“ Raise your hand if you don ’ t think a Christian can be a Democrat . Now , raise your hand if you don ’ t think a Christian can be a Republican .”
A few of my church history classmates raised their hands in response to Dr . Jerry Sittser ’ s first prompt . I don ’ t think any raised their hand in response to the second prompt . Most of us didn ’ t raise our hands , unsure about whether there was a “ right ” response and not wanting to be asked to explain our opinion . As a college sophomore , I had what I thought were reasonable political views , but I also realized I had given little thought to how my faith and my politics related . A few years later , I was boarding a bus in northern Ghana when a Ghanaian man asked my American friend and me , “ Democrat or Republican ?” We were taken aback , not expecting to be asked about our political stances halfway around the world . We answered , “ Christian .” He didn ’ t seem satisfied with that answer , but is it the answer Christians ought to give ? Is there a right answer to these questions ?
In his Sermon on the Mount Jesus issued a simple exhortation that is as multidimensional as the seasoning he references : “ You are the salt of the earth , but if salt has lost its taste , how can its saltiness be restored ? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot ” ( Matthew 5:13 ). At the risk of overextending Jesus ’ metaphor , salt gives us a framework for our engagement with politics . Salt in correct proportion makes food taste better ; therefore , if we are salt , our participation in civic life should make society more flavorful . Salt is also a preservative ; therefore , if we are salt , our participation in political life has a role in preserving the common good . If we lose our saltiness and become bland , our participation falls short of Christian faithfulness and we are no longer useful .
Becoming Bland
Affiliation with a political party has a tendency to devolve into unreflective partisan alignment , characterized by divisiveness , rancor , and even violence if we are not attentive to the forces that pull us toward bland partisanship . A symptom of bland partisanship is when identity becomes so intertwined with political party that party alignment compromises the Christian command to love our neighbor . If it seems like the two parties have become more sharply divided along partisan lines , it ’ s because they have . And Christians have the opportunity to succumb to the bland division , or add much-needed salt .
If our partisanship is bland , we have aligned with our political party so much we fail to contribute anything unique or necessary . When we align with a political party , our brains rail against any incongruence between Christian convictions and political opinions . We might try to resolve this tension by justifying our political opinions on theological grounds . We start looking for biblical proof texts or dubious interpretations to prove that our politics align with our faith . But since political platforms and ideologies are not Christian doctrine , this often leads us to compromise on some of our Christian convictions . If we do not feel tension between our faith and our partisanship , we are likely
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