How Should Christians Think About Politics Today?

Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greear

J.D. Greear

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 624 Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2018

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pastor J.D. discusses four core myths about Christians and politics while encouraging listeners to exercise both empathy and charity in their daily lives, especially when talking about politics.

A glimpse inside this episode:

* This is always tough for me.

* On one side, I feel guilty for having said too little … on the other, for having said too much.
* It’s important to remember that politics is just one way we impact society.

* Luke 12

* Four myths about Christians and politics:

* (1) Secondary political ideals are matters of first importance.

* We might be wrong about them.
* Politics doesn’t have the same weight as the gospel. (Matthew the tax collector and Simon the zealot)

* (2) Christian truth doesn’t apply to politics.

* MLK was able to oppose racism because of his Christianity.

* (3) There is never a time to take a controversial political stand.

* We should be vocal of people saying, “If you aren’t vocal about this issue, you aren’t being faithful.”
* But there does come a time when we need to connect the dots. Bonhoeffer went from “Discrimination is wrong” to “We must oppose the Nazi party.”

* (4) We see everything clearly.

* Great Christians can be wrong. Support of slavery, of Jim Crow…

* For us specifically today, two words—empathy and charity

* Empathy - If you voted for Trump, you should be listened to those who are dismayed, and your voice should be the loudest in opposing xenophobia, misogyny, or racial stereotypes. Show that you care for the poor and disenfranchised.
* Charity - Assume the best about those who voted differently than you. Not every Trump voter was a villain. Give the benefit of the doubt and choose to believe a better narrative than our society tells about politics.

* Additional Resources from Pastor J.D.:

* Four Myths Christians Believe About Politics (Video)
* Challenges to Racial Integration: Politics
* When Should the Church Make Political Statements?
* Empathy and Charity: How Christians Can Respond to the 2016 Election

Transcript

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0:00.0	Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network.
0:05.0	You're listening to Ask Me Anything with Pastor J.D. Greer.
0:09.2	Honest questions, quick answers.
0:11.3	I'm your host, Todd Unzicker, and this is where J.D. Greer says, ask me anything. All right.
0:31.5	All right, on this podcast, we say honest questions, quick answers.
0:35.6	But, J.D., I'm just going to be honest.
0:36.8	This is a tough question, but we still need a quick answer. How J.D., I'm just going to be honest, this is a tough question,
0:38.0	but we still need a quick answer. How should Christians think about politics?
0:43.0	First of all, I'm not sure if it's the tough or the quick part of that that is more intimidating
0:47.6	to me. That is a tough question. And honestly, this is one I struggle with, because on one side,
0:53.8	sometimes I feel like I say too much. And on other side, sometimes I feel like I say too little.
0:59.6	And so it's just how do Christians think about it?
1:01.8	There's a distinction that I think it was Abraham Kuyper who made this first.
1:08.1	These may be my words with it, but it was his idea, that you've got to
1:11.9	distinguish between the church as organization and the church's organism. The church's organism
1:18.2	means the body of Christ, just all Christians that are walking with Jesus, and they should
1:23.4	be very involved in politics. Because if nothing else, you know, we're trying to bring the salt
1:27.3	and light of God's message into everything from tax policy to how we interpret the science of global
1:31.7	warming to, you know, how we think about health care and how we think about, you know, national
1:35.0	security and domestic or, you know, international policy, foreign policy. So, you know, you want,
1:40.4	that's what God's people are supposed to be doing. Abraham Kuyper said there's not one square inch of the entire cosmos over which Jesus does not emphatically declare mind, which means
1:48.2	that God's people need to be in all these different spheres. But the church's organization,
	...

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