Paul Blackham writes in May’s Evangelicals Now:
“What do we fear enough to talk to strangers about? Our spiritual mandate is to Seek FIRST God’s Kingdom. We must be obsessed with the business of heaven – because only then will the business of earth fall into the right perspective.”[1]
I agree whole heartedly with this but I’m not convinced that his later application and conclusions necessary follow through. Blackham goes on to say:
“However, some of us spend a great deal of time and energy debating, sharing opinions about and even campaigning for one political regime or another.”
Now whenever someone says that kind of thing, it should prompt the following questions in response:
- Who are the some of us?
- What counts as a great deal of time and energy?
- When and where are those people debating/sharing opinions
It’s worth remembering the audience that Blackham writes for. Evangelicals Now is a monthly newspaper targeted at all evangelical Christians. What it means is that it isn’t targeted at pastors and elders. Now, if he were speaking to pastors, then there might be some arguments to consider. First, I would tend to agree without being legalistic that it is unwise for pastors to be campaigning for a specific political party or ideology. Secondly, they should not be giving their every waking moment to those questions and thirdly, this should not be the focus of their every sermon. That’s not however to say that they should never address those issues pastorally or in preaching for reasons I’ll come to later.
It is also possible though that a pastor might be sharing his views in conversation on a personal blog or via his own social media. He needs to be careful still because I don’t think it is very easy to switch off from the public responsibility of representing a church. However, it is possible that they have a particular interest in politics or a specific issue or area of the world. Elders should not only be allowed to but encouraged to have a hinterland, to have interests and hobbies whether that’s following a football team, pursuing woodwork etc or even being interested in politics.
What about those of us who are not elders or pastors though? Well one reason why I believe that pastors should address these kinds of issues is that Christians should be engaged with what is happening in the world around us. We are not to be of this world but we are in it and the Israelites in exile were encouraged to seek the good of the city where they were. They were concerned for the well-being of their Babylon and we should be for ours for the same kinds of reasons, in other words because we desire to live peaceably and enjoy the freedom to not only worship the true and living God but to be a witness for him.
Blackham argues that:
“Jesus never commented on the foreign or domestic policies of Israel, nor the Roman or Persian empires. That is a fact that is worthy of frequent meditation.”
He then goes on to say in jest:
“His apostles followed this example, choosing not to inform us how they voted in Roman or Persian elections.”
Of course they didn’t! You don’t get to vote in a tyranny! However, to suggest that Jesus and his apostles did not comment on politics is I think to misunderstand the nature of politics and therefore to miss much of what the apostles and Jesus did have to say. When Jesus commented on hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders, when John the Baptist challenged Herod and when Jesus referred to the same appointed king as “that old fox”, he was commenting on the political state of affairs at the time. When Paul challenged the culture by speaking to women, salves and children that was incredibly political. Indeed, that Paul challenges the very nature of slavery by telling Philemon to welcome Onesimus back as a brother, urging masters to treat slaves in the same way that slaves are to treat them and assuring slaves that they will be rewarded by God if not by their masters.
The prophets of course have much to say about injustice and idolatry both in Israel and the nations around. Challenging idolatry was political because you could not disentangle a nation’s worship of false gods from how those nations functioned, how their rulers behaved and the culture of the people.
Then you have books like Daniel and Revelation which describe what has been going on the world and will continue to go on until Christ’s return but from God’s perspective. What we see is that the empires of this world are beastly.
What Jesus, the prophets and apostles don’t do is set out a political manifesto as we would understand it today. Scripture’s primary purpose is to contrast the kingdoms of this world with the kingdom of God. In that respect, Blackham is right. However, because salvation and eternal life are the final goal of our mission does not mean that this excludes other goals and priorities, rather, it informs them. It’s my primary passion for the Gospel that gives me a concern for ethics and politics. That was of course how things worked for the abolitionists and people like Shaftesbury. It’s what motivates people like Tim Farron and Danny Kruger today.
I simply don’t buy into Blackham’s argument that:
“Unless we are in positions of governmental responsibility, dedicating hundreds of hours to high-quality research on every global issue is pointless – working out what is my opinion about the conflict in Sudan, to money liquidity measures, to the tensions in the Galwan Valley [a Himalayan area disputed by India and China], or the justice of income tax.”
First of all because he paints in extreme colours. It doesn’t requires to do “hundreds of hours” of research to reach conclusions on issues and nor do we have to consider every global issue. There are issues that are of greater interest to me and I will give time to them, there are issues that for whatever reason don’t. For example, I’ve written on Ukraine, Israel, Iran and Nigeria here but not on DRC or Congo. I’ve written about immigration, asylum, racism and antisemitism as well as on assisted dying and abortion but not so much on transgenderism, same-sex marriage, the environment or indeed on human trafficking. It’s not that those issues are less important or that I think no one should be commenting on them, it’s just that as of yet, I’ve not felt that I have anything pertinent to contribute. That might change.
I agree that we should not be under obligation to know how to run a nation just as “we do not feel morally obligated to know how to fix a leaking pipe or a car engine.” However, I’m minded that it is perfectly fine for other Christians to know how to do those things, to devote time and energy to them and to be interested enough to discuss and debate the best methods in social media forums. Indeed, whilst I may not be able to fix a leaking pipe or the car, I would go so far as to say that I would be remiss if I showed no interest in those things at all. I should at least know who to call, when something is serious enough to be able to call them and whether or not I’m being ripped off. I’d be shirking my responsibilities as a husband and a dad if I did not show concern for them. And of course, I can be concerned for those things without becoming anxious about them just as I don’t have to worry about food and clothing but that doesn’t mean I never bother to get dressed or cook a meal.
The other problem with Blackham’s statement is that politics and government don’t work like that. It’s not the case that there is a political/governing class who do all the research and make the decisions. People get involved in politics because they care about particular issues. Political parties and governments rely on the research and input of others. Society forms its opinions not just based on what the professional political classes tell them but on what they hear from people around them.
So in conclusion, yes we should seek first the kingdom of God. We should be passionately talking about Jesus. However, this does not prevent us from having an interest in geopolitical or domestic political matters and some people will have a greater interest than others.
[1] Geopolitics or the gospel? What is our priority? | Evangelicals Now
Faithroots 