A Day Late & a Dollar Short: Christians & Political Involvement
When many Christians think about the need to engage our world in a transformative way, they immediately think exclusively of our need to be involved in politics. For these Christians, the cultural mandate is synonymous with political activism. The assumption is that a change in policies will lead to a change in culture.
Now, I fully agree with the need for Christians to be involved in the political process. As I have argued, Christians are to be bringing the standards of God’s Word to bear on every cultural sphere—politics being one of them. But, it is a mistake to conclude that political activism is what God had in mind when he issued the cultural mandate to mankind. Moreover, it is also a mistake to conclude that the arena of politics is the most strategic arena for cultural renewal.
In an article I pointed out not long ago entitled The Day of Small Things, theologian Vern Poythress writes:
Bible-believing Christians have not achieved much in politics because they have not devoted themselves to the larger arena of cultural conflict. Politics mostly follows culture rather than leading it…A temporary victory in the voting booth does not reverse a downward moral trend driven by cultural gatekeepers in news media, entertainment, art, and education. Politics is not a cure-all.
After more than 20 years of political activism on the part of evangelical Christians, there is new understanding that the dynamics of cultural change differ radically from political mobilization. Even political insiders recognize that years of political effort on behalf of evangelical Christians have generated little cultural gain. American culture continues its steep decline into self-indulgent consumerism. Richard Neuhaus wrote in the April 2007 issue of First Things, “At the risk of generalization, I think it fair to say that Christianity in America is not challenging the ‘habits of the heart’ and ‘habits of mind’ that dominate American culture, meaning both the so-called high culture and the popular culture.”
I totally agree. For a long time now I have been convinced that what happens in New York (finances), Hollywood (entertainment), Silicon Valley (technology) and Miami (fashion) has a far greater impact on how our culture thinks about reality than what happens in Washington D.C. (politics). The political arena is the place where policies are made which reflect the values of our culture—the habits of heart and mind—that are being shaped by these other more strategic arenas. (Wasn’t it Scottish politician Andrew Fletcher who famously said, “Let me write the songs of a nation; I don’t care who writes its laws?”). So when Christians conclude that the most strategic way to change our world is through the political process they’re already “a day late and a dollar short.”
- Tullian Tchividjian | On Earth as it is in Heaven
