The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory—A Study on Evangelicalism and Politics
Not long ago, I was talking with one of our interim pastors about politics and the church in America. Referring to Tim Alberta’s recent book on Evangelicalism entitled The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, he put it like this: “It’s not a ‘hit’ piece.” The book is about Evangelicalism's ongoing dance with political power. He wanted me to know that the book didn’t follow the predictable criticism of the local church—for example, how sick Christians are, how destructive the author’s political enemies are, etc. In other words, the book is fairly written and something we should consider.
Alberta argues that over the last 40 years, following the end of the Cold War, a not-so-subtle connection between Christianity and political power has gained prominence in the Christian community. In many circles, this political prominence has been unequivocally associated with right-wing politics. In many cases, those holding such opinions have become aggressive, punitive, and demanding with reference to their political positions. According to Alberta, Christians have lost their integrity for the sake of politics. In short, politics has become an idol in American Christianity.
It's a sad story and a gut-wrenching read. But in the last quarter of the book, Alberta offers several avenues of hope, one of which I’ll enumerate here. It’s called The After Party (which appears to be a play on the Democratic and Republican parties while noting that Jesus spent a lot of time at “parties” with people diametrically opposed to each other), and its goal is to help Christians focus less on politics and more on humble listening and conversation with people they disagree with. It comes complete with a book (which I’ve read…it’s a good book) and is worth looking at. Here’s the website should you want to consider it: https://redeemingbabel.org/the-after-party/
As we continue to move into normal election cycles, I hope to provide more resources geared towards godly political conversation for those who are on the front lines in churches. I’ll mention two more that can provide some perspective:
The first is by a man named Nathan Hatch. Hatch wrote a scholarly book entitled The Democratization of American Christianity. It’s a historical study on the role politics has played in early American culture. Hatch has an interesting take on our political struggles. In a short lecture given in 2019, he offers a 20-minute critique of the current situation and titles it “The Political Captivity of the Faithful.” He argues that both sides of the political debate in the Christian community consider Christianity through the lens of their politics rather than looking at politics through the lens of their Christianity. The lecture itself is quite brief, though the follow-up question and answer period can get a bit lengthy.
The second is a series of sermons on Christianity and politics delivered in 2020 by Scott Sauls. Sauls is the former Lead Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, TN. It was Gregg Caruso who introduced me to this. The sermon I’ve linked to was preached just before the November 2020 election. It’s exceptional, balanced, and gracious.
