Some Christians would tell you, “Politics is bad. God doesn’t want you to be in it.” No doubt these are good people with the best of intentions. They don’t want you to become corrupt like many of our politicians. But this would be like saying to a physician, “Doctor, stay away from people with diseases.”
If our political system is filled with corruption, it is partly because Christians have failed to be like the “salt of the earth,” permeating every segment of our community and bringing change from the inside out. We’ve failed to preserve our communities from moral decadence; we’ve no answer to the character crisis our people are facing; we’ve nothing to offer for the healing of our society. Either we have lost our saltiness or we’ve become like a collection of salt in the safety of a bag.
We want to stay away from politics but not from the politics of complaint. We curse the darkness rather than ushering the light into the darkness. Someone once said, “I would rather shine in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light.”
While it is organizationally essential to separate the Church from the State, it is theologically wrong to take Christians out from politics because their role is to dissolve like salt within the society and preserve the world from corruption. They are called to be agents of change in the society—whatever form it takes. And since the object of change is society, it requires political action. For politics to be fair and just, we need politicians who are not corrupt themselves. And for that to happen, we must proactively engage ourselves in the political process so we can elect good leaders who will hold to the highest standards of integrity and give themselves to serving others as serving God himself. This is where heaven meets earth: “Our Heavenly Father, may your name be honoured; may your kingdom come, and may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
But if you and I are not worried for God’s will on earth, which is a part of his kingdom, then we won’t need to be concerned about our political situation either. And of course, that’s exactly what Satan wants - stay away from politics!
If our political system is filled with corruption, it is partly because Christians have failed to be like the “salt of the earth,” permeating every segment of our community and bringing change from the inside out. We’ve failed to preserve our communities from moral decadence; we’ve no answer to the character crisis our people are facing; we’ve nothing to offer for the healing of our society. Either we have lost our saltiness or we’ve become like a collection of salt in the safety of a bag.
We want to stay away from politics but not from the politics of complaint. We curse the darkness rather than ushering the light into the darkness. Someone once said, “I would rather shine in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light.”
While it is organizationally essential to separate the Church from the State, it is theologically wrong to take Christians out from politics because their role is to dissolve like salt within the society and preserve the world from corruption. They are called to be agents of change in the society—whatever form it takes. And since the object of change is society, it requires political action. For politics to be fair and just, we need politicians who are not corrupt themselves. And for that to happen, we must proactively engage ourselves in the political process so we can elect good leaders who will hold to the highest standards of integrity and give themselves to serving others as serving God himself. This is where heaven meets earth: “Our Heavenly Father, may your name be honoured; may your kingdom come, and may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
But if you and I are not worried for God’s will on earth, which is a part of his kingdom, then we won’t need to be concerned about our political situation either. And of course, that’s exactly what Satan wants - stay away from politics!
Mazie Nakhro, PhD
