This year, half the world’s population will head to the voting booth to cast their vote. Globally, some 64 countries will be holding elections to vote for their political leaders meaning more voters will head to the polls than in any other year in human history. Closer to home, it is a big year for democracy in the United Kingdom. At some point this year we will almost certainly have a general election with the potential for a change in government, prime minister and our local MPs. 2024 could very well be a year of dramatic change for our politics.
This change will take place in a public square that has become increasingly shrill and hostile. Consider the events of the last decade: Scottish independence referendum, Brexit, Trump, the pandemic and five prime ministers which all contribute to a chaotic and uncertain feel to our political discourse. As Christians working out our faith, how do we engage with politics that looks like this? Perhaps in this area we feel that great tension of being citizens of our communities and citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20). How do we respond?
Politics is good
Firstly, we can see that politics is good. God gives us this command at the beginning of Scripture:
Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it (Gen. 1:28).
From the very start, we’re given the mandate to ‘fill the earth and subdue it.’ Governing and the formation of a government is a fundamental part of building civilisation.
Fast forward to today and we are blessed to have, however chaotic at times, a democratic system where we’re able to hold our political leaders to account for how they have governed the country. We’re able to elect men and women to make important and significant decisions for the good of our society. I once interviewed a former MP who had been in Parliament during the 2010s. Despite being in office during a turbulent time, he said to me, ‘I will always be an advocate for Parliament and our model of politics, because it stops us from killing each other.’ You only have to look at our own history to see that he has a point. We would much rather see our political leaders sparring in a heated debate in the House of Commons, than people exchanging blows on the street. Politics, and the government that emerges from it, is good as it allows us to fulfil the God-given mandate for civilisation and at its best, sees our communities prosper.
Politics isn’t everything
Secondly, despite the potential for politics to be good, it also isn’t everything. Increasingly, politics has moved from the realm of the public square into the human heart. It has become a core part of how people see themselves. This has led to binary and divisive labels like ‘Brexiteer/Remainer’, ‘Trump/Never Trump’, ‘Vax/Anti-vaxxers’. Politics is being elevated above its station and taking a place where it does not belong. I find the words of Michael Wear, an advisor to US President Barack Obama and an evangelical Christian, really helpful:
People are going to politics for spiritual and emotional needs which politics cannot bear but politicians pretend they can meet if that is what the voter is asking for… voters are demanding a sort of emotional fulfilment which is making our politics sick… making our people sick. When people go into politics to seek affirmation it’s taking up space far more than the limited, other centred role that politics should take. We need to put politics in its proper place.
As Christians, it’s vital that we put politics in its proper place and see it for what it is, a system that can bring debate, compromise and resolution, while never being able to take on the great weight of our identities. Politics was never intended for that purpose. Understanding that politics isn’t everything will also stop us from unhelpful distortions of our political heroes and opponents. If politics becomes our central identity then we will idolise the leaders that embody our politics and we’ll be crushed if they don’t win. We might vilify those who disagree with our politics, dehumanising them instead of seeing them as a person made in the image of God, worthy of dignity, respect and love. Politics has the potential for good, but it is not everything.
We are called to be model citizens
Finally, we should remember our calling to be model citizens in the communities in which we find ourselves. In Romans 13, the apostle Paul writes:
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God (Rom. 13:1).
Paul goes on to encourage Christians to pay their taxes along with giving respect and honour. If this was true for Christians living under the oppressive rule of the Romans, how much more should we seek to live out this calling in our own contexts today? We are called to a radical standard of citizenship, to honour governments, even those we disagree with politically. The heavenly reality of our spiritual citizenship should drive us to be engaged and proactive citizens here on earth.
Understanding the place that politics has in our society, that it is good but it isn’t everything and that we have a role to play in being model citizens, can give us a richer, wider perspective on it so that we can make politics, without it ever making us. We can engage with political ideas and parties, holding them lightly next to our adopted identities in Christ. In a year where politics will rise to the forefront of our news headlines, social media posts and dinner table discussion, let’s engage with that alternative view, honouring those who govern over us, dignifying them with our speech and our actions as model citizens that seek the flourishing of our politics, public square and the communities where we live.
