(ABP) — In various ways I have been trying to pry open some space between our Christian understanding of the mission of the church and the work of earthly politics — without creating such a gulf that we retreat entirely from civic engagement.
One of my foundational “anti-texts” for this emphasis is the statement by Jerry Falwell just after George W. Bush defeated John Kerry in 2004: “The church won the 2004 election. Don't let anyone tell you any differently.” My burden is to help Christians come to understand how desperately wrong that kind of statement is at a theological and ecclesiological level.
Perhaps a shift to the other side of the political world — the current struggle between Sens. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) for the Democratic presidential nomination — can help illuminate my meaning.
We have in this contest quite a rare situation in recent American politics. Not since 1976 have two candidates from the same party endured such a long-fought race for their party's nomination. There is no sign that this contest will end soon. It may last until the Democratic convention.
There is something amazingly primal about this struggle. Both of these people really, really, really want to be president of the United States. Who can say what drives them? Surely it is some combination of personal ambition, moral ideals, policy goals, life experiences, and psychological attributes. Surely it is a mix of the thirst for power and significance combined with the desire to make this country and the world a better place.
All other Democratic candidates in this race have been defeated. Just two remain. Their policy differences are relatively trivial. Therefore they have to manufacture picayune campaign issues to argue about. Each day their contest continues makes the ultimate victory of either one in November a bit less likely. But those who think either one of them will step aside now for the good of the party do not understand human nature.
It's like a cage match. Hillary and Barack are locked in a cage, and neither can leave until the other lies defeated on the canvas. If the survivor ends up a bloody mess and in no shape to take on Arizona Sen. John McCain, will it have been worth it? Is it better to go down in history as the (losing) Democratic nominee than never to have been that nominee at all?
In the long weeks that remain until the next major primary in late April, both of these candidates locked in their cage will have to decide how dirty they will fight. How dirty, how mean, how low, will they go — in what they say about each other openly, in what they signal to their surrogates that they want them to say, in what promises they offer to superdelegates, and in what they do about the remaining disputed issues, such as what to do about Florida and Michigan's lost primaries? Will either unilaterally “disarm,” even if it costs them the nomination? Not likely.
Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
He also said, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” And Paul said that Christ Jesus “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.” He also said, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Look not only to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”
Greg Boyd is right when he argues that there is something fundamentally different about this “power-under” Kingdom compared to the kingdoms of this world. It is true that the earthly kingdom centered in Washington, D.C., holds power that affects the well-being of all humanity, and therefore the decisions made there do have significance and relevance to the Reign of God. But the scrap for earthly power, with all of its vanity, pride, ambition, anger, low blows, and verbal (sometimes physical) violence, can never be identified with the mustard seed advance of the peaceable Kingdom of God.
I look back over these words of analysis related to the fight for power between Barack and Hillary. I think of the recent history of Baptists in the South. And I understand a little more clearly how deeply damaged our people became by the importing of the tactics and spirit of the earthly kingdom into institutions commissioned by Christ to advance the Kingdom of God.
No wonder some among us can identify the work of the church with the election of a favored politician. The difference between these two kingdoms had been lost long before.
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— David Gushee is distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University. www.davidpgushee.com.