dense topics it covers. The recommended resources, along with reflection questions and keywords, give the book a useful format for teaching.

Christ and the Kingdoms of Men displays that Scripture holds immense resources for understanding our role in civic life. Furthermore, David C. Innes presents how Christians can unearth insight and analysis from those biblical resources. As the church navigates an often confounding and chaotic public square, Christians must be equipped to apply essential principles to various political and civic issues. Whether readers agree or disagree with Innes’ perspectives on the many issues he examines, they will find the topics he tackles worth deep reflection and consideration. Furthermore, readers will find a demonstration of thoughtful and intentional biblical analysis on politics and governance, a valuable resource in our present moment. 

By / Feb 28

On March 1, President Biden will deliver his first State of the Union address. The U.S. Constitution (Article II, Section 3, clause 1) requires that the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” The State of the Union (SOTU) gives the president the opportunity to report to Congress and the American people on the current condition of the United States and provides a policy vision for the upcoming legislative year.

State of the Union addresses are typically delivered during the first two months of the year, and it’s unusual for a president to be invited by the Speaker of the House to deliver this speech in March as is the case this year.

Without a doubt, a large part of the speech will likely be dedicated to articulating the President’s views about the ongoing war in Ukraine, the largest foreign policy crisis of Biden’s term thus far. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine fundamentally challenges the post-Cold War world-order and presents a host of questions and unknowns for the United States and its NATO allies. Biden will be tasked with communicating a clear plan to address all of this and offering a compelling vision of why this matters to the American people.

Amidst these overarching issues of the war in Ukraine, record-breaking inflation, and a pandemic that continues to take American lives, Biden hasn’t been able to push forward his broad policy agenda. Democratic leadership had hoped to use a procedural tool known as budget reconciliation to pass the “Build Back Better” package that contained a number of Democratic priorities. However, moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have signaled their unwillingness to support this package as it currently exists. We anticipate portions of the President’s remarks to give some support to this liberal package. 

Beyond that, we anticipate President Biden to speak on the issue of abortion. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Schumer brought the Women’s Health Protection Act to the Senate floor for a vote. While it failed to pass the Senate, this legislation is the most pro-abortion bill to ever pass the House of Representatives. It is a deeply disturbing bill and it would be concerning for this bill to be highlighted as an achievement in the President’s address. 

While we have many strongdisagreements with Biden, such as on the issue of abortion, we also see areas of potential cooperation and bipartisanship, where positive policies could be pursued by Congress and the administration. In this deeply divided Congress and with a stalled agenda, Biden ought to use this address to direct his administration’s and Congress’ focus away from areas of extreme partisanship and toward areas of potential bipartisan agreement. Three areas where we’d like to see him do that are on immigration reform, refugee resettlement, and countering China. We highlight these areas because they have been clearly addressed by the Southern Baptist Convention through resolutions passed at the convention’s annual meeting over the years. 

Immigration reform

Though immigration reform was a key promise in Biden’s campaign, little has been done on the issue since he took office. At the beginning of his presidency, he signed a number of immigration-related executive orders and sent his sweeping “U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021” to Congress. However, that bill has not moved forward, and few efforts have been made to gain Republican support. 

Though there are areas of sharp disagreement between the two parties on the area of immigration, there are also significant areas of agreement that should be explored. There is bipartisan support for a permanent, legislative solution for Dreamers, such as the “Dream Act.” Other proposals to reform our asylum system and border security could receive bipartisan support as well through legislation such as the “Bipartisan Border Solutions Act.” And just recently, Republican Congresswoman Salazar (FL) introduced her “Dignity Act” which could prove to be a starting point for negotiations toward a legalization effort between the two parties. 

While none of these pieces of legislation are perfect, they demonstrate that ample ground exists where the two parties could come together and legislate reasonable solutions to these important challenges. In his address, Biden should encourage the two parties to find common ground on this issue and pass bipartisan, commonsense solutions on areas of agreement rather than using these vulnerable immigrants as political pawns and continuing to fail to address these issues that affect human lives.

Refugees

After resettling a record-low number of refugees in fiscal year 2021, Biden set an ambitious goal of resettling 125,000 refugees in fiscal year 2022. Despite this admirable goal, the United States has only resettled 4,362 refugees this fiscal year as of Jan. 31, and is on track to resettle well below that target. 

Under the previous administration, refugee resettlement was largely halted, and many resettlement organizations were forced to close offices and significantly reduce operations. The resettlement pipeline overseas and the resettlement program in the United States were both further decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Seriously restarting the refugee resettlement program and reclaiming the United States’ position as a beacon of hope for those seeking refuge is not as simple as flipping a switch and increasing the number of refugees we are willing to accept. Government agencies that handle refugee resettlement and resettlement organizations need serious direction and support to be able to adequately serve these vulnerable populations.

This is also partly due to the resettlement of tens of thousands of vulnerable Afghans who were brought to the United States using humanitarian parole, rather than the formal refugee process, due to the urgency of their evacuation. Resettlement agencies have swiftly jumped in to provide resettlement services to these Afghans despite facing considerable challenges.

Biden must keep the United States’ promises to the Afghan people, particularly those who assisted our troops. He should direct his administration to expedite processing through the refugee resettlement program of Afghans still stuck in third countries or in vulnerable situations overseas and should urge Congress to provide resettlement agencies with the resources they need to fully rebuild. 

China

A third area we’d like to see discussed in President Biden’s State of the Union address is how he plans to bolster the United States’ policies countering China. Though the Biden administration ultimately claimed the passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act at the end of last year as a victory, reporting suggests that they were working behind the scenes to delay and dilute the bill. Similarly, the administration diplomatically boycotted the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing but failed to effectively use their power to help persuade other countries to follow suit.

Throughout the first year of his presidency, the horrendous human rights abuses and genocide of the Uyghur people in China have at times been deprioritized to economic or climate concerns. More must be done to counter China morally. President Biden should use his State of the Union address to lay out plans to do just that. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act was passed with broad, bipartisan support, and President Biden should encourage Congress to continue this cooperation to further hold China accountable for its abuses.

President Biden certainly has a difficult task at hand to bring the country together amidst the ongoing challenges in the world. Our hope is that he will pursue these policy areas where compromises can be made and divisions can be overcome, rather than pursuing divisive and extreme policies. Ultimately, Christians do not put their faith in any one leader but trust God and pray that he gives President Biden wisdom as he leads our nation during these difficult times.

By / Jul 1

In January 2012, former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam took the dais in the Tennessee House of Representatives to present his annual State of the State Address. In this speech that provided both an update on the progress the state was making and a framework for the year ahead, Haslam issued a simple challenge to all the assembled leaders and citizens of the Volunteer State: Believe in better.

While that was the theme of that particular address, after reading Haslam’s new book Faithful Presence, I am convinced the motto is more than just a nifty bit of sloganeering. In fact, I would go so far as to say this is his challenge to any Christian seeking to engage the tumultuous world of American politics –– and boy is it tumultuous.

In the first few chapters, Haslam touches on several studies and highlights multiple instances that show the deteriorating state of our public square. Anyone who has paid attention to the events in the political space over the last six months will readily agree.

Distinctly Christian political service

It is once this initial groundwork is laid by Haslam that his book really starts to take off. As I was reading his diagnosis of the weighty matters before us, it became clear that he is looking at the political arena as a mission field –– one in dire need of genuine Christian servants. And before you jump to any conclusion that this sounds just like every other book lining the shelves offered by various prosperity gospel grifters, Haslam continually returns to themes of service and humility as the true antidotes to the outrage plaguing our political system. He writes, “Our motivation for walking into the public square should always reflect our call to serve, not our desire to win” before he cites James 3:17-18 as how a Christian should conduct themselves in public life.

After laying down this marker, Haslam is clear-eyed in that this runs counter to the current incentive structure in our politics. “That kind of wisdom might not lead to a lot of likes on your Facebook page. It is easily drowned out by the shouting voices on cable TV. It might not even feel as good as finally being able to unload our opinions we think the world so desperately needs to hear.” As I read that list, I could feel the wincing of the dozens of political consultants I have worked with. And, in my former role where I was able to help call attention to Gov. Haslam’s good work, I likely would have, too. But with the perspective that comes from being outside the day-to-day machinations of political life, I can say that Haslam is absolutely correct about what is needed from Christians.

Haslam does an excellent job peppering the book with stories from his time as a public servant. His remarks about working through the democratic system and decision points with various matters are very helpful for readers because he works through how his faith guided him. His experiences with Cyntoia Brown, a prisoner he issued a pardon to, are deeply moving.

Several parts of the book are quintessential Haslam. At one point, he revisits one of his favorite analogies when he compares government to fire. 

“Government matters, and good government can make a big difference. Conservatives have often thought of government as the problem, not the answer, in Ronald Reagan’s famous words. Liberals have too often thought that more money was the answer to most problems. My view is that government is like fire. Out of control, fire can cause a lot of damage. Under control, it can warm our rooms and cook our meals. All of us need government to work . . .” 

And he relays several self-effacing stories that show he can laugh at himself. His interaction with President Obama in Memphis is a heart-warming classic.

Ultimately, though, this is a serious and thought-provoking read. To quote the fictional president, Josiah Bartlet, “Decisions are made by those who show up.” That is exactly what Haslam asks of his readers: Be present, and be Christ-like. In a world where so many choose to lob some of the harshest personal attacks from the safety of anonymous social media accounts, this is truly a countercultural call to action. “I share (my story) not as a plea for everyone to run for office but for all of us to see politics as a vocation, a place where, despite all of its messiness, God has used and will use faithful people,” he writes. 

Gratitude for all Haslam has experienced from his time in the public square emanates from every chapter in this book. As a citizen he once served in this state’s highest office, I, too, am grateful for his leadership. For eight years as governor, he exhibited a faithful presence because he believed in a better way. In effect, he practiced what he preached –– a novel approach these days. While I wish he would run for office again, at a minimum, I hope his words here will inspire a generation to follow in his footsteps, seeking the welfare of the city where the Lord has sent them (Jer. 29:7).

By / Feb 12

Dan Darling shares how the Imago Dei should shape our politics.