Church, Politics, and Non-Profits

Christians have a long history of involvement in politics in democratic societies, including the Abolitionist movement with Wilberforce and Harriet Beecher Stowe, the Progressive movement with WIlliams Jenning Bryan and Jacob Riis (How the Other Half Lives), the Civil Rights movement, and the pro-life movement, all associated strongly with churches, along with other movements that perhaps look more misguided, such as the Prohibitionist movement and the Free Silver movement. Should we avoid politics today as Christians? What role should City Reformed have? 

One quick and easy resolution would be to say that church and politics should have nothing to do with each other. But if you read the Bible, you will see that God has plenty to say about justice in this world, and the prophets call on societies to “rescue the oppressed.” (e.g. Proverbs 24:11) And we tend to condemn Christians in the past who did not speak out against oppression in their lands. We cannot so easily draw a line between private morality and societal sins (such as Christians speaking out against the Trail of Tears and stealing of native American lands.)

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, many churches embraced the “social Gospel”, which essentially said that the main work of the church is to improve society and oppose oppression; to do less is not to love as Christ loves. Conservative churches at the time rejected that, but then in the 1980’s and 1990’s, many conservative churches moved into a similar approach of “redeeming the culture” through politics (e.g., D. James Kennedy of our denomination). In both cases, churches became major organizing points for political missions.

Reformed author Michael Horton and others have spoken out strongly against the politicization of the church. They argue that by becoming political, the church loses its focus on the Gospel as the paramount need of our society, and the primary calling of the church.

Here is where I see the danger. Mailing lists and communication networks are the life blood of any political effort. Churches have a lot of people, and it is very tempting to view the mailing list of the church membership and the weekly meeting of all these people as an easy way to get a lot of people involved in a cause. I think we need to hold the line against this temptation, for two reasons.

One reason is that, as Horton says, the church’s mission, its defining purpose, is the worship of God and the proclamation of the Gospel. This includes the proclamation of what is right and wrong in God’s eyes, but correcting the injustices of society is not the mission of the church as an organization. 

The second reason is that pastors and leaders of a church have no particular claim to expertise on political strategy. Even in cases where we can agree we should have clear teaching that certain things are unjust and evil, we cannot claim to have any better knowledge than the next guy what the best way is to change them, any more than the church as a church can proclaim knowledge about what is the best science or art.

Does that mean that Christians should not be involved in politics? Not at all. What it means is that Christians should be involved in organizations external to the church, with their own mailing lists and meetings. Christians should feel free to talk to others about their goals and to recruit others. But at City Reformed we will never turn over our mailing list to a political organization, or use worship time to promote a political cause. We will allow non-profits to put literature out on our information table, however, subject to approval by the leadership of the church.

I see a parallel with ministry for physical needs. Many churches add numerous “mercy ministries” to their church organizations. Yet, again, pastors and elders have no claim to special expertise in running social programs, and turning the church into something like a social services agency distracts it from its highest mission. Yet I hope to see many Christians in our church being active in non-profits, and even creating new ones such as the thrift store being proposed in Lawrenceville.

Both political non-profits and physical-needs non-profits have an important role in our society, and Christians should be involved in our society in both ways, and feel free to recruit others to help, including those outside the church. We do these things as Christians– we do not discard our “Christian hat” when we participate in them– but it is important to not turn the church into an empire of social and political activity. The church’s highest calling is the worship of God and the proclamation of the Gospel, and seeing that worked out in people’s lives, and those who agree on that can come together even where they differ on political and social-needs strategy.