This is Life!: Revolutions Around the Cruciform Axis

The Political Trap

There are two dangerous mindsets in the Christian world when it comes to Christians and political involvement, both of them ultimately based on a heresy: chiliasm.

The first dangerous mindset is that of Christian activism. The way I'm using that term specifically in this context is to indicate a mindset that assumes that the goal of human government is justice, and that such justice must primarily be enacted through political means. Christian activism seeks to make the Kingdom of God a present reality through human action, to achieve peace and justice through human government.

The other dangerous mindset is that of Christian withdrawal, specifically the abandonment of the political process. The mindset here assumes that political processes are so thoroughly fallen so as to be fundamentally incorrigible. Christian withdrawal seeks to witness to the political arena from outside it, even if that means allowing the devolution of human society, to achieve the Kingdom of God over against human society.

Both of these views are profoundly mistaken and heretical.

Christian activism is heretical because it assumes that human justice can approximate divine justice. But human justice is a travesty of divine justice. We see that currently in our U. S. society. Based on an adversarial understanding of human rights, the explicitly afforded rights of freedom of assembly and freedom of religious expression are curtailed for many citizens--which can hardly be called justice. Indeed, based as it is on such a competitive understanding of rights, Christian activism can not but restrain and limit the freedom of many to accomplish its ends. It enforces its will on those whose hearts remain unconverted. This is not the Kingdom of God. It is, in its final realization, a demonic blasphemy.

But Christian withdrawal is equally heretical in that it assumes that human effort can bring forth the full realization of the Kingdom of God, in this case by remaining uncontaminated and clean of the world's contagion. But this withdrawal fails to reckon with the fundamental Christian teaching that the earth is the Lord's and all therein, and that all things serve Him. Based as it is on a mistaken understanding of the Kingdom of God, it cannot but fail to frustrate the Christian's obligation to love his neighbor.

Christian activism either attempts to meet spiritual needs with material means, or simply fails to adequately seek to meet what are the primary human needs, the spiritual. Seek first His Kingdom, our Lord tells us, and all these things will be added as well. Christian activism cannot but fail to divide as the accomplishment of Christian virtues and ends become equated with specific means. All Christians can agree that the poor ought be cared for. But it is not the Gospel that a government must redistribute the wealth of its citizens to do so. This is enforcement without conversion: the Devil's gospel. The accomplishment of secular justice advances not one whit the true Justice on which it is purportedly based. It provides nothing more than a poor and destructive substitute.

Christian withdrawal attempts to both witness to the purity of the Gospel and Christ's Church, but it fails, ultimately to accomplish that fundamental Gospel dogma that is half the summation of the Law and the Prophets. Christians can surely agree that the political process, founded necessarily on coercion, is problematic, and that political power is corrosive. Christians can surely agree that political ends are mostly accomplished with deception and outright falsehood, the abuse of power and obligation. But if the earth is indeed the Lord's so too is the political process. Indeed, all government has been instituted by God for the benefit of man. But government is essentially fallen and must be infused with the Christian presence and witness, however severe such a struggle is for each citizen and representative to maintain through God's gracious energies the purity of heart necessary for final salvation. But our Lord is our example. We do not escape the desert and the demons by withdrawal, we just relocate them and intensify their subtle attacks in our souls.

Politics is a trap. But Christians, wise as serpents and guileless as doves, have the obligation to both transform politics and not be tempted by its false and inhuman promises. Christ's final temptation was the worship of Satan for political power. For us, the temptation is political power, which if not guarded against will lead us to the satanic worship.

But the Church's monastics show us that withdrawal is equally a trap. It is the ultimate place of pride, the same satanic pride that tempted Adam and Eve, and which was the origin of the Luciferic fall. And it is, though scented with rose water, the contempt and disregard of the least of these, which is to say, of Christ.

But God is faithful. He will, with the trap, provide a way of escape if we have not the strength to stand firm. That escape, however, will be by way of the path which squeezes and scrapes. And only a few will find it.

Posted by Clifton at January 20, 2005 11:04 AM | TrackBack