EARTHKEEPING
NEWS
A NEWSLETTER
OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY
Volume Fifteen, Number Three
May / June 2006
The Church's Agenda in a Political Setting
The essential moral problem is not the presence of politics in society, but rather its absence or its perversion, when for instance the bulk of the people or particular segments of the populace are excluded from participation in public decision-making or sharing social benefits.
Understood in this sense, politics is an ethical enterprise that no responsible individual or institution can ignore or denigrate.
That may be especially true for Christians and their churches. Those Christians who draw a sharp distinction between a personal and social gospel, who argue that the role of the church is the conversion of individuals rather than the reformation of society, imply by their rhetoric and behavior not only that the arena of politics is irrelevant to the concern of faith, but also that the gospel is irrelevant to the decisions of politics. Such an insulation of the Christian religion from politics is theologically indefensible. It is a functional denial of the sovereignty of God in Christ and the ubiquitous involvement of the Spirit.
The gospel relates to all creatures and it applies in all situations — personal, ecclesial, social and ecological. The gospel rejects all forms of moral parochialism. The tradition insists that Christ cannot be compartmentalized, locked in some docetic closet. The God known in Christ is central in individual spiritual lives, but also is sovereign over the social, economic, and political realms. This God comforts the afflicted, hears prayers, converts minds and compels proclamation. However, this God is also political, blessing the peacemakers, intervening in the affairs of government and nations, and liberating slaves from the shackles of pharaoh. To be in communion with God the Politician, this "lover of justice" and Prince of Peace, is to struggle to deliver the community of earth from all manner of evil private and public, personal and social, cultural and ecological, spiritual and material. The sovereign God bans all boundaries on benevolence.
Humans are by nature ecological and political animals, inseparably bound together in a web of biological and communal relationships. These entanglements are our true "original position" and they are enhanced in mass societies. Thus, if Christian churches are committed to feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick, setting at liberty the oppressed, challenging the powers that be and exalting those of low degree, all of which characterized the ministry of Jesus, the churches dare not ignore the political and economic context of the these concerns. Every political issue that affects biospheric welfare — whether it be the nuclear arms race or the unemployment rate, starvation or pollution, racism or extinctions — is simultaneously a moral and spiritual concern and therefore a challenge to love.
If we are to deal with social causes and not merely individual symptoms, these issues in the political setting must be items on the agenda of a truly catholic, evangelical and reformed church.
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