When Are We Being "Too Political"?

Should Christians have remained silent when the enslavement of people was legal?

Many of us agree that partisan politics are not what the church should be about, period. What followers of Jesus are called to instead is to urge repentance of sin and injustice wherever and whenever it is found, and to invite others to join us in living and proclaiming a life of faith and faithfulness together. This means the church is driven by the mission statement of Jesus, who came preaching good news to the poor and to the enslaved and imprisoned, and to announce the arrival of "the year of God's favor", ushering in salvation and Jubilee justice for all who are oppressed--by their own sin and as a result of the sins of others. 

I was recently moved by the book Amazing Grace, the story of William Wilberforce's lifelong effort to end the slave trade in Britain. He worked tirelessly at this, but not because he wanted to advance a particular political party in England, but because the lives of thousands of human beings were at stake, as was the witness of a majority of English citizens who claimed to be Christian. In our own community here in the Valley, it meant local Mennonites refusing to vote for secession in the 1860's, even though some were hounded and persecuted for not doing so. It also meant their refusing to fight for the Confederate cause, and for their fellow Mennonites in the North, it meant not joining the Union military effort to destroy the South either. 

In the era of segregation, it meant many Christians, some Mennonites and Brethren included, speaking out in favor of of integrating schools and lunch counters and water fountains and public transportation, all things I well remember here in Virginia, when the state engaged in a massive resistance campaign against African-Americans being allowed in the same schools as European-Americans. 

More recently, many of us have become more focused on reducing the number of abortions in this country, which also may have us speak to people in positions of political power, but not necessarily by aligning ourselves with any political party in doing so. Many of my friends do see one political party as being much better than the other as a means through which they hope to see abortions made illegal and to have them become criminalized. Other of my friends see more hope in policies promoted by a party which offers more health care and education that includes helping people avoid unplanned pregnancies (based on the argument that abortion rates have tended to go down more significantly under more progressive administrations since Roe v. Wade). 

But neither political party will ever eliminate abortion. And sincere people will likely always debate which ballot choice, if any will prove to be more pro-life in the long run, and at all levels. This includes asking what position we take regarding the nation investing ever more billions in ever more efficient and horrific military means of killing the already born (including pregnant women and their babies). 

But this nation is not where we hold our primary citizenship. We are resident aliens, members of "colonies of heaven" which demonstrate what life on earth would be like if people truly lived as though God were in supreme command.

So the reason I'm against aligning myself with earth-based political systems is that I believe we are members of the Party of the Kingdom of Heaven led by Jesus himself, and that no earth-bound nation will ever, ever even come close to living out the plain teaching of Jesus we are called to demonstrate and preach. Here's a link someone recently sent me that I found helpful in this respect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqG5tL01Bds&t=20s

Meanwhile, I feel compelled to call on local and state officials to look for alternatives to incarceration for offenders who are not a danger to their communities, and to release deserving parolees who have actually demonstrated that they have been "corrected" after decades of good behavior in a Department of Corrections facility. In doing so, I have often been accused of being "too political," even though I have no abiding interest in which party the officials I address are affiliated with, only in the lives and souls of human beings who are in need of help to recover from their addictions and to repent and make restitution for their past bad behaviors. 

I continue to resonate with the words of 16th century reformer Menno Simons:

"Love compels us to respectfully and humbly show all high officials what the Word of God commands them, how they should rightfully execute their office to the glory and praise of God... to punish the transgressors and protect the good; to judge rightly between a man and his fellows; to do justice to the widows and orphans and to the poor, to rule cities and countries justly by a good policy and administration, not contrary to God’s Word but to the benefit of the common people."