The American Church has waged a political war against the lack of morality in society. The assault began decades ago, but recently this morality war has been brought to a tipping point. Politics have been the primary weapon in this attempt to enforce the morality and the ethics of Scripture throughout all of culture, and while this appears to be an admirable goal on the surface, the weaponization of politics by the Church has been a source of many unforeseen, yet avoidable, consequences.
This battle highlights a cultural misunderstanding that has shaped the Church’s thinking in recent years. It seems that we began equating political power with moral influence. This has led to the conclusion that the more political power the Church has the more effective it will be in spreading the Gospel and changing culture for the better. These two points have caused many to turn to politics as their savior for the rapidly decaying sense of morality in this country. But, does political power benefit the Church’s influence to change culture, or does it actually destroy it?
I would argue that, when we consider the current state of our politics, the latter is true. Let’s imagine for a moment that your least favorite political party won the presidency and the majority of both houses of Congress; you disagree with what that party stands for, but now they can use the law and every legal force at their disposal to shove their agenda down your throat.
This gridlock situation is essentially the same position that the Church puts itself into when we try to control the political sphere. The current state of affairs throughout society reveals that many already disagree with the Church’s agenda and views on morality and ethics.
Barna Group and Pew Research have done numerous studies over the last decade that reveal a rapidly growing decline in those who profess any religion whatsoever. They have also found that many who once professed to be evangelicals are now leaving the Church. Society has become disillusioned with the Church and fed up with the hypocrisy that it sees.
The entertainment industry also reflects this turning from Christian morality and ethics. Songs such as Taylor Swift’s You Need to Calm Down, Green Day’s American Idiot, and Bad Religion’s American Jesus all embody the negative attitude toward Christianity that has been growing in culture for decades. They also reveal the increasingly popular perspective that religion, especially Christianity, is largely to blame for social problems rather than being able to help cure societal ills.
Movies have also taken up this same attitude and banner like never before. The Da Vinci Code, The Golden Compass, and Small Foot are blatant attacks on Christianity and attempt to undermine foundational views of the Church by implying that religion is nothing more than organized indoctrination and mind control under the guise of spirituality. They also portray Christian leadership as power hungry individuals that know their religion is utterly false yet they concoct elaborate schemes to hide this truth from their followers and maintain control over them. These movies became mainstream showing that there is a new level of acceptance for media that challenges beliefs that were not aggressively attacked or denounced by mainstream media in the past. It also reveals a growing attitude that religion is used to control individuals.
The growing number of people leaving the Church and the entertainment industry’s increasingly blatant attacks on Christianity and conservatives should be concerning and eye-opening to the Church. Both of these elements reveal that there is a widening chasm between Christianity and culture. As that division grows, the political and moral agenda of the Church becomes increasingly disconnected from and at odds with that of culture. As followers of Christ, the Church’s morality and ethics should be countercultural. However, the Church has a tendency to isolate itself as its ethics become more and more distinct from the surrounding culture. This isolation often results in a Church that is disconnected from culture and loses touch with all the dynamics shaping the worldview, ethics and morality of the culture.
We have now thrown ourselves into a no-win situation. Yes, the Church has won many political battles and will likely gain further victories, but we have been losing the war to change and influence culture for the kingdom of God.
I know at this point many would still argue that the Church could salvage this political mess and enter into victory. To that, I have one question--what is the endgame in winning this war? Aside from implied answers, such as “Freedoms for Christianity” and “comfortable faith,” I have never heard anyone clearly define what the Church is hoping to achieve through all the political battles. The answers “Freedoms for Christianity” and “comfortable faith” only benefit the Church at best, and at worst they result in the suppression and censoring of all other religions and philosophies. Neither scenario brings positive change and influence to this nation, because, more often than not, either case inflames anger against the Church and promotes backlash from the rest of society.
My experience has been that the Church’s political battles tend to do more to enrage society rather than positively impact it for Christ. The more I see the Church rely on politics, the more I see the Church lose its voice and influence in culture. Society is fed up with the political antics and hateful rhetoric that has now crept into the Church. The disdain for religion entering into the political arena has only grown as the war has raged on.
I have personally struggled with the politics of the evangelical Church ever since my senior year of high school. During the summer of 2018 I experienced what became the final nail in the coffin of my venture into evangelical politics when I saw first hand what happens when the Church is perceived as having overwhelming political control in a nation, and it is not the bright future we thought we were fighting for as evangelicals.
During the summer of 2018, I participated in outreach events at Polish Woodstock with Steiger International. Polish Woodstock is the largest outdoor European music festival attended by nearly half a million people annually. Our team was led by a Steiger missionary and several members of the local Polish Church. We spent each day talking to those attending the festival and sharing Christ with them. I had never experienced such an anti-Christian climate prior to this point in my life, and kept asking myself, why do so many of the attendees hate the Church?
The Polish Catholic Church has been living the American Dream for decades. The Polish Church doesn’t have to fear political battles because it is viewed by many of the Polish people as essentially controlling the Polish political scene, willing to run over many in the process of enacting its political agenda. In addition to its political influence, the Church has access to numerous financial resources in Poland. In short, Polish citizens are left to watch as they feel the Church gets whatever it wants.
The people we talked to actually felt oppressed by the Church. Though they can strive to elect new leadership for their country, politicians who run on behalf of the Church nearly always win and their campaigns are backed with financial resources that extend far beyond what any of their opponents can acquire. This leaves campaigns of those outside the Church under financed and facing insurmountable odds before the political races can even begin.
Polish Woodstock itself contains a great example of the Church forcing its agenda through political means. The organizers of the event have a good relationship with local Hari Krishnas and provide them with a stage of their own every year. The Catholic Church wanted a stage for themselves as well, but due to the overwhelmingly negative attitude toward the Church the organizers refused. How did the Church respond? It bought a large portion of the property that hosts the festival, in a prominent location that you have to pass when you go in or out of the main entrance. Not to mention, it is also near the only on-site store where you can buy groceries and other supplies.
The attitude toward the Church as a result of its political involvement and control in Poland has created an atmosphere that makes it difficult to say anything about who Christ really is. Of the Polish people that I was able to speak with, all denominations were viewed as one and the same. This meant being a Protestant didn’t score any points and get me off the hook as not being connected to a group that they saw as oppressive.
Many in Poland see each and every hypocrisy committed by the Church as a direct result of its position of power, causing them to hate the Church all the more. The Church’s entanglement with politics has created this absolute nightmare scenario for trying to influence the culture. The Church has gone beyond acting as an agent of change on behalf of the Kingdom of God, and has begun to move like an entirely different group.
The Church has become a modern-day picture of the Pharisees. The Pharisees fought to make the laws, ethics, and morality of Scripture the law of the land in ancient Israel. Then they went out of their way, using every means at their disposal to ensure that everyone around them followed the law to the letter. But Jesus Himself pointed out that the Pharisees didn’t even follow the law themselves.
The Pharisees were so focused on the law and enforcing it that they lost God’s heart behind it. Bringing biblical morality and ethics into the political sphere today often faces the same issue. For instance, if I try to propose a bill against abortion based on biblical principles all that will be heard are the contents of the proposed law. There is no way to clearly show the heart and concern behind the formation of the bill. The only thing I can present is the bill itself with all its mandates and restrictions. The heart behind it is lost in all the political tensions and arguments over the content of the bill itself.
This is actually why I tend to remain silent about politics on Facebook. I know that, no matter how hard I try, the heart is going to get lost behind all the political tensions. Not only that, but I have no way to attempt to defend the heart behind my remarks because it instantly becomes a Pandora’s box due to how politics have become intertwined with our identities. To attack someone’s political stance has now become viewed as a personal attack, and they respond as such.
As the political battle has raged on here in America, I have only seen the tensions grow. Politics has not only separated the Church from culture but also has come to a point where it is fracturing the Church. I have been amazed by how hateful the rhetoric has become and how viciously professing Christians will attack others with differing political viewpoints.
This relationship between politics and the Church is why I became an anarchist. I have never seen anything hurt the influence and voice of the Church more than politics. We must remember that politics, like every other system in this world, is fallen, flawed and broken.
It is time for the Church to stop putting all its hope and trust in a broken system as a means to influence and change this nation for Christ. It is time for the Church to rise up and actually be the Church. The Church needs to become peculiar people that love their neighbors, and even enemies, more than themselves.
Our current political war has no means of accomplishing these tasks. Paul wrote in his epistles that our weapons are not of the flesh, but of the spirit. They are for the pulling down of strong holds that stand against the knowledge of Christ and the expansion of His kingdom. Our battle is not against a political party, but rather spiritual forces driving the darkness in our culture.
We can change the laws all we want, but the law can never change anyone’s heart. That simply means, once there is a law controlling one issue, another will appear. Each new societal issue that arises is merely another manifestation of the same heart issue that has yet to be dealt with. Christ is the only way we can change hearts. It’s time that we stop letting politics divide us and begin to fight for the heart of this nation by walking in the love of Christ. When we are empowered by His spirit, then the Church will truly be able to impact and change this culture for Christ.