Time to let go of the power - Faith and Values Column, 11/24/12

On November the 7th, many Christians woke up to a disaster. As Al Mohler (head of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) put it, it was a “catastrophe” for evangelical Christians especially (his post-election column here). With the rejection of a candidate backed by evangelical leaders, the passage of gay-marriage laws, the rejection of anti-abortion candidates, this election may be seen as the first time a conservative Christian influence not only failed to help, but actually became a political liability. For many Christians, then, Wednesday morning’s wakeup call came with a new and unpleasant sensation: powerlessness. And this is a good thing.

We’ve come a long way from the Christian Coalition of the 90s. It seemed a good idea at the time: align a politically powerful party with certain Christian principles and turn that political power into Christian legislation – an abortion ban, a marriage amendment, a prohibition on stem cell research - but pushing a distinctly Christian agenda, especially a conservative one, has fallen out of favor with an increasingly secular electorate. It’s no longer the 90’s or even the 00’s, and that rising tide of conservative Christian activism has simply dissipated on the shores of a nation that is becoming indifferent or even hostile to those efforts.

There’s nothing wrong with Christians being interested in politics, of course. Where we can go wrong, though, is when politics becomes our main focus, the means to an end and the business of Christianity. Instead of trying to legislate our religion, Christians are better engaged in the business of telling the story, of promoting a personal encounter with Christ and of living in response to this encounter. Granted, this is kind of messy, because it’s not the kind of thing that brings with it the tangibility of law and enforcement, but it possesses a power that is inexorable and irresistible all the same, and most importantly, it possesses a power that is out of human control. This could be an exciting new time for Christianity, because in losing political power, we lose faith in our political parties, our candidates and ourselves. Giving up political power brings Christians around to a realization that they are not the saviors after all, that someone else already took care of that. Letting go of power brings us to a realization that we believe in a God who made the world, called it good, and has everything in his hands, despite changing demographics, declining church attendance and election outcomes. A God who says “I’ve got this thing people, so everyone just chill out.”

The message of the 2012 election is this: we live in a nation that is becoming more tolerant of everything except religious absolutism, an America tired of ready and rigid answers, suspicious of infallible, sacred documents that invade privacy and impose themselves on public life. It’s still true that society needs people who emulate Christ and it’s still true that people need to be saved from themselves, but if salvation comes with condescension, with intrusive laws, with ignorance and hatred, society is going to take a pass, because in the end, people are not waiting to be told what to do, they’re waiting to be told the story. The power of Christianity is not a power to be grasped or enforced. It’s a power simply to be pointed to. This is the business of Christians everywhere – protestant, Catholic, liberal and conservative. It’s time for us to let go of the power and get back to work.