Open Letter to Christian Politicians
August 5, 2022 § 1 Comment
In the Bible study I facilitate on Thursday afternoons, we’ve been looking at the passage about spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6, and exploring how we might as Friends address spiritually the many ills that beset our wider society. This has been on my mind for a long time, and lately I’ve been trying to take a step beyond just grousing about it and looking for ways to act.
I’m a writer, so my go-to response is to write. I’m working on a number of prophetic “oracles” modeled on those of Jeremiah, Amos, etc., in Hebrew scripture, but also leveraging the formal language of the official oaths our office holders take and the formal language of legislation and the resolutions our legislative bodies pass.
Then this came to me. I’m sharing it here, but I’m discerning where I might send it as an op-ed piece.
“Don’t worry. A Christian politician cannot be racist. . . . Christian values protect us from going too far.” ~ Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Dallas, August 5, 2022 (today).
This is an open letter to the political leaders of the United States, at all levels of government and in all three branches of government;
and especially to those leaders who bring their Christian faith into their public service;
and most especially to those leaders who carry their Christian faith publicly and seek to embody Christian faith in public policy and legislation.
Some of you really are disciples of Christ, though the egregious ways you violate Christ’s commandment does raise some questions about that;
some of you think of yourselves as Christians, but the egregious ways you violate Christ’s commandment suggest to me that you should rethink that;
and some of you just claim to be Christian for opportunistic and self-serving reasons, and you obviously couldn’t care less about Christ’s commandment.
So what is Christ’s commandment? Answer: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
Love one another. Love. That is Christ’s commandment.
When you suppress the African American vote—or anyone’s vote; lots of white people live in the places affected by your policies—are you loving your neighbor? Do you love those voters? Do you love African Americans? If you did love African Americans and those other white voters the way Christ commands, what would that love look like in action?
When you deny climate change, suppress alternative energy development, protect greenhouse gas emitters, and resist international efforts to save our planetary home, are you loving your children and your grandchildren and your great-great-great-grandchildren? Do you love your children and grandchildren? I suspect you do. However, if you did love your descendants the way Christ commands, would not your actions and public policies reflect that?
When you resist universal healthcare, refuse to expand medicaid, and mock public health measures designed to protect everyone from a pandemic, are you loving the people who need this care? Do you love folks who are sick or disabled or dying because of your actions? If you did love the sick and dying the way Christ commands, what would that love look like in action and as public policy?
And while we’re at it, since the people who need universal healthcare the most are the poor, when you penalize the poor in every way you can invent, limiting social network programs, fighting living wage requirements, and so on, while you pump wealth into the rich, are you loving the poor, to whom Christ proclaimed the good news of poverty and debt relief as the essence of his ministry as the christ (Luke 4:18–21)? Do you love the poor and disadvantaged, as he did? And if you did love the least of these your brethren, as Christ commands, what would that love look like?
When you guarantee that American mass murderers are the best armed civilian mass murderers in the world, are you loving their victims, are you loving the schoolchildren they murder? Do you love Americans attending Bible study or praying in their synagogues, or our children in their elementary school classrooms, while they bleed out on the floor? Do you love guns more than children? Is your Second Amendment idolatry your plan for fulfilling Jesus’ command to “suffer the little children to come unto me,” with emphasis, of course, on “suffer”? If you really loved these children—your children, for that matter—what would that love look like in action, in legislation, in public policy?
I could go on.
So, what awaits you “Christians” who violate in these egregious ways Christ’s explicit commandment to love? What kind of judgment you are expecting? You are expecting to be judged, right? When is that judgment going to happen? When you die, presumably (hopefully not from gunfire).
Well, then, maybe you have some time left.
Through the Flaming Sword 
Steven,
Of course I love this and I trust you will pursue it. Just imagine if the RSoF began publishing such in the name of Quakers everywhere. Just imagine if we became known once again as “Publishers of Truth.” Just imagine if we did not limit this message to those with political power but published it to all Christians and their leaders. Just imagine the impact of Jesus’ actual ministry could have on those who claim him as God. Just imagine!