Christian Political Activism - "Sharia-lite"?

In trying to keep with my conviction that the evangelical church has so much housekeeping to do that it should tread very carefully into the arena of secular culture, today’s entry is yet another introspective look into what I consider some of the major problems we need to wrestle with inside the born-again Christian community itself. I realize that many Christians consider political activism as such a part of their faith that they may reject what I’m saying here out-of-hand. Please, please, if you fall into this category, have the courage to consider what I’ve written. If you can argue my points biblically, please respond and educate me.

The bottom-line premise of this entry is that if American Muslims were as openly, politically active as evangelicals, we all would be a bit freaked-out – especially the Christians. Why do we expect our non-Christian fellow Americans to react any differently to us than we would to Muslims doing essentially the same things?

“But wait,” you say. “Our nation was founded on Christian principles. The great pillars of our government were formed when American society was overtly Christian in nature.”

My response? “Your point is well made, but it proves the opposite of what you think.” Our Founding Fathers worked excessively hard to create a secular governmental structure in spite of the fact that most of them took their faith very seriously and the society around them was openly, and in many places, monolithically religious and Christian. They saw no need to create detailed moral codes because they expected that common morality would continue to be reinforced by the church to keep people on the ‘straight and narrow’. They intended the moral uprightness of society to keep government in check, not the other way around. By trying to get government to enforce biblical moral statutes we are, in essence, admitting that the church cannot do its job within the culture and asking government to step in.

In my blog of 2/4/08 (here) I took Christians to task for being so politically active that we are actually scaring the people we claim we’re trying to “love” into the church. Since that entry I’ve had two more events which have convinced me of that fact.

Both of my new “events” happened last Thursday. In my office I heard an NPR interview with Norman Lear, the well-known television producer of shows in the 1970s such as “All in the Family.” I heard this Jewish man say that he left television because he wanted to produce a movie about Christian political activism because he was scared by what he saw happening with Jerry Fallwell, Pat Robertson and Jimmy Swaggart becoming entrenched in politics. In his words, “The mixture of politics and religion scared the hell out of me.” You can listen to the interview here. Since then he has been a liberal political activist with an organization that has registered thousands of new voters. How do you think most of them vote?

The second event happened later that morning when I was talking with a colleague who just happens to be a black, catholic democrat. He and I have a terrific working relationship that is based on sincere mutual respect. The respect has risen to such a level that we can discuss race, faith and politics without any of it being personal. As a result there is great honesty. When I mentioned to him that I thought that my fellow evangelicals have gone too far into political activism, he really opened up. He said. “Evangelicals scare me because after they get what they want politically, then they’ll come after me (as a catholic) because of the whole ‘idol worshipping’ thing…” How could I argue with him? Though he has very conservative political views, he cannot stomach aligning himself with Republican conservatives because of all the evangelical political baggage is wrapped up in it.

If you still don’t agree that we in the Christian community have gone too far, consider this scenario: Muslim communities in the US begin to push for elements of Sharia law to be introduced. They start slowly, trying to get modesty laws passed in beach communities. Then they begin to build momentum. Next they push for “health taxes” on pork and push for prohibition on alcohol in their counties (nice precedent we set). They elect conservative Muslim representatives to Congress from districts with large Muslim enclaves like Detroit and the DC metro area of Virginia & Maryland. Muslims become more active in the country and start demanding that their cultural values be more respected.

It’s a bit scarier that way, isn’t it? Well, I really think that’s the way many of our non-evangelical countrymen see us. They think we want to impose some type of “Sharia-lite” on the country, and they’re scared. Too often we give them good reason to think that way.

Just because there is no law against something we would call sin doesn’t mean that we need to institute one. As long as law doesn’t require us to sin we need to be much more careful about the laws we say we want to have written. How quickly we forget how bitingly Jesus himself treated the Pharisees – and they at least kept their hypocrisy within their own community. We share ours openly with the world and wonder why the church is so weak, has so little positive impact on our culture, and we are known more for what we’re against than what we are for. I’m not the only one saying this. Read a recent article from World magazine (a conservative Christian publication) about it here.

I do not advocate that we become like the Amish, retreat from society and become apolitical. What I am saying is that we can live our faith in a much purer manner when we don’t try to wrap government up in it. We can execute our biblical responsibilities to government by learning and holding fast to both our federal and state Constitutions, and being upright citizens in our communities – so upright that our unbelieving neighbors will have to wonder what makes us so different. Then they just might want to hear about our faith.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (1 Peter 2:12-17, English Standard Version)