Jeremy L. Berg

“Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” -Jesus

Jesus said, “My kingdom, or politics, are not of this world.” Do we believe him or not? It really is that simple.

By this, Jesus did not mean his kingdom is not concerned with this world, but rather his Kingdom’s logic and priorities is not rooted in the conventional wisdom common to this world, but has its source in God’s World-in-the-making.

The Moral Majority movement of the 80s, while well intended, began to mobilize Evangelical Christians to focus on fighting the so-called “culture war” by trying to pass certain laws and legislation that were said to be “the Christian view” on this or that issue. Not only has that cultural war been lost, now many unchurched, secular people in the U.S. and abroad cannot distinguish Bible believing evangelical Christianity from the Republican Party and its political platform.

Among other negative consequences, declaring one political party’s views as “the Christian view” inevitably imports all the divisiveness of the senate floor into into the church’s pews, eroding our unity in Christ, tainting our public witness, and hindering our mission to reach people of all political viewpoints for the gospel.

As a case in point, millions of the unchurched liberal leaning folks whom the church should be desiring to reach for Jesus were pushed farther away from the church this last election when they watched predominantly white evangelical Christians catapult Trump into the White House. Regardless of your politics or opinions of President Trump, you can understand why many Christians concerned with reaching people on the Left with the gospel were not happy to see Jesus’ name so closely associated with Trump’s polarizing character, attitudes, words and behavior — not to mention polarizing political positions.

Christians should know the stark differences between Trump and Christ, but many around the world (e.g., Muslim countries) now see Trump’s face when they hear the word “evangelical Christian” mentioned. This is also why many of my fellow Evangelical Covenant pastor friends feel forced to distance ourselves from the very term “evangelical” — it just carries way too much political baggage these days.

What baggage you ask? Did you know that for vast numbers of people, evangelical Christians (especially in the south) are best known for advocating gun laws, being highly militaristic, homophobic, uncaring toward the poor, callous toward immigrants, and racially insensitive. Regardless of how accurate or skewed this may be, this is the broad perception. And one’s perception is one’s reality.

Meanwhile, Jesus clearly teaches that his followers are to be known for its non-violent ethic, peacemaking emphasis, attracting the marginalized, welcoming the foreigner and outcast, and breaking down racial, social, ethnic, class and gender barriers. This is the great tragedy of letting a political platform co-opt a huge sector of the church of Jesus.

Now, one might think the Republican ticket tends to be the best option for running this country — at least on certain socio-political issues —but it also seems quite clear that the Way of Jesus espoused in the Sermon on the Mount is quite at odds with some conservative policies. For example, while a nation certainly needs to secure its borders, the Scriptures call people of faith to open wide our doors to the foreigner and welcome refugees. For example,

“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 19:33-34).

Likewise, a nation may need to use military force at times and go to war against other nations, but the church is called to non-violence and to love our enemies. How can the church of Jesus faithfully obey Jesus’ command to love one’s enemies and preach the gospel to all peoples, when we’re advocating military action and bombing them?

Again, one might argue the welfare state in this country is doing more harm than good in addressing systemic poverty. Even if my political convictions lead me to vote against social programs that give “free handouts”, followers of Jesus are called to reach out in mercy and grace to the needy — even (or especially?) those who don’t deserve it. Government programs can’t run on grace, but the church of Jesus Christ must.

On the issue of abortion, one might believe the best way to be pro-life is by voting for a candidate who can appoint Supreme Court justice to help overturn Roe v. Wade (but even then it will just go to the state level and likely get nowhere). Yet, another follower of Jesus might conclude we can be more effectively pro-life if instead of standing outside abortion clinics with protest signs (feeling like we’re making a difference), we start offering pregnant mothers the resources, love and support to help them go full-term with their pregnancy and be pro-life outside the womb as well as inside.

I’m trying to show how radically different and seemingly impractical Jesus’ politics can seem when compared to the kingdom of the world politics. Likewise, I am also trying to show that the government’s job is tough, and doing Caesar’s business is filled with endless complexities and ambiguities. Both sides of the aisle, for instance, can agree they want to end poverty or be pro-life, but they may have two (or twenty) completely different theories about how best to accomplish it.

The church’s job, on the other hand, is simple by comparison (though incredibly hard to do). The church is simply called to live out Jesus’ radical ethic and thereby creating a countercultural colony that shows the watching world an entirely new way to be human — a way marked not by political power, but by self-sacrificial, cross-power!  We’re not called to change the world by wielding political power, but rather to bear witness to another world-in-the-making by manifesting the radical love and upside-down Kingdom values of Jesus!

While many Christians/churches/pastors talk opaquely of recovering the “Judeo-Christian values” of America’s Founding Fathers, I’m much more concerned about recovering the cross-shaped, cruciform values of the church’s Founding Savior. I believe a great place to start is merely by taking the Sermon on the Mount at face value, and I dare say the church has found ingenious ways of avoiding this down through the centuries. G. K. Chersterton was spot on when he said,

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”

So, let’s render to Caesar what’s his by voting our conscience when given the opportunity every couple years, but let’s keep the church focused on embodying an entirely different kind of community/kingdom/economy/ethic — one that looks just like Jesus. That’s me and my political approach in a nutshell. Plain and simple — and oh, so difficult! 

I admit its much easier and more comfortable to pretend the pressing issues of politics are black and white, to believe my political party has it right, and to go to bed feeling proud because I sided with the good guys and the other side is out to lunch. But such a myopic view is both naive and unfair. It’s time to admit the complexities of worldly politics, to broaden our views, and, most importantly for Christians, to admit that Jesus certainly doesn’t fit into either the red or blue box. Then why should his followers?

Taking this challenge seriously, and giving yourself over to Jesus’ upside-down Kingdom politics and values will leave many people scratching their heads and thinking you’re a fool, or at least hopelessly naive about “the way the world works.” I think I’m finally ready to receive that compliment. I’m in good company. As the Apostle Paul put it:

“If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God” (2 Cor. 5:12).

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God….We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength….God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor. 1:18ff).

“Seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness!” (Matt 6:33)