My inbox regularly scolds me that pastors should keep their noses out of “politics.”
For some of my fans, this weekly column only raises their eyebrows. For others, it ceaselessly raises their ire.
I’m usually too busy giving my opinion to bother with self-justifications. But there is something so foundational that it should be discussed from time to time. Sadly, although it grounds everything that we say and do, it is almost forgotten.
The atheist impulse of the French Revolution causes many to invoke the “separation of church and state” as though it were inscribed by the finger of God on stone tablets. But this is a meaningless mantra and a dead-end discussion.
Rather than argue endlessly about this holdover of the French Revolution, we would do better to get serious and ask: What is “politics” in the first place?
The word is found nowhere in the Bible. That ought to tell us something. God does not categorize the world into two separate silos - one political and the other religious.
“Political” comes from the Greek word, “polis,” meaning “city.” At its root, “politics” is about the art of families coming together to form cities.
Families existed first. They were doing fine all by themselves, completely self-sufficient, and lacking nothing essential. But they voluntarily made a rational decision. They decided that, under the right conditions, it would be to their advantage to live in a community.
“Politics” has to do with the agreements and conditions that make it possible for families to live together and accomplish common goals. It includes everything from streets and sanitation to walls and militia.
Pre-politics, on the other hand, exists before the city exists. Whatever a person has before he thinks about building a city is pre-political.
It’s impossible to list all pre-political things because the list is too long. But Thomas Jefferson summarized them with the words, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” And the U.S. Constitution named a few of them in the Bill of Rights.
You - and all the things about you - are pre-political. You came into existence in your mother’s womb. And, with that existence, you immediately had a mother and a father, grandparents, great-grandparents and siblings. You had a Creator before politics ever existed. And, by God’s grace, you may even have a right knowledge of your Creator.
Logically, before there was any city or country, you and your family had personal property, relationships, and the right to expect others to honor these things. Jefferson called these “unalienable rights.”
You have the unalienable right to fulfill your obligations, and to refuse to live unnaturally. Government didn’t create these rights, but it does exist “to secure these rights.”
Properly speaking, “politics” concerns itself with building agreement on how best to secure and protect all the pre-political things that citizens bring with them into the city.
When political discourse discusses the nature and essence of these pre-political things, it does so to help everyone understand how best to protect them.
Christian churches, theologians, and other students of human nature are a very helpful resource in this regard. Through the centuries, they have helped to build one of the most thriving civilizations in the history of the world.
Lately, however, so-called political discourse has veered wildly out of its lane. Instead of talking about how to protect marriage, it talks about how to redefine it. Instead of talking about how to protect living human beings, it talks about how to deny that they are human.
And when churches, pastors, and just plain people with common-sense objected, they were called “Christian Nationalists,” and scolded for bringing politics into the Church and vice versa.
Let us be clear. Christians are not veering into politics so much as godless politics is veering into the pre-political.
As long as political discourse fully respects the pre-political realities and sincerely seeks to protect them, I am more than happy to stay out of those debates and listen to those who know more than I do.
But when anybody, whether a theologian or a politician, starts to attack the realities of the real world, it is my duty to speak up. For the love of God and of my neighbor, I dare not remain silent.
Christians do not earn any favors from God by silently watching their neighbors jump off a cliff. And no citizen can claim to be a good citizen who does the same.
So, let’s get back to basics. If you want peace in politics, stop messing with pre-politics. Go back to protecting and securing what the Creator gave before the cities, states, or nations existed.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at hhttps://jonathanlange.substack.com/ Email: JLange64@protonmail.com.
