Which political issues?

In the second instalment of a three-part series for The Common Good, Nick Spencer asks which political issues Christians should be most concerned about.

Which political issues should Christians be concerned about?  By your answer to this question, shall ye be known.

If you are you a real Christian, you will be concerned about personal morality: sexual behaviour, drink, drugs, marriage, abortion, euthanasia.  You will know that the gospel is basically about what people do in their bedroom, and that it is these issues, plus maybe the freedom to preach the gospel, that Christians should get worked up about.

Alternatively, if you are the other kind of real Christian, your answer will be about social justice: overseas aid, trade tariffs, climate change, income inequality.  You will know that the gospel is essentially making the rich poorer and poor richer, and that these are the issues that Christians should be bothered about.

Both positions are, of course, grotesque stereotypes, but as with many stereotypes they gesture in the direction of reality.  Christians all too readily fall into two errors, each mirroring the other.

One is to understand the gospel as a fundamentally personal phenomenon.  I am saved by Christ, so I must respond.  And how should I respond?  The New Testament is clear.  Don’t steal.  Don’t rage.  Don’t gossip.  Work hard.  Give generously.  Be faithful.  Be honest.  Love others.

The other error is to understand the gospel as a purely political or social phenomenon.  Christ said some harsh things to the rich and powerful and we are called to work with him in bringing them down.  That means we must see the big picture: global inequality, environmental degradation, trade injustice.  The gospel is so much bigger than “Don’t steal. Don’t gossip.”

From such foundations, differing political theologies emerge.  One sees questions of personal morality as the key to a good society, and a key role of government being to facilitate such good lives.

The other contends that it is simply impossible for people to live moral lives if they are crippled by poverty or lack of opportunity.  It follows that the role of government is to identify and redress examples of structural or institutional sin, bringing a measure of economic equality and social opportunity across the whole of society.

Although few Christians will be found exclusively inhabiting one camp and most realise that the gospel encompasses both, there remains a tendency to polarise, if only because we naturally see the world in categories.

There is a saying among consultants that culture eats strategy for breakfast.  In other words, it doesn’t matter what structures, objectives and incentive schemes you put in place, if they conflict with the dominant culture of the organisation in question, they will be blunted or, worse, rendered redundant.

So it is with policy.  Income redistribution and local investment are rendered inefficient or wholly ineffective when the social structures into which they are poured are ill-functioning.  Imagine the truly vast sums of money that would be available for investment elsewhere if people lived faithful, monogamous lives, avoided drugs, didn’t gamble, spent wisely and moderated their drink.  Those whose Christian faith compels them towards addressing structural sin cannot ignore the culture of personal morality in which those structures operate.

But the same is true the other way round.  Sin, like water, gets in everywhere.  Those of us who pride ourselves on our sober, faithful lives are rarely as generous or just or forgiving as we should be.  Being good is rarely enough.

Moreover, even assuming we were as generous and self-sacrificial as we should be, others tend not to be.  I may choose to catch the train rather than drive because I want to cut my carbon emissions, but all the evidence suggests that the resulting space on the roads will quickly be filled by someone with slightly fewer scruples.  Each of us lives in social and economic structures too big for us to change on our own.  Legislation is needed secure a framework in which good behaviour is enabled and free-riding prevented.  Those whose Christian faith compels them towards issues of personal morality cannot ignore the social structures in which we operate and by which we are shaped.

The answer, then, to the title must be ‘all of them’.  There is not a single political issue about which Christian should be unconcerned, just as, in Abraham Kuyper’s famous phrase, “there’s not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, ‘Mine!’”

Practical considerations and personal interests will orient Christians to one issue or another, and that is just as it should be.  Only the brave or foolhardy will attempt to cover every issue.  But the real challenge is not so much in choosing and mastering one subject as in recognising that those others in which I have little interest and less expertise are just as important to the task of kingdom politics.