Common courtesy dictates that one should not talk about religion, politics, or sex. It also dictates that my newsletter articles should be at most 500 words long. I am dispensing with common courtesy for the most part for this week’s newsletter article. At least I’m not talking about sex in this missive.

This past Tuesday we had an opportunity to cast our votes. This is a great privilege given to us by our form of government. This privilege has even led to some of us identifying with a certain party or political ideology. We might say “I’m a Republican,” or “I’m a progressive.” That is understandable. It’s a heuristic, an approximation of your beliefs that is close enough that you don’t have to get into the weeds of explaining your (lack of?) thoughts on economic, international, welfare, and other policies.

I would assume that if you are reading this newsletter, you also call yourself a Christian. You may even call yourself a “Lutheran,” for whatever that may or may not be worth. In some ways, this is also an approximation of beliefs. Still more than that, it adds an identity into our mix of identities. It begs the question, how can I be a Republican Christian? how can I be a Christian progressive?

In this country, we have codified a “separation of church and state” into our thinking. The separation, originally meant to protect the church from the intrusion of the state, has done interesting things in our thinking about politics – many of them not Christian ways of thinking. Here are a few of those:

1. We can think that our politics and our religion are the same thing. The problem here is not religion, it is politics. Our American politics (you may even argue the current state of the geopolitical world) are human things, subject to human errancy and limitation. As such, neither “left or right” or whatever dichotomy you choose is going to be as holistic as God’s Word. We hear this in the arguments, right? The folks on the right don’t care about the homeless, the folks on the left don’t care about the unborn, etc etc. In short, I’m going to say something that might be a little mean: If you think that your political ideology is the same as your faith, you’re probably not paying attention to what your ideology, God’s Word, or both together are saying.
2. We can think that our religion is separate from our politics. I hear this most often in terms of “policies”. People will say things like “I know that x is bad, but I have to choose a side.” You don’t. You have to choose in order to vote for a person or a law, but I would strongly ask you to reconsider thinking that your vote is “choosing a side”. Choosing a side means that you are relinquishing your future choices to whatever side you choose. It fails to understand that God’s Word speaks beyond the dichotomy of the two party system – which is a degradation of the Word of God and an idolatry of the political party/ideology.
3. We can think that our politics are separated from our religion. This shows up as “I believe x, but I vote y.” Sometimes, this truly is a necessity, unfortunately, but it is a necessity that we should be aware of. Sometimes we vote for people. People are sinful, which means that they will hold correct and incorrect values simultaneously. You’re not going to find a non-sinner on the ballot. Likewise, no law or amendment has been dropped down out of heaven like manna – they are all the product of sinners’ minds and should be vetted as such. You’ve gotta vote for one, but that should be something you do with hesitancy, working out the wisdom there under the humility of God’s Word. It is God’s Word that determines our priorities and our sense of wrong as Christians, not the spin of a politician.

Instead of those foolish mistakes, as Christians we can engage with politics according to the Word of God:

1. Your primary identity is always found in your Baptism, anything that tells you otherwise is to be rejected (Galatians 3). Vote according to this identity.
2. Put not your trust in princes (Psalm 146) – Take a good look at the politician(s) you like the most. They are going to be the ones that you’re going to be the least likely to question your trust in. Now acknowledge, “yes, even these politicians are sinners, and I need to be careful not to put my trust in them above God.”
3. Get used to being in the minority. – Jesus encourages us to see Christianity as “the narrow way” that is taken by few (Matthew 7). The whole of the New Testament presents Christians as a minority, a persecuted one even. You should not expect to be in the majority. You perhaps should be somewhat worried if you find you are in the majority.
4. Seek the good of your city/nation (Jeremiah 29) – As you have opportunity, let your voice be heard. Vote, engage in discourse, volunteer – but do these things for the good of the city, and not necessarily yourself. Jeremiah here is speaking to exiles. You should see yourself as one of those. Heaven is your home, but you live here in Tallahassee, Florida, USA – seek the good of those people.
5. Renew your mind – Paul says it clearly in Romans 12, “Do not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewal of your mind.” and elsewhere (Philippians 4, 2 Corinthians 10). All of our thoughts, including (especially?) our political thoughts are to be renewed by Scripture. Our Scriptures need not be “renewed” by some politician.
6. Pray for the elected, whoever they may be. In 1 Timothy 2, Paul calls for Timothy to pray for Nero of all people. We pray, even (especially) for those whom we disagree with.

Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ who has saved us poor sinners by His death and Resurrection, baptizing us so that we may be His saints of salt and light in our world. May we be forever thankful for our place in His Kingdom, and may our gratitude for our lives in His eternal Kingdom encourage us to live out His grace, mercy, and peace before He comes again to bring us into a Resurrected world where I doubt we will have to vote on much.