“What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one can say,
‘Look! This is something new’?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
No one remembers the former generations,
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-11, NIV)
When we face seasons of societal and political chaos, we have the temptation to say, “Things have never been like this before!” And while we must admit that the internet and social media have sped up the rate at which society changes, nothing is going on in your world that has never happened before. Anyone familiar with world history can easily testify to that truth. However, what we probably mean when we say this is that nothing like this has happened in our lifetimes. Even then, we almost need to don rose-colored glasses in order to forget some of the events of the last decades.
One of the primary areas of life in America that we often believe is unique to our current circumstances is politics. We look at current political conflicts and decide we are in unique, never-before-seen dire straits. Then we go another step further and decide that, because of the uniqueness of our times, we have permission to cross lines Christians aren’t supposed to cross: slandering political opponents, allowing ourselves to be consumed by fear and anger, falling for the rhetoric of political messiahs, etc. However, if we look back over just the last century, we may find that our circumstances are not that unique.
“If we look back over just the last century, we may find that our circumstances are not that unique.”
Three of my favorite authors from the last century are C. S. Lewis, A. W. Tozer, and Dallas Willard. What makes them so special to me is their ability to look at what was going on in the world around them, consider the spiritual implications, and then write about them in a way that is clear and easily understood. I believe if we look at their descriptions of how the political world and spiritual world interacted during their lifetimes, we may find some wisdom for our current situation.
As a disclaimer, this is aimed at neither the political left nor the right, but rather both. Particularly, this is aimed at those who would use the church as a weapon to achieve political means that do not honor Christ or bring glory to His kingdom. If while reading this, you feel like I (or Lewis or Tozer or Willard) are stepping on your toes, then you might stop and consider that some of this was written well before you were born and all of it was written before the current political crises. Instead of being offended and defensive, let’s stop and consider what these intellectual giants of the faith observed and advised in similar situations to our own.
C. S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters is the widely known masterpiece of C. S. Lewis where he uses a bit of humor to critique modern Christianity. The Screwtape Letters was published amid WWII, one of the most politically charged events in modern human history. However, as Lewis wrote in the preface, “The history of the European War, except in so far as it happens now and then to impinge upon the spiritual condition of one human being, was obviously of no interest to Screwtape.”[1]
The Screwtape Letters is a fictional collection of letters from the more senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, Wormwood, in which he advises on how to distract a human who has become a Christian from taking seriously his devotion to Jesus. There is much in this book that I could quote here, but for the sake of time and space, I would encourage you to read the entire book and imagine that it was written in light of today’s political conflicts. As Screwtape wrote to Wormwood:
“Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the ‘cause,’ in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war-effort or of Pacifism. The attitude which you want to guard against is that in which temporal affairs are treated primarily as material for obedience. Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours—and the more ‘religious’ (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here.”[2]
“Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion.”
In retrospect, it seems to many of us that Patriotism and the British war-effort were God’s will. However, we must remember that most of the British still remembered the horrors of WWI in which well over a million citizens of the United Kingdom (including a large number of civilians) had perished. Many British citizens strongly believed that Pacificism was God’s will. Remember, at this point, most were ignorant of the atrocities that were going on in Nazi Germany. Before December 1941, many American Christians argued that it was God’s will for Americans to stay out of the war. Many Americans in general (including Henry Ford) even admired how Hitler had led Germany back into economic prosperity.
If you would, allow me to re-write part of that passage for today:
Let him begin by treating Political Progressivism or Political Conservatism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the “cause,” in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of Political Conservatism or Progressivism.
Sound familiar? Choose a political side. Let those politics become the most important part of being a Christian. Then move to where being a Christian becomes an essential part of being on a certain political side. You will hear this argument on both the left and the right today. Politicians on each side argue that because we are Christians, we must vote for them. Moreover, “I could show you a pretty cageful” of American Christians that believe exactly that.
“Politicians on each side argue that because we are Christians, we must vote for them.”
A. W. Tozer
In my opinion, A. W. Tozer is one of the most overlooked Christian thinkers of the twentieth century. The things he wrote were so timeless that when you read them, they actually seem like they were written for today. As the editor of Alliance Life from 1950 until 1963, Tozer wrote editorials that are as meaningful today as they were then. Like Lewis, Tozer was writing during a politically charged time, including the Cold War, nuclear proliferation, and the spread of communism.
But America was also prospering like never before after WWII, and it looked as if God favored everything that America did. Patriotism was at an all-time high. At the same time, wealth and prosperity often breed dissatisfaction among the young and the disenfranchised. Debates about war, racism, religion, poverty, and sexuality were forming under the surface and were about to erupt into American life.
The passage below is from his editorial called “We Must Think Like Christians.” Again, time and space prohibit quoting the entire article here, but it is well worth the read (as is the collection of editorials in which it is found called The Next Chapter After the Last).
“This is a critical moment in American affairs of state. Our country is seriously divided. Political and military giants are squaring off in a battle of words that may have consequences not only at home but throughout the whole world for years to come.
The issues that divide our leaders are so important that few Americans can remain neutral. Almost everyone has a pronounced opinion, and is sure he is right. That men equally wise and good take the opposite side does not seem to occur to any of us. Feeling is running high, and most of our thinking is being done with our emotions. . . .
“That men equally wise and good take the opposite side does not seem to occur to any of us.”
One thing must be kept in mind: We Christians are Christians first and everything else after that. Our first allegiance is to the kingdom of God. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are grateful for political freedom. We thank God for democracy as a way of life. But we never forget that we are sons of God and citizens of another city whose builder and maker is God.
For this reason, we must not identify the gospel with any political system or make Christianity to be synonymous with any form of government, however noble. Christ stands alone, above and outside of every ideology devised by man. He does not join any of our parties or take sides with any of our great men except as they may come over on His side and try to follow Him in righteousness and true holiness. Then He is for them but only as individuals, never as leaders of some political faction.
The true Christian will be loyal to his country and obedient to those in authority, but he will never fall into the error of confusing his own national culture with Christianity. Christianity is bigger than any country, loftier than any civilization, broader than any human ideology. . . .
But in the cool earth, slaves and free men lie down together. Then what matter the talk and the turmoil? Who was right and who was wrong in this or that political squabble doesn’t matter to the dead. Judgment and sin and heaven and hell are all that matter then.
“Who was right and who was wrong in this or that political squabble doesn’t matter to the dead. Judgment and sin and heaven and hell are all that matter then.”
So, let’s keep cool, and let’s think like Christians. Christ will be standing upright, tall and immortal, after the tumult and the shouting dies and the captains and the kings lie stretched side by side, the ‘cause’ that made them famous forgotten and their whole significance reduced to a paragraph in a history book.”[3]
Again, this sounds like it was written for today. Perhaps the most poignant statement was, “He does not join any of our parties or take sides with any of our great men except as they may come over on His side and try to follow Him in righteousness and true holiness. Then He is for them but only as individuals, never as leaders of some political faction.”
Political leaders argue that we must vote for them if we are Christians, that we must come to their side. However, it is our side to which they must come. Not as a political party, but as individuals who must submit to the Kingship of Jesus as His disciples who strive to imitate and obey Him. Personally, I have a lot of trouble trusting any politician or public figure who is not a baptized believer, who is not actively engaged in a local church, and who does not demonstrate a public desire to be conformed to the image of Jesus—no matter which side they are on. As disciples of Jesus, why shouldn’t we have a high bar for whom we will trust?
Dallas Willard
I discovered Dallas Willard in 2013, the year he died. Had I discovered his writings before that, I probably would have packed up and moved to Southern California and asked him to teach me everything he knew. Dallas was perhaps one of the harshest critics of the modern church, but he did it in such a loving and positive way, that it is encouraging. His works have given me hope for the American church.
In perhaps his most comprehensive and important work, Renovation of the Heart (if you have not read it, please do), Dallas wrote something that caused me to stop, put the book down, and sit dumbfounded:
“Fanaticism—in art, politics, sports, or religion, to name some of the main kinds—is the result of inherently meaningless lives becoming obsessed with performance and then trying to take all of their existence into it. Being ‘a fan of . . .’ is treated as something deep and important. Because those who do this do not have a whole soul directing their lives toward good, rooted in God, they allow a ‘flow’ they find outside themselves to take over their thoughts, feelings, behavior, and social relations. That flow intoxicates them. They absolutize the flow and no longer subject it to ordinary tests of truth, reality, and tried-and-true human values.”[4]
“Fanaticism—in art, politics, sports, or religion, to name some of the main kinds—is the result of inherently meaningless lives becoming obsessed with performance and then trying to take all of their existence into it.”
Perhaps the easiest place to observe this phenomenon is in sports. Perhaps we know people who take being a fan of a particular team to an unhealthy extreme. They must watch every game. They wear team colors. They decorate their house with logos of the team. They talk about the team all the time. They refer to the team as “we,” as if they were a literal member of the team. And if they lose a close game, it was because the game was rigged against them.
Dallas’s observation of why people do this is sobering: “[It] is the result of inherently meaningless lives becoming obsessed with performance and then trying to take all of their existence into it.”
Sports are just a performance. Music is just a performance. Movies are just a performance. Modern politics are, for the most part, a performance designed to get your vote.
Please go back and re-read that quoted passage from Dallas Willard. First, think about progressive politics while reading it. Then, read it once more while thinking about conservative politics. Both can be true.
“Modern politics are, for the most part, a performance designed to get your vote.”
Because of the urgency of our chaotic era, have you been tempted to “absolutize the flow” of a particular political perspective, to where you “no longer subject it to ordinary tests of truth, reality, and tried-and-true human values”?
If so, please remember that chaotic times are nothing new and that the New Testament wasn’t written in peacetime for the church. Whether we’re looking at the first century A.D., the twentieth, or our own, it’s not okay to look at biblical convictions as luxuries for the good times. The ethics of Jesus’ Kingdom are just as applicable, transformational, and expected of followers of Jesus today as every day the past 2,000 years. Let’s learn from the levelheaded resolve of these dead mentors—who are actually very much alive and cheering us on as part of the “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) of which we will one day be participants.
[1] C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York: HarperCollins, 2009, Kindle Edition), x.
[2] Lewis, 35.
[3] A. W. Tozer, The Next Chapter After the Last: For the Child of God, the Best is Yet to Come (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1987, Kindle Edition), 47-50.
[4] Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ, 20th Anniversary Edition (Colorado Springs: The Navigators, 2021, Kindle Edition), 212.