3 Ways Christianity Cuts through Political Noise with Clear Hope

1. Clarify True Christian Freedom by Separating it from Political Ideologies

The Bible orients us to reality, particularly to the reality of God. We refer to influences that confuse, distort, or dismiss biblical authority when we speak of disorientation. Those who promote such disorientations do not necessarily do so intentionally—mistakes and misinterpretations happen. When addressing the following disorientations, we seek to evaluate the ideas, not defame the individuals who advance them.

Confusing Christian Liberty with Political Liberty

Many Christians addressing politics seek to mobilize the Church to preserve liberties granted by the United States. In the book Serpents and Doves, I distinguish between “freedom from consequences” (political liberty) and “freedom to obey” (Christian liberty). While religious freedom is significant, Christian freedom is the freedom from sin found in Christ. It exists independently of political freedoms. Yet, Christian political participation often prioritizes the former over the latter.

For example, in Letter to the American Church, Eric Metaxas notes, “The centrality of our nation in the world does not mean that we are intrinsically exceptional, but rather that God has sovereignly chosen us to hold the torch of liberty for all the world, and that the Church is central to our doing this.” While I agree with Metaxas that the church in the United States cannot remain neutral and silent, we must avoid conflating the Church’s mission with America’s presumed national role. The church is not called to advocate for a particular political structure but to advance the gospel. In addition, any construal of the United States’ God-given role in the world is conjecture. The founders of the United States had their ideas about the contributions the United States might make, as do modern-day commentators, historians, and journalists. Still, we have no clear statement from God about the purpose of the United States.

By contrast, the Church’s role is quite clear: to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ. Our efforts cannot be primarily concerned with preserving religious freedom but with demonstrating Christian freedom. Our message to the world is not that religious liberty springs from Christian freedom (however true that may be) but that Christian freedom…the freedom to live under Christ’s authority…is a freedom no government can grant or take away.

Confusing Christianity with Conservatism (and “the Left”) 

Many Christian political discussions wrap conservatism in theological language.

While Christians can hold conservative positions, conservatism is not synonymous with Christianity. Christ is not essential to conservatism. In making Christ optional, conservatism subverts Christ’s authority. His teachings and the teaching of the Scriptures are subject to the aims of conservatism. In other words, conservatism is the higher authority.

This dynamic is also present when Christianity is confused with "the Left." When political ideologies selectively invoke God's revelation to serve their goals, they undermine His authority. The primary challenge with which Christians must deal may involve “radical leftist views” (e.g., critical race theory, Marxism). Still, it must also involve views on the radical right because both the right and left refuse to recognize Christ’s authority.  

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2. Prioritize God's Mission Over Political Obligations

Confusing the Order of Our Loves

Another disorienting influence arises from the reordering of our loves. This isn’t a formal inversion, where love of neighbor overtakes love of God, but a pragmatic shift where political participation is assumed to always reflect love for God. For instance, in a recent piece offering biblical motivations for voting, Bunni Pounds notes, “At the most basic level, we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves.” She suggests that not voting constitutes a failure to love our neighbor, noting, “As Christians, when we are not stewarding well the gift that the Founders gave us to elect our representatives, then we are not loving our neighbors.” While her work doesn’t overtly invert the first and second commandments, it implies that voting and other forms of political participation always align with our primary allegiance to God.

Biblically, this hard line isn’t always drawn. Christian action should be shaped by a "Theo-logic" rather than by the logic of political necessity. Consider David’s restraint in not killing Saul in 1 Samuel 24. Though killing Saul would have been politically advantageous, David’s restraint reflects a “Theo-logic” rather than a political logic. David’s restraint is ultimately more effective in pointing to and glorifying God than killing Saul would have been. Despite the fact that Saul is harming Israelites (e.g., his slaughter of the priests in 1 Sam 22:6-23), David exercises restraint. Again, David’s restraint should not inspire passivity but discernment. We need to recognize that our legitimate indignations and concerns can lead us to default to taking matters into our own hands rather than allowing God to work through us.

Let me clarify that I’m not opposed to Christian political participation. I am, however, concerned that political participation has become a default position so that Christians “must” participate politically, if only by voting. Making political participation a “moral imperative” rather than (as I’ve argued elsewhere) a “civil right” is problematic because doing so closes off the possibility for Christians to discern when political participation may be detrimental to the Church’s mission. Such closure erodes if not inverts, the authority of Christ over the Church by allowing the political to determine the actions of the Church. Christian political participation remains situated under the authority of Christ. Political participation that neglects or hinders the making of disciples and the glorification of God in an effort to sustain a given political order must, at the very least, be interrogated.

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3. Find Lasting Hope by Reorienting Your Focus on God's Kingdom

Given this disorientation, how might the church reorient itself? 

1. We must devote time to theological reflection—not just on issues or candidates but on how the church is related to God and the world.

 The Barmen Declaration provides a strong foundation for resisting any attempt to dilute the Church’s message by subordinating it to political ideologies. It calls the church to resist any influence that would dilute its theological message and mission by subordinating them to the ideologies of the state.

The church cannot remain silent in matters related to the gospel. The Church’s mission may lead it to political participation at certain points. Still, politics is downstream from the glorification of the Triune God because building an earthly city is not the church’s aim but expanding God’s kingdom by proclaiming, “Christ is King,” regardless of who happens to be president.

2. Our actions should reflect an understanding of what is to come. 

Eschatological speculation often fuels laments about national decline, but as 2 Peter 3:11-13 reminds us, our hope is in the coming new heavens and new earth. We live into that hope by leading godly lives, even when this means losing in the political realm.

Our hope is not found in our efforts to restore this world (as non-trivial as such efforts may be). Instead, our hope is in the coming recreation of all things in a new heaven and new earth where we will stand in God’s presence. We live into that hope by living holy and godly lives, even if doing so means losing in the political realm.

3. We need to ensure that our loves are rightly ordered. 

As Augustine notes:

“For when He [Christ] says, ‘With all thy hear, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,’ He means that no part of our life is to be unoccupied, and to afford room, as it were, for the wish to enjoy some other object, but that whatever else may suggest itself to us as an object worthy of love is to be borne into the same channel in which the whole current of our affections flows. Whoever, then, loves his neighbor aright, ought to urge upon him that he too should love God with his whole heart, and soul, and mind. For in this way, loving his neighbor as himself, a man turns the whole current of his love both for himself and his neighbor into the love of God, which suffers no stream to be drawn off from itself by whose diversion its own volume would be diminished.”

We do not live our lives in a way that makes sense to us only to pull God on when it is convenient or necessary. Instead, we love God and allow that love to direct our actions in the world. Christians do not have a better strategy for running the world. What we have is a deep understanding of what the world actually is: a creation of the Triune God who will, in due time, make all things new.

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This article originally appeared on Christianity.com. For more faith-building resources, visit Christianity.com.