The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 9
sTorIes oF Peacemakers
party politics, and the desire to get that out of the church is easy
to understand. Lord knows we would all like to be liberated from
that never-ending circus! There's nothing more nauseating than
watching a donkey and an elephant chase each other around in
circles.
However, I fear that party politics has led many Christians in
the pews to develop an incredibly narrow definition of "politics."
One of the major problems facing the church today is the extreme
partisanship of its members. Many Christians are far more loyal
to their particular party platform than they are to the teachings
of Jesus.
In addition to the overt idolatry of it all, partisanship has led
many Christians to equate the word 'politics' with the tedious
debate between the two primary political parties that dominate
our country. But it is a grave mistake to believe that party politics
in America is the totality of politics. In reality, party politics in
America is only one form of politics and one small speck in a
broad range of things that are political.
Aristotle's original definition of politics was "anything
concerning the polis (city)." Therefore, politics should not be
reduced to American party politics. We must remember that the
Republican and Democratic parties are not the only political
parties and that following a campaign platform is not the only
way to be political.
The primary reason many Christians react so strongly to
political statements in church is that their partisanship has been
offended. But the troubling fact is the Republican and Democratic
parties have so overly-politicized the issues facing Americans
today that it has now become almost impossible to speak about
anything in society without sounding partisan. However, we
cannot surrender our political responsibility to the way political
parties have defined the terms. Instead, the church is called to be
political, while striving to transcend party affiliation.
Even more egregious than our narrow understanding of the
nature of politics is our narrow understanding of the church. It
is absurd to imagine that we can keep politics out of the church,
because the church by its very nature is a political entity. The
church is made up of people and people are political animals.
A group of people assembled together in public is even more
political.
The church is political because it is a community of people
that gathers in public to worship and witnesses to an alternative
way of living together in relationships of love and justice. It's
practices are political-baptism is as political as saying the pledge
of allegiance, communion is as political as voting in an election,
singing the doxology is as political as the national anthem, reading
scripture is as political as reciting the constitution.
We have to work hard to avoid over-spiritualizing the nature
of the church with a theology that does not take our human
bodily, social, and political reality seriously. It will help us to
remember that the Bible is consistently political from beginning
to end because it contains the story of god's people in a critical
engagement and prophetic relationship to the political powers
that be-known as the Empire.
Moses spoke truth to Pharaoh, Samuel spoke truth to King
Saul, Nathan spoke truth to King David, Ahijah spoke truth to
King Solomon, Elijah spoke truth to King Ahab, Isaiah spoke
truth to Uziah, John the Baptist spoke truth to King Herod, Jesus
spoke truth to Pontius Pilate, and Paul spoke truth to governor
Felix. We cannot claim to be followers of any biblical prophet
from Moses to Jesus if we are not willing to speak out on political
matters of injustice and oppression.
"It will help us to remember that the Bible
is consistently political from beginning
to end, because it contains the story of
God's people in a critical engagement
and prophetic relationship to the political
powers that be - known as the Empire."
It is actually impossible to avoid being political or to keep
politics out of the church. A church that does not intentionally
engage in conversation and action on the urgent political questions
of the day is not being apolitical. They are still being political as
a gathered community of people, but they are unintentionally
blessing the way the world is currently ordered and affirming
the status quo by default. Why would we want to be a part of an
organization that doesn't speak directly to the things that matter
in our lives? On the other hand, it is important for the church to
guard against being swept up in the dualistic schemes of either
political party. If we speak the words and practice the way of Jesus
with honesty and integrity, it will often look as if we are being
partisan, because that is the way the powers that be have divided
up the world. However we must continue to speak out truthfully
and follow Jesus anyway, because that is what we have been called
to do.
We still need the Separation of Church and State to protect
religious freedom in America, but we cannot continue to conflate
that principle with the separation of the church and politics.
Political engagement should be about the pursuit of the common
good for all people. god demands that we care about what is
happening to our neighbor and our neighborhood.
Therefore, we must take a stand against political practices and
policies that hurt people and that are antithetical to the gospel.
And when our fellow Christians get offended by the words and
actions of Jesus we should invite them to transcend their party
affiliations, refuse to be defined by the world, investigate new ways
to be political, and move to higher ground.
--Rev. W. Benjamin Boswell is an advocate for peace and justice who serves
as the Senior Minister of Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC, and
as a Commissioner on the North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture.
Baptist Peacemaker
jul-sep 2017
9
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017
No label
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - No label
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 2
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 3
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 4
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 5
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 6
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 7
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 8
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 9
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 10
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 11
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 12
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 13
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 14
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 15
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 16
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 17
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 18
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 19
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 20
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 21
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 22
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 23
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 24
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 25
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 26
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 27
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 28
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 29
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 30
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 31
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 32
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/38-1
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-4
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-3
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-2
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-1
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/36-3
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/36-2
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/36-1
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/35-4
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/35-3
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/35-2
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/35-1
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-4
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-3
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-2
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-1
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com