What should Christians do about political engagement? It’s a question Andrew T. Walker takes seriously in his extended pamphlet, “The Nations Belong to God: A Christian Guide to Political Engagement,” published by the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
Walker serves as associate dean in the School of Theology and associate professor of Christian ethics and public theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
His pamphlet has multiple moments when I say, “Amen, almost.” He has the unique ability to phrase his language in ways that sound “nice,” palatable and acceptable to conservatives, moderates, even liberals.
Andrew Walker
Yet there are immediate difficulties with Walker’s arguments even before reading the work. He presumes everyone who understands his reasons will have to accept his conclusions. He seems to think he writes for what rhetorical scholar Chaim Perelman calls “the universal audience.” For Walker, the agreement of a universal audience is a matter of right.
His dependence on “objective truth,” “God’s moral order,” and the literal, inerrant truth of the Bible causes him to present his arguments as self-evident, possessed of an absolute and timeless validity, independent of historical contingencies. His Cartesian attitude has a name: certainty. For Walker, certitude excludes doubt; it is a necessary, universal affirmation.
“What he ignores is the contestability of his claims.”
What he ignores is the contestability of his claims. Not only do we now live in a “post-truth” age, we also inhabit a culture where there is a general disdain and mistrust in the truth, particularly rising from MAGA evangelicals.
The audacity to hide a political ideology in a catechism can hardly be ignored. A catechism is a summary of the principles of Christian religion in the form of questions and answers, used for the instruction of Christians. Walker, by his choice of rhetorical genre — the catechism — makes a claim for his material as worthy of being principles of Christian religion. He seems oblivious to the reality that the voice of a Southern Baptist speaking to world Christianity is a minority voice crying in the wilderness.
Under the veneer of a Christian catechism, Walker uses evangelical code language to promote a decisive right-wing, unbiblical approach to political engagement. It is ironic that a teacher who appeals so frequently to Scripture would reach unbiblical conclusions.
When you have a professor in a Calvinist evangelical seminary claiming in nice, almost moderate terms on the surface, a version of Seven Mountains Dominionism, you know you have a problem. Seven Mountains Dominionism teaches Jesus will not return until society comes under the dominion of Jesus Christ. There are seven mountains Christians are to control: family, government, arts and entertainment, media, business, education, and religion. The goal is for “anointed leaders” to rule each of the seven mountains.
Walker says: “The call to help order society in a way that reflects the righteousness of the gospel flows out of the gospel’s implications in our life. As the heart and conscience are transformed by the renewing of the mind, a Christian will desire to see culture, government and law reflect the purity of God’s moral law.” That’s Seven Mountains Dominionism.
He then adds: Christians should promote “kingdom-minded” candidates, defenders of the Christian worldview, godly men who will support Christian values, and “first-tier creation” principles.
The “Seven Mountains” Lite represented by Walker is not in fact Christian. Rather it is a form of Christian nationalism.
A writer without an audience
Walker sounds as if he writes for Ronald Reagan Republicans. The best word I can offer for his analysis: If MAGA people read and followed Walker’s advice, the political environment in the United States would not be so dark and angry.
“The battle lines have been drawn,” a MAGA pastor said, sitting in the back of his darkened sanctuary. “If you’re not taking a side, you’re on the wrong side.”
Walker’s catechism fills with advice no MAGA follower would accept. We all know the story of a “man without a country.” Walker is a writer without an audience. MAGA will not give him the time of day; the rest of the world doesn’t accept his agenda.
For instance, Walker argues, “Christians should maintain an expectation that leaders will set a positive example by upholding the highest moral and ethical standards — both as they pursue office and as they carry out their duties.” Not since President Clinton have evangelical leaders insisted character as a necessity for the president. Evangelicals, it turns out, were “for” character before they were “against” it.
Walker says, “Christians should aspire to vote for the candidate or platform that they believe best pursues and approximates biblical righteousness and biblical justice in their policies and character.” Dubbing Donald Trump as “God’s anointed,” or suggesting he is persecuted like Jesus does not turn Trump into a righteous and just person. Voters claiming Trump is more godly than Joe Biden or Mike Pence doesn’t equate to righteousness either. We are after all, talking about Donald Trump, not Abraham or Job.
“I actually gasped when I read, ‘Be immune to political hype.’”
I actually gasped when I read, “Be immune to political hype.” Then he adds: “If individuals do not have a grasp of history, they can easily believe that our moment is unlike any other period in history and fall prey to over-zealous commentators who prey on fear and outrage.” Hype and hyperbole are Trump’s defining features. Bending the truth is his claim to success. In The Art of the Deal, he calls truthful hyperbole “an innocent form of exaggeration — and a very effective form of promotion” that plays to normal people’s grandest fantasies.
Walker’s work, in the hands of MAGA, would not be read but burned.
Walker’s answers to the questions he poses to himself are often suggestive of a way for conservative and liberal Christians to respect one another. I am often tempted to say “Amen!” But the “amen” turns to ashes in my mouth when Walker “explains” his answers.
For instance, he says, “A Christian should strive to pursue justice, speak reasonably, model wisdom, evaluate impartially, avoid unbending partisanship, exercise humility, and be consistent.” Who doesn’t say “amen” to the obvious truth?
A closer look reminds us evangelicals are in no mood for reasonable speech, wisdom, impartiality, nonpartisanship, humility or consistency. Walker leaves me singing with Eliza Doolittle, “Words, words, words! I’m sick of words!”
A review of all the questions and answers offered by Walker would be longer than his pamphlet. I concentrate here on a few of his key convictions about Christians engaged in politics.
A narrow view of government
Several of the questions raised by Walker deal with government. He has a Calvinistic determinism to ensure no one misses the purpose of government — a rather narrow view of the purpose of government.
“Government has an obligation to foster the conditions conducive to persons learning what is true and ordering their lives in accordance with truth (Psalm 1). While governments are not expected to be Christian in a legal sense, governments are accountable to God’s moral law.”
In question 14, Walker asks: “What is the purpose of the government?” He answers: “The proper end of any earthly government is to execute justice, secure the basic rights of all human beings, promote the common good, and punish evil deeds committed by God’s image-bearers against each other.”
He says, “Nowhere in Scripture is the government assigned the responsibility to directly promote the Christian faith.” Yet the actions of Southern Baptists and other evangelicals to directly promote the Christian faith make Walker’s words at best disingenuous, if not outright prevarications. No abortion. No gay marriage. Prayer in schools. Teaching intelligent design. Bible classes in the curriculum. Revisionist American history. The Ten Commandments in public buildings.
“Walker’s view of the government depends on a literal reading of Romans 13.”
Walker’s view of the government depends on a literal reading of Romans 13. As Robert Jeffress has said, according to Romans 13, government has one function: avenge evildoers. “The goal of government is to protect us and leave us alone to practice our faith.”
Romans 13 leads evangelicals like Jeffress to defend Trump’s border wall, oppose DACA, fight against abortion, argue for repeal of the Johnson Amendment, keep Muslims out of the country, prevent same-sex marriage, claim Trump has a mandate from God to kill his enemies, and argue that Trump has the complete right to do as he please no matter what the Constitution says.
Politics as God’s authority
Walker asks, “What is politics?” His answer: “Politics is the practice of organizing and regulating our lives in society under God-ordained legal authority for the sake of justice.”
Behind the innocent definition of politics, Walker proposes an array of unacceptable concepts. The “organizing and regulating of our lives in society” suggests a kind of enforcement policy that would have made glad the hearts of the Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. What is “God-ordained legal authority” and who decides?
The words Walker uses are the “code” words of the evangelical movement: politics, justice, worldview, morals, judgment, God’s moral law, objective truth. He leans strongly toward the language of the Right: obedience, discipline, authority, control.
He finally shows his cards toward the end: “Other areas of political debate are of such basic earthly consequence that to get them wrong is to fundamentally destabilize society. As of this writing, Western culture promotes abortion, sows confusion about the nature of man and woman, attempts to deemphasize and even redefine the natural family, and in some instances seeks to exclude religiously based viewpoints from the public square. In other words, our society is very unwell and ill. Candidates, officials and entire platforms and parties in the West are devoted to upending God’s pattern for creation order.”
Walker uses same-sex marriage and nationalized health care as examples of whether a political issue is a “first-tier” biblical concern. He says, “Prudence helps us sort out political debates from the areas where Christians must have total consensus (e.g., same-sex marriage) from those areas where Christians of goodwill could reasonably disagree based on the Bible’s lack of explicit warrant (e.g., nationalized health care).”
“The Gospels never address the subject of same-sex marriage, but health care appears on every page.”
His examples call into question his insistence on a gospel-based politics. The Gospels never address the subject of same-sex marriage, but health care appears on every page. The archetypal Christian motivation for providing health care for strangers (everyone in need) remains the Good Samaritan. Jesus’ healing ministry gives the church every reason to engage in providing health care for everyone. Health care, therefore, is a gospel issue; same-sex marriage is not.
Patriotism as Christian virtue
In Question 25, Walker asks, “How should a Christian love their country?” Answer: A Christian should love their country by showing devotion to the country’s traditions, valuing their fellow citizens, obeying just laws, honoring authorities and fervently participating in the political process.
Amen almost! Walker talks about prophetic patriotism and here approaches a bit of common ground for us. But again, the practices of his fellow evangelicals ignore Walker’s teachings.
William Sloane Coffin said: “Good patriots are not nationalists. A nationalist is a bad patriot.” He also insisted: “There are three kinds of patriots, two bad, one good. The bad ones are the uncritical lovers and the loveless critics. Good patriots carry on a lover’s quarrel with their country, a reflection of God’s lover’s quarrel with all the world.” Pablo Casas: “Love of country is a wonderful thing, but why stop at the border?”
In the end, Walker’s catechism fails to be primary Christian doctrine. Instead, it exists as a piece of right-wing propaganda. Instead of teaching “first principles” of faith, we read more appeals for authority and control vested in God-fearing, born again, sanctified Christians.
A writer with no audience turns out to have written nothing of substance. Evangelicals will ignore his advice as too nice; progressives will reject it as not the gospel truth.
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 10 books, including his latest, Good and Evil in the Garden of Democracy.
Related articles:
ERLC defends rules for military chaplains
SBC official labels LGBTQ-affirming evangelicals as ‘false teachers’
Pastor, ethicist urge Southern Baptists to marry younger
SBC agency vows to ‘advocate for the complete end of abortion’ in America