Faith and Politics
Matthew 16:30-20
I think it is time to firmly put to bed the notion that our faith, and particularly our Christian faith’s story, is somehow separate from our politics and the values we have which shape how we interact with the world and engage as citizens with our government.
Our religious culture has been subject to, over decades, rhetoric that seeks to separate our political identity from our religious identity. We have a “personal relationship” with Christ, but God forbid we apply Christ’s words to the values we consider when we are at the ballot box! We go to church on Sunday, but God forbid we apply the words of scripture and our interpretation of it to anything outside of that worship service!
It has been interesting as a United Methodist to bear witness to something interesting happening in Kansas this year. I know: something interesting happening in Kansas is either an easily surmountable low bar of expectation, or something we might never consider happening there. But this year, a United Methodist pastor has won the democratic primary to be the Democratic party’s candidate for one of Kansas’ US Senate seats.
Rev. Adam Hamilton is the pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in the denomination. Church of the Resurrection is a multi-campus United Methodist Church with nine unique locations all around Kansas City. Hamilton spent time in discernment and conversation with Kansas residents earlier this year, started his campaign for the primary, and won.
This makes him something of a national figure and it has been something else to watch the media deal with him. It has been even more interesting to watch GOP talking heads and politicians try to criticize him. The GOP lately has claimed a sense of righteousness for its allegiance to Christianity.
Of course it should be said that the Christianity the GOP seems to generally align itself with predominantly is a version of Christianity that loves wealth, needs violence, and seeks domination.
What caught my eye this week was a hilarious accusation made by Texas Senator, Ted Cruz, claiming that Rev. Hamilton was a heretic because of a sermon they found that he preached decades ago which claimed that he didn’t believe that everyone who did not believe what Christians believed went to hell.
Are Sens. Cruz and Rogers (Hamilton’s opponent) truly concerned about heresy here? Or are they simply desperate? That will be up to the voters of Kansas to decide. As far as this Pastor is concerned, rhetoric like this from the GOP, who suddenly have to deal with a Christian candidate from the opposing party who knows more about the bible than they do, is a pretty transparent attempt to undermine a candidate politically who seems to be doing surprisingly well in his statewide campaign in Kansas.
I believe that faith and politics are not as separate as popular culture tries to insist they should be (even when that insistence has clearly failed). I used to think certain parts of the Gospel were inherently spiritual. In Matthew 16, Jesus praises Peter for naming him as the “Messiah, the Son of the living God.” This seems to be a purely spiritual and religious statement, doesn’t it?
It turns out that being called the “Son of God” is actually a title that Roman Emperors in Jesus’ time claimed for themselves. In Imperial Rome, the Emperor was “worshipped” as an agent of the Roman Gods who were the authorities over life and had power over all things. Jesus, a homeless itinerant rabbi, was not only made out as a divine figure. He was made out as a divine figure in political opposition to the entire Roman power structure.
What is the intersection of faith and politics for us today? How might our values as followers of Christ not only be a spiritual matter, but also a political consideration?
One thing is for sure: if following Jesus was a political act alongside a faithful one, then that puts us as Christians politically on the side of the poor, the outsider, the outcast, and the unclean. Following Jesus leads us to be concerned with those who are oppressed and not oppressors. It leads us to value abundance over the hoarded wealth the world around us covets. It leads us to follow God’s special concern for the poor which is overwhelmingly repeated across the various books in our Bible.
Following Jesus isn’t a decision between republican or democrat, but it is a decision between the values we find in the Gospels vs. the values given to us by the world and its capitalism, greed, violence, and fear.
Who will our faith lead us to be in the world? The answer to that question is not only found in worship on Sundays, but also in the actions we take during week—and it also might be found in the choices we make at the ballot box.
