Is God a Republican or a Democrat? (maybe Green?)
Former Faculty
By Micah Watson, Assistant Professor of Political Science & Director, Center for Religion and Politics
Sep 2, 2008 - There’s a story about Abraham Lincoln being approached during the Civil War and asked whether he thought God was on “our side” or the other side. Lincoln responded, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”
Jim Wallis’ organization put out a bumpersticker a while back that you can see from time to time. It has “God is not a Republican” in big block letters, and underneath, in smaller letters, we learn that God is not a Democrat either. The rationale behind the bumpersticker is fairly plain and a favorite argument of Wallis: the religious right has hijacked religion for its own purposes and responsible Christians must resist the identification of faith with the Republican party.
Wallis’ basic point, I believe, is sound (whether he commits the mirror fallacy from the Left is an issue for another day). Christians must be Christians first and beware of unconsciously identifying our religion with our country, or even more specifically a single political party within their country. But there’s more to what’s going on here.
There are two errors to be made on this subject. Martin Luther is said to have described humanity as a drunk who falls off one side of a horse only to get back up on the horse and fall off the other side. Or, to remember one of Martin Luther’s favorites, Aristotle described his virtues as being the mean between two errors of excess (that’s a bad joke, Luther didn’t really care for “reason” or her champions). I think that’s the case here.
Notice that Wallis’ reminder about God’s being above political identity is a reaction. It’s a reaction against the notion that our Christian identity seamlessly fits in with our religious identity. This is a good reminder. As Christians we must remember that our citizenship is not of this earth and our Lord’s kingdom is not like earthly kingdoms. As C.S. Lewis reminds us, it is individuals who will be saved; nations’ lives are to ours as the lives of gnats.
But notice where the trajectory of this thinking often takes us. We nod our heads that yes, our Christianity is not, or ought not be, identical with our party or national identity. And we can then be tempted to think that not only is God beyond parties, He is completely neutral, a sort of other-worldly Switzerland. In other words, many well-meaning Christians take the sensible position that we ought not confuse our faith with our politics and extend that to the ill-founded position that one political party cannot better reflect what we take to be the Christian position than another party.
Because of excesses in the past, we can be so wary of being co-opted or hurting our witness by missteps in the political arena, and we think of political parties like intense sports rivalries. It might be okay for Christians to vote and take part in politics, perhaps even to be involved in parties, but this is like being a fan of LSU or Tennessee, or being a Red Sox or Yankees fan. We root hard for our teams, and may even present reasons why they should win, but we stop short of saying what is the case for many of us: that we support a political party because we think, all things considered, that this party will better pursue the policies we think would lead to a better political community. And what we mean by “better” is inescapably moral, and for Christians what is moral is inescapably linked to our beliefs about God and His world. at least, I hope this is how we would make our political judgments, regardless of party. How else?)
An immediate caveat is called for. Better to be circumspect about the religious grounding for our political beliefs than to mindlessly equate our support for a flat tax, or a higher minimum wage, as part of God’s will. And my point applies equally to both parties. I think what I’m arguing here applies to Christians who are Republican, Democratic, and independent.
So if I’m correct than we would do well do avoid two excesses in our thinking about how our faith relates to politics. On the one hand, we ought not automatically tie our faith to a particular political party or cause. We must not sell our heavenly birthright for Esau’s earthly meal. But on the other hand, neither should we fool ourselves into thinking that God does not care about what our political communities choose and do. It would be a very odd thing indeed for our political parties equally represent the political results we think most congruent with a Christian worldview. That Christians will disagree among themselves about these issues does not absolve us from the duty of thinking and praying through them, and arguing charitably with each other and those outside the faith.