By Jim Denison
Baptists make up 17.2 percent of American adults but comprise only 12.7 percent of the new Congress. This is one of the findings of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which recently published a study of the religious make-up of the 112th Congress.
Most denominations are over-represented in the current Congress. Methodists comprise 6.2 percent of American adults but make up 9.5 percent of Congress; Presbyterians make up only 2.7 percent of American adults but comprise 8.4 percent of the new Congress; Catholics comprise 23.9 percent of the American adult population but make up 29.2 percent of Congress. But Pentecostals, with 4.4 percent of the American adult population (and growing), have no representation in Congress; non-denominational Protestants, with 4.5 percent of the American adult public, comprise 0.4 percent of Congress.
The current Supreme Court is composed of six Roman Catholics and three Jews. For the first time in the court’s 222-year history, there are no justices who are Protestants. A Baptist hasn’t served on the bench since 1971.
Why this disparity?
In 1951, Richard Niebuhr published Christ and Culture, a now-classic exposition of five ways Christians approach culture. The “Christ against culture” model sees no redemptive value in the secular world and advocates strict separation for believers. The “Christ of culture” approach, by contrast, tends to accommodate faith positions to prevailing norms.
The “Christ above culture” model offers little engagement between a Sunday faith and Monday life. The “Christ and culture in paradox” approach utilizes cultural engagement to advance the church. Niebuhr recommends the “Christ transforming culture” model, whereby Christians seek to be salt and light in their world for the sake of the Kingdom.
James Davison Hunter makes the same argument in his brilliant recent work, To Change the World. Hunter, a professor at the University of Virginia and executive director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, documents the fact that Christians change their culture most effectively by utilizing their influence for God’s glory.
Unfortunately, Baptists, Pentecostals and most non-denominational Protestants have historically embraced the “Christ against culture” or “Christ and culture in paradox” models. They have typically viewed political activity as morally questionable, preferring to focus on evangelism rather than cultural engagement. It is no surprise that they are the only major denominations who comprise a larger percentage of the adult public than of the current Congress.
To me, this approach leaves the salt of Christian witness in the saltshaker and buries our light under a basket. It contradicts Jesus’ ministry strategy, whereby he “went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people” (Matthew 4:23). He touched leprous bodies and welcomed tax-collectors into his movement. He spoke to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and invited himself to Zacchaeus’ home. He came “to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10).
Then he commissioned us to continue this ministry of cultural engagement: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Early Christians took this commission so seriously that by Acts 17:6 they had “turned the world upside down” (KJV).
Baptists urgently need to engage their culture with the good news of God’s love, involving ourselves in every dimension of significant influence, including political activity. I am convinced that God is calling more of us into public service than are answering his call.