For most of my life, American Christians were cheerleaders for democracy. That’s when we were in charge of the democracy.
Today, oddly, many conservative Christians no longer believe in or support democracy. They seem to favor a kind of theocracy or autocracy — so long as they have control. Anything they can’t control is called communism or Marxism, whether it really is or not.
Large swaths of the church in America today are threatened by pluralism. Democracy implies pluralism, but for the first 200 years of our American experiment, pluralism was held in check by the powerful influence of dominant white Christian men and their enablers.
We’ve known for several decades that coming demographic shifts would change the nature of our communities and our politics, but we did not account for the pushback — the death rattle — that would emanate from those accustomed to control.
Thus, the traditional powerbrokers have worked overtime to stack the shifting deck of cards to maintain control through gerrymandering, voter suppression and fear-mongering — often in the name of Christianity.
The warnings about immigrant invaders and liberal teachers and same-sex marriage have now produced an outright rejection of democracy itself. This is a fundamental starting point to understand the crisis we find ourselves in right now, especially in this election year.
“Patriotism” has replaced democracy as a leading value. But this patriotism is defined in self-serving ways that work against real democracy. It is defined as a kind of conservative groupthink that talks incessantly about the rule of law without actually valuing the rule of law. It talks incessantly about support for the military without actually valuing the military. And it talks incessantly about Christianity without valuing the words of Christ.
“There is a Christian case to be made for real democracy; it’s just that we’ve forgotten it or rejected it.”
There is a Christian case to be made for real democracy; it’s just that we’ve forgotten it or rejected it.
God created humans with free will and responsibility
The Christian case for democracy begins in Genesis. Look at the second of the two creation accounts found in Genesis 2 — yes, there are two creation accounts in Genesis — and you’ll see God creating humanity and granting humans free will in their actions and responsibilities. God does not dictate the names of the animals or much of anything else.
God gives the first humans only one restriction, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They are responsible for the care of creation. They are free agents with caretaking responsibilities.
The first book of the Bible previews the “whosever will may come” idea found in the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22.
It also sets up the most well-known verse in all the Bible, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” God’s intent from the beginning and throughout Scripture is for all people to flourish and have free will.
God intends to free humans from slavery
While some slaveholders looked to the Bible to justify their evil acts, the message of the Bible is about freeing people, not enslaving them. Just because the Bible mentions slavery does not mean it advocates slavery.
From Exodus 6 — “Say therefore to the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them” — to Psalm 146 — “The Lord sets the prisoners free” — to Isaiah 58 — “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” — the work of Jesus is predicted and prepared.
Thus we should not be surprised when Jesus appears in Luke 4 announcing his public ministry by saying: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.”
Or that Jesus would say in John 8: “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” and “If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”
“One of the problems with American democracy is that we in the past did not practice it fully.”
From beginning to end, the Bible tells of God’s plan to free people from bondage of all kinds. And across time we have found pure democracy to be the most responsible way to give all people such equal opportunity.
Authoritarianism puts people in bondage to a single leader or hierarchy. Democracy, properly employed, allows all people the opportunity to prosper. One of the problems with American democracy is that we in the past did not practice it fully. American history was built on the premise that some people are worthy and others are not.
Efforts to correct that flaw have caused those formerly with power to rebel against the idea of democracy because what they thought of as democracy was flawed. What they’ve been insisting everyone stand and salute is not democracy but their tilted expectations of democracy.
The children of Israel begged for a king to be ‘like the other nations’
Conservative evangelicals love to honor Israel and study the history of the Children of Israel. They ought to go read 1 Samuel 8.
There, we learn the story of how Israel came to have kings rather than judges. Yes, there was a time when Israel was not ruled in a political hierarchy, but the people themselves rebelled against their freedom. Why? Because they wanted to be “like the other nations.”
Now, of course, there were not really “nations” the way we think of them today. The Hebrew word we translate as “nation” today also can mean a group of people, which is more like what the ancient world knew.
The backstory is that the prophet Samuel grew old and made his two sons “judges over Israel.” But the Bible tells us those sons “did not follow in his ways, but turned aside after gain; they took bribes and perverted justice.”
Sound familiar, anyone?
Faced with injustice, the Children of Israel thought it would be better to have a single ruler because … you know … the grass is always greener on the other side. They were wrong, of course, just as Christians today who want to sell their souls to obtain political power are wrong.
“The Children of Israel thought it would be better to have a single ruler because … you know … the grass is always greener on the other side.”
God’s message all along has been that there can be no king but Jesus. No political leader ever — ever — will be able to fill that role. To think otherwise is idolatry.
God let the Children of Israel have a king; God did not want them to have a king.
Samuel, speaking for God, warned them what a king would do: “He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers.” And on and on.
Do this, Samuel warned, and there will come a day when “you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
The same warning should be heard today by Christians who want an authoritarian president, legislature and court to do their bidding. There will come a day when you will cry out because of the king you have chosen for yourselves.
This is a reiteration of the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
The Christian church is built upon free will and individual conscience
Baptists, of all people, should know that free will and individual conscience are bedrock principles of our faith. Our forebears died defending this truth. They were hanged, burned at the stake, drawn and quartered, imprisoned, starved, beheaded and run through with swords.
We take seriously the words of Galatians 5: “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. … For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
This is not just a reference to spiritual freedom but to freedom in life and conscience. Some want to spiritualize this to mean we only have freedom to believe certain things. This is like parents who want to ban books from libraries because they don’t want their children reading them. That is self-indulgence, to demand that you get veto power over what other children and families read and believe.
That is the way of authoritarianism, not democracy.
“Galatians 5 mirrors the two clauses of the First Amendment — the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause.”
Galatians 5 mirrors the two clauses of the First Amendment — the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause.
Compare “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” with the biblical text: “Do not submit to a yoke of slavery” and “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence.”
The anti-democracy movement in America — and elsewhere — today is all about enslaving people to the narrow views of a few people who believe they alone know the mind of God. People who are so full of self-indulgence they won’t provide free lunches for hungry children at school or won’t get a vaccine to protect the community from a deadly virus.
This is not the Christian way, and it’s certainly not the Baptist way.
Baptist statesman Bill Pinson has written extensively on Baptist distinctives. He cites chapter and verse of Scripture to make the claim that our heritage is in defending “a free church in a free state.”
Is democracy the only way?
Christians have lived and do live in all manner of government structures. Christians live under authoritarian rule and under democratic rule. Most of the biblical narrative occurs in situations where the followers of God are living in hierarchical societies and even authoritarian rule.
Just because the biblical stories are situated in hierarchies does not mean God favors hierarchies. In fact, the biblical witness points to the opposite — that God intends humanity to live freely and make their own choices. There is no call from Jesus for theocracy. Instead, when he said in Matthew 22:21, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” Jesus implied a separation of the religious and the political.
In every modern situation where religion controls politics, bad things have happened and are happening. Theocratic rule leads inevitably to authoritarianism. See Iran, Israel, India and others. As James Dunn often quipped: “Everyone I meet who favors a theocracy wants to be Theo.”
Thus, democracy is not explicitly taught in the Bible, but it is implied in God’s intent for creation. It is the best way humanity has found to live as God intends us to live.
Christians are called by Jesus to be “salt” and “light,” not overlords.
See Matthew 5: “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
By the way, that “city on a hill” and that “light” are not intended to be blinding blazes that make it impossible to see anything else. They are to be lights that guide and encourage. Think lighthouses more than oncoming trains.
And while we’re at it, the “city on a hill” is not the United States. It is the people of God, those who follow the way of Christ, not any nation.
The United States is not and never has been a “Christian nation.” Any such assertion is historically inaccurate and is driven by theocracy rather than democracy. Thus we must not be shocked that white Christian nationalists have lost interest in democracy.
Why should Christians be concerned about preserving democracy today?
As outlined above, it is God’s will that all people be free. And it is God’s will that all people have free will.
Further, God has not deputized any of us as God’s divine agents on earth. We are called to live justly and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are not to “lord it over” anyone else.
Democracy is the purest form of living out the will of God history has known.
Those who would abandon democracy today for “divine” rule are threatened by pluralism they would like to stamp out. Yet remember the early church took root and grew the most as a minority religion in a secular society. When Christianity becomes the established religion, bad things happen. Patriots become zealots.
The church never thrives under government mandate. However, the church can thrive when people are allowed to choose freely their paths and are inspired by the way of Jesus.
Mark Wingfield
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves and Why Churches Need to Talk About Sexuality.