Yahweh stirs the heart of the king, that concept. I still have my preferences politically, but, I think Christ will provide wisdom even for a weak leader IF His people are squared away to X extent.

Thanks so much for this series of posts, and for your thinking on this subject. This semester I’ve been meeting regularly with some people at my church for a discipleship group that has been specifically focused on questions surrounding the church’s involvement in politics, and your thoughts have been very helpful in aiding my reflection on the topic. What I value most is your wide view of what it means to be political – in my experience, discussion of Christian involvement in “politicis” usually devolves to *electoral* politics and a narrow range of related issues. In other words, we focus on in on what is perhaps the single most individualistic aspect of politics (how “I” vote) and make this the be-all and end-all of what it means for Christians to be engaged. It then quickly becomes a matter of which candidate is the “right” one for us to vote for, and by extension, which voting choices make us more or less authentic Christians. Stanley Hauerwas, very much in agreement with what you are saying in these posts, challenged me to broaden my thinking and to see that what we do as a church is inherently political, regardless of how each one of us chooses to vote. We are a “body politic” whose common life should make a political statement at every level of society – not of who everyone needs to vote for per se, but of how human lives can be patterned together when they are subject to the kingship of Jesus, and make an impact on the world in obedience to him.

I have a pet theory, or a notion anyways, that what we really should be pursuing in the church today is not a divine directive on our or anyone else’s voting choices; rather, our *main* focus in the body of the church vis-a-vis government politics (the “narrower” sense of politics), should be on the reconciling of groups of people with varying political outlooks. We do have a role to play in relation to government politics, then, but not after the manner of the “moral majority” and suchlike. Ours is the task of drawing together people who would normally be at odds with one another, and showing the world: ‘Under the reign of Jesus, there is neither Republican nor Democrat, neither laissez-faire capitalist nor proponent of the welfare state, neither [insert political viewpoint here] – all are one in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Within this unity, we need to be expounding the true story of the world, the theodrama in which our political action in the church is situated. From within this re-imagining of the world, the church as a body politic will be equipped to pursue causes in their communities in the name of Jesus, while leaving their members free to evaluate, in Spirit-led wisdom, how that drama can translate into things like voting choices. Unity in Jesus, with respectful truth-telling and the accepting of “the other” in Christ, who in the terms of the world’s politics should be my “enemy” – imagine what a statement that would make to our society!

Thanks again,

David Westfall