Full confession: I’m a bit (ok, more than a bit) of a political junkie. Elections fascinate me. Political philosophy is something I’ve always found very intriguing. The exchange of ideas and debating which of those ideas actually work are wildly entertaining for me. And, for the record, I do think that discussing whether a more conservative approach to governing or a more liberal/ progressive approach to governing is a very worthwhile discussion.
Most of us have a leaning towards one of those sides or the other (or somewhere in between). I certainly do. And, frankly, I feel fairly confident that where I land on which philosophy of governing works best is solid, based on facts, history, and logic- and my feelings on that are actually very strong.
However…I believe that followers of Jesus should not be defined by political labels. In fact, I believe that we are at a point in history- perhaps well past it- where it’s time for Christians of all political stripes to ditch whatever political label we attach to ourselves.
We aren’t “conservative” Christians. We are not “liberal” Christians. We are not “progressive” Christians, or “woke” Christians, or “small government” Christians or, any other label.
We are just simply Christians. And it’s time to toss away any political qualifier for five reasons:
#1- Labels are inherently divisive on the inside.
Take a look at one of the challenges within the Corinthian Church:
I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”- 1 Corinthians 1:10-12
Notice what was going on? The believers were taking sides based on their preferred leader.
What does that do?
It immediately pits one group against all the others. It breeds conflict and disunity, resulting in division.
And it’s really hard to love and serve each other, much less work together to reach people, when you’re busy fighting each other.
By the way…no one wants to join a family that’s always fighting…which leads me to the second reason to ditch the political labels:
#2- Labels are abrasive (and repulsive) to those outside.
There’s a reason that we don’t fly a denominational flag at LifeSpring: as soon as you put a label on a church, you automatically alienate a segment of the population Jesus calls us to reach.
We believe that if we were to fly a Baptist flag, or a Pentecostal flag, or a non-denominational flag, or any other denominational label, there would people who would automatically discount us just because of the name.
The same is true when it comes to politics.
If, as Christians, we are known by our political label, the results for our effectiveness in reaching people will, in these polarized times, be extremely negative.
Why? Because the implication when we put a political label in front of “Christian” is this: in order for you to belong with us, you’ve got to become like us (read: vote like us).
That’s going to repel people that Jesus has called us to reach because it puts an unnecessary barrier in the way of them coming to know Jesus.
I’m concerned that many Christians have forgotten that Jesus wants us to reach people on all sides of the aisle- and that we should not put anything that is not the Gospel in the way of us doing so.
Our unhealthy obsession over who wins an election every four years, I fear, is going to cause some people to spend eternity in hell because they were repelled by our political labels.
That’s not worth it.
So why do we do it? Why do we lead with our labels?
Well…because it feels good. Which leads me to the third reason to ditch the labels…
#3- Labels fuel our amazement with ourselves instead of our Savior
Go back and read the verse from 1 Corinthians earlier. You can almost hear the self-righteousness oozing from each camp: I follow Paul. I follow Cephas. I follow Apollos. I follow Christ.
Notice who the emphasis is on: I.
We’ll never be amazed with Jesus when we are impressed with ourselves. And make no mistake: leading with a political label fuels this in a supremely addictive way.
“They vote for Trump? Man, I’m thankful I’m not like them. I’m kind and compassionate and awesome. They (and Trump) suck!”
“They are voting for Biden? Gosh. I can’t believe anyone would be that stupid. It must be difficult being a low-information voter (unlike me, because, you know, I’m informed and stuff).”
Now, we’d probably never put it in such stark terms…but is that not that attitude we devolve into so often when it comes to politics? We become super impressed with our thinking as we arrogantly look down our nose at others who, deep down inside, we feel just aren’t as brilliant as us.
That attitude is nauseating. And it’s utterly repulsive to Jesus, because it not only leads us to worship our point of view instead of the Prince of Peace, it creates a caricature of Jesus that makes Him into our image…which is idolatry, and leads to the fourth reason we need to chunk the label…
#4- Labels either strip something out that’s supposed to be there…or add something that shouldn’t be
The simple and uncomfortable truth us this: If Jesus agrees with all your political positions, you’re probably not following Jesus. None of us are that awesome. We’ve all got something wrong. We’re all either placing too much emphasis on something OR we are not placing enough emphasis on something.
We’re either stripping out something that should be there….or adding something that shouldn’t be.
Put another way: our political labels lead us to overemphasize either truth or grace instead of embracing the fullness of both.
Both sides do this- though each are more prone to one side of this or the other.
In general, the political right is often prone to excessively hammer “truth”, and you can see it in the their policies and the way they talk. The “rule of law” is a huge feature for the right- and I don’t think that’s wrong.
The problem is I also hear very little compassion or empathy coming from the political right. There’s a whole lot of “truth”, so to speak…but very little, if any, grace. And the result is the right often comes across as mean-spirited or even bigoted.
On the other hand…the political left is often prone to talk a lot about “love” and “not judging” people- which I think is a great thing.
The problem is the political left often jettisons biblical truth along the way. The case in point would be the left’s embrace of abortion and what the Bible describes as sexual sin. Lots of grace…very little truth…and while that will never come across as mean spirited, the result is absolutely cruel because it gives people the impression that God is perfectly OK with willful rebellion against His Word.
You can see this play out in recent happenings regarding race. There have been riots, and (generally speaking) you hear Republicans talking a lot about the rule of law…with little to no compassion for the plight of African Americans. On the other hand…you here Democrats (generally speaking) talking a lot about listening to African-Americans…but have been very hesitant to condemn the violence that has occurred in the aftermath.
When we lead with our labels, we end up neglecting something important…and the cost of that is this:
#5- Labels make us lose our moral authority (because we lose our morals)
How in the world is a person far from God going to listen to a message about the grace of God when I embrace a label that leads me to be graceless towards other people in the name of “the rule of law”?
How in the world is a person far from God ever going to hear the truth of the Gospel if I embrace a label that prevents me from telling them the truth of their sin in the name of “loving them for who they are”?
Our political labels lead us to sacrifice the moral high ground because we begin to treat the Bible like a buffet, taking the parts of it that fit our political ideology and leaving the rest on the line- when reality is we are called to embrace all of God’s Word as authoritative truth- regardless of whether it is convenient for our political philosophy.
When we fail to do that, we become hypocrites as we preach all day about the parts of Scripture that line up with our politics and ignore the rest. And then, when we’re called out on it, we bend over backwards to try to justify our position instead of repenting.
Is it any wonder we as Christians losing credibility in American?
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The stakes are too high for us to cling to political labels. People’s eternities are at stake. Whether they listen to the message of the Gospel is going to depend, in large part, on whether they believe we can be trusted.
And they’ll never believe we can be trusted as long as we hold on to labels that induce mistrust and lead us to sacrifice our moral authority.
Christians: let’s be content to just be known as “Christians”- with no political label attached.
Then let’s go live like Christians, rejecting division, embracing the full authority of God’s Word, and living out grace AND truth in front of the world.
Perhaps if we do that…they’ll start to lean in and listen to what we have to say, because- at last- our political labels won’t be in the way.