Loving your neighbor includes politics
Within the scope of my own career as a lawyer, I have personally met numerous people who have lost their jobs because of their faith or politics. I have met a girl who saw male anatomy for the first time in a girl’s locker room. I have met parents who had their child taken away because of their Catholic beliefs. I have met people who were convinced by their doctors to surgically alter themselves to appear as the opposite sex. I have met with pastors who have been levied taxes higher than what their church could afford. My own local school district banned distributing the Bible.
But you don’t have to have worked in the legal industry to be exposed to this. Just watch the news. It is all over the place. Christians are losing their businesses because they refuse to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs. Roughly one million unborn babies die every year while Roe v. Wade continues to stand.
The policies that lead to this are almost exclusively Democratic. It is Democrat-appointed judges who stand in the way of making abortion illegal. It is Democrat lawmakers who want to force people of faith to adopt, at least publicly, an ungodly view of sexuality. It is the Democratic platform that is hostile to the Bible. Yes, Republicans are most certainly flawed too. But they represent an institution that stands up to the policies that hurt our neighbors and brothers and sisters in Christ. It should be clear to Christians who to support and it should be clear that voting is necessary.
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For far too long, and long before President Trump was on the political scene, the Church has been too hands-off on politics. Pastors rarely address current events from the pulpit. Congregations are not taught about when life begins, what Biblical sexuality and gender looks like, how liberation theology is not Biblical, and a whole host of other topics that are often in the news. Many pastors speak of politics as "temporal" matters without eternal consequences, as if world and political events do not impact the hearts, minds, and souls of our neighbors.
This hands-off approach to politics and world events has led to a variety of problems within the Church. At worst, many Christians are caught up in worldly narratives. Having not heard truth about life, sexuality, race, and other issues, many in the Church go on to embrace what is manifestly unbiblical. Many others take an apathetic approach to politics and shrug it off as though it doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. Yet others take a cynical view of politics, as if it is purely made up of flawed humans seeking money or power.
The truth is, at least so far, nothing that has happened politically has dramatically impacted many of our lives. We may pay more or less in taxes. Our money may be wasted more than we like. But a Christian’s participation in politics should not be purely motivated by self-interest. Jesus told us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
The Church does not place near enough emphasis on their neighbors. If you have not been impacted adversely because of your faith, many others have.
How is it then that our faith leaders tell us that faithful people can come to different conclusions on how to vote? How can the Church see all of this evil and turn a blind eye to it? How can the Church disengage from politics while people suffer?
It is not as if the burden to do something is even that high. All pastors need to do is view the plight of their neighbors and speak truth to it. All people of faith need to do is get up and go vote for candidates that seek to prevent the evils I’ve described. If the Church would unify and apply their vote consistent with what they say they believe, these evils would have been ended. But it persists because of our apathy or indifference toward the injustices right in front of us.
The common retort to these concepts is that the Bible tells us that we will be persecuted or that times will get bad before the end times play out. And it is expected that the world will be without the Spirit and will behave poorly and persecute the Church. These things are true. Christians should worship Christ and find joy in Him even in the face of persecution. Politics is not what saves us.
But the Church should not be expected to open its doors to the persecutors and do nothing to stand in their way.
This is a call to action. 2020 is over. Barring divine intervention, the evil policy agendas that have been promised will likely come. But it is time for the Church to stand up and unite. It is time for the Church to do everything within its power to help those who will be targeted by government. It is time to support the pro-life movement.
And it is time to change the mindset of the Church toward politics. By the next election, congregations should know the unbiblical narratives of the world. They should be motivated to vote for those who will further righteous policies. The Church cannot be silent any longer. Our neighbors depend on it.
Curtis Schube is an attorney in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
