A 2024 Presidential Election-Year Series

Christians were once accused of tearing at the fabric of Roman society. Today, Christians could be instrumental in making ours whole.

The Roman Empire didn’t know what to do with followers of Jesus. It was a world of vast inequities, ideological, cultural, and linguistic differences. Fear of Rome united them. But fear is a weaker bond than love.

Christians in Rome, Palestine, and Egypt began to act as if they shared an identity that transcended their local differences. Rome was threatened. They adhered to the teaching of Jesus, even when in conflict with the law of the land. Followers of the Way were more ready to forgive their enemies than to kill them, often refusing military service. They worshiped a man whom they believed to be God, the same man the Romans had executed. Their allegiance to Jesus, to his ways, and to each other superseded all other commitments. Contemporaries like the second century philosopher, Celsus, scorned them as “sectarian” and corrosive.

Without doubt, followers of Jesus have contributed to the polarization of this moment in American civic history. We’ve dug in. We’ve pilloried. We’ve willfully interpreted one another uncharitably. But, the damage we’ve contributed to notwithstanding, there is still no one better positioned to help move the nation toward healing.

Christians, of all people, should be sympathetic to perspectives across the aisle. As renowned author Tom Holland has pointed out, by and large, the concerns animating the entrenched ideological divide in western societies grow out of a Christian vision of human flourishing – often on both sides of the divide! Instead of labeling and limiting the other side, Christians should be the first to recognize the common root.

It is, historically speaking, the Christian view of flourishing that fought to protect both the unborn and to recognize women’s authority over their own bodies. It is the Christian view of flourishing that makes provision for refugees and advocates for economic opportunity for the populace. The same Christians who advocated for abolition in England in the early 19th century sought the transformation of societal sexual ethics. The same book of the bible (Deuteronomy) that urges environmental protections during wartime (Deuteronomy 20:19-20) and advocates sweeping debt relief (Deuteronomy 15:1-23) also bolsters deference to duly appointed officers (Deuteronomy 16:18-20). Rather than stoking our culture wars, Christians could be among the first to recognize that we’ve splintered concerns that belong together.

Christians should be well-equipped to engage the vitriol of our moment in ways that heal more than hurt. In the Church’s first few centuries, the most frequently cited Bible verse is a quote from Jesus: “Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). The Apostle Paul writes that “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against…spiritual forces of evil” (Ephesians 6:12). How different might our politics be if Christians on all sides refused to cast the other side as the enemy?

The prophets of the Hebrew Bible provide Christians with a potent model of self-reflection and humility. Critical to our journey towards health is a diagnosis of what is diseased. We can bring our respective parties along by willingly owning faults and failures, embracing humility and restoration. The most encouraging moment of the GOP debates, thus far, was when one candidate candidly admitted that their own party was also responsible for what the other party was being blamed for. Each one of these instances are fodder, not for memes and mudslinging, but for linking arms with Christians who happen to back the other party.

Our allegiance to Jesus above party could make us nuanced arbiters, nudging both parties away from platforms that misconstrue and erode human flourishing. Because the way of Jesus cuts across the platform of both parties and because it conforms to neither party, Christians should be clear-eyed and honest about where our party of choice misses the mark. Someone must inject the tonic of humility.

The choices often are not equivalent. That is precisely why we vote. But – urges the New Testament – Christians’ togetherness in Christ precedes and supersedes our politics.

No matter which party prevails, they’ll enact policies that are unjust and problematic. I’m not making false equivalencies here, nor arguing for a false center. I’m simply reminding us that the work isn’t done if your party wins. Neither the donkey nor the elephant ushers in a Sabbath rest for Christians.

The day after Election Day, every follower of Jesus still has work to do. We’ll still need to pursue justice, speak up for those who are unheard, care for the poor, be good neighbors, and love our enemies.