Christians and Politics - citizens of the Kingdom or High Priests of Caesar?
Greg Boyd wrote a great blog post on what it looks like to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God as opposed to a “High Priest in Caesar’s Court.”
Here’s a little excerpt from his post:
It’s all very complex and ambiguous, but once we position ourselves as Caesar’s high preists we have no choice but to wade through it all. And so, inevitably, we’ll disagree about many of these matters and have to fight each other over which are the “right” battles to fight and what is the “right” way to be fighting them. The Matthews (conservatives) and Simons (liberals) in our churches will inevitably start wondering if the other “really” cares and is “really” Christian.
And now we’ve invited the polarizing ambiguity of the political realm into our Kingdom fellowships — as if we needed further dividing!
…
Folks, as citizens who get asked your opinion about what Caesar should do, you can express your opinion as best as you see fit. Try to understand the issues surrounding poverty and everything else and make the best choice you can. But as citizens of the Kingdom of God, this isn’t where our hope is to be placed or where our time or energy is to be spent.
Boyd challenges Christians to think about what it might look like if we stop viewing the secular government (our modern day Caesar) as the means that will bring about justice, equality, mercy, etc. In other words, what if we (as the body of Christ) passionately did something, instead of passionately petioning others to do something?
Check out the full post here, and let me know what you think!
October 14th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
This post has been bothering me, especially as I am moving into my new role as the leader of the social justice team at my church. What is the best way, as Christians, to create change? What should our involvement in politics be? This post challenges me, as have other things you have said about politics. I am not quite as disenchanted of politics as you, (I still hold out a hope that change can happen through politics), but I do appreciate your challenge of putting our hope in politics.
I guess I have two questions. Does it have to be an either-or? Does it have to be either doing something ourselves or petitioning someone else to do it? Shouldn’t we do both? Change our own lifestyles, convince those we know and have influence with to change theirs, and then petition those in power to do the same, to change policies? I agree that we shouldn’t wait around for our government to change the world (if we do we’ll be horribly disappointed) but at the same time I think it needs to be part of the whole answer.
Second question: If Christians don’t participate in politics, aren’t we being separatist? As much as we may think that politics doesn’t work or is corrupt, shouldn’t we still try to challenge the system for the better? Isn’t opting out of political engagement just ignoring the systems and the powers at work in our world ? Isn’t opting out of the systems that we live in making us isolationist? I may hate the way that politics work, but if I chose to simply ignore politics and not be engaged, how is the Kingdom of God ever supposed to touch the political realm?
Either way, I don’t think that Christians are very good at any of this… we aren’t very good at addressing the world’s problems, either through personal lifestyle changes, through Christian communities deciding to live differently, or through engaging politics. I think we should learn how to do all three well.
Or we could just sit around ignoring the world, and wait to go to heaven.
October 14th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
[…] To politically engage or not engage? How much? How? I was challenged recently by my friend Dave and his post, and by Greg Boyd and his post. You should read both, or this rest of this won’t mean […]