Is the Gospel Political?

The answer to this question is pretty straight forward, yes and no! To truly understand this, we first must be clear on what the gospel is.

What is the Gospel?

The Gospel is the Good News of Jesus Christ crucified and risen.

What does this actually mean?

We are sinful people. This means that we are constantly turning away from God and trying to live our lives for ourselves and only ourselves. Even in our best efforts, we still end up falling short. We struggle to believe that there is a God who loves us and wants a relationship with us and so we knowingly and unknowingly reject that God, our Creator, and believe that we can do life without God or better than God. This ultimately leads to hell. Not a place of fire and brimstone where you spend eternity, but a hell in this life where life is taken, strained, or painful. We are witnessing this extreme with the current actions of our government restricting or cutting off funds to organizations who help people in need. All of this in the name of trying to save money so that "I" the tax payer can have more money in my pocket and not "those" people. "America First" is the epitome of sin.

The Gospel tells us that we cannot save ourselves. Only God can do that and God has done that through the person of Jesus. In Jesus, God has come to this earth in human form, experienced all that it is to be human (birth, childhood, adolescence, hunger, thirst, pain, suffering, love, fear, sadness, joy), and was rejected by humans, arrested, tortured, hung on a cross, and murdered. God dies on the cross at the hands of us. None of this actually sounds all that good, but this is where it starts. God doesn't stay dead. Three days later, Jesus is raised from the dead. God has defeated the most final thing in the world! And Jesus tells us that we will be given the same gift of new life after death. We don't deserve it. There is nothing we can do to earn it. God didn't ask us if we even wanted it. God unilaterally decides that God loves us so much God will give this gift to us and forgive us for all our sin.

This is the Good News, the Gospel! It is inherently not political. It is an act of God for ALL of God's creation. Period. So how is the Gospel political? For that we must ask another question...

What does the Gospel do?

Jesus comes preaching a thing he calls "the kingdom of God." This kingdom is the way God intended creation to function. It is a way without sin, a way of living where all people care for one another. Where your neighbor's well-being is more important than your own. Where all people have enough. Where there is no pain or mourning. Jesus preaches this kingdom of God as a way of life, a way different than what the world is and forces us to believe is the only way to live (with pain, fear, and death). This kingdom of God offers a new structure and way of life and so it becomes political.

Those in power have the power because the system works for them. Those who don't have power are kept without power because the system doesn't work for them. Those in power want to do anything they can to keep power because they benefit. The way Jesus preaches, the kingdom of God, would require those in power to to lose control and turn their power over to God. While in the kingdom of God they wouldn't lose anything because no one loses in the kingdom of God, they don't see it that way (because of sin). Inherent in the kingdom of God is a trust in God and that God actually loves you and will provide all you need. Those in power do not have this trust and so fight tooth and nail to destroy the kingdom of God to keep their power.

The Gospel sets people free. When you trust that not only does God love you and will provide for you but that God has acted for you by saving you through Jesus, you are no longer afraid of death. There is a trust that the kingdom of God that Jesus proclaims IS coming and that you WILL be in that kingdom with new life. If this is the case, then you are now free to 1) give up the power you have to help those in need and/or 2) fight against the powers of the world to participate in building the kingdom of God that is promised. The freedom in the Gospel empowers people to boldly act and demand that the kingdom of God is not only possible here and now but that it is breaking into this side of creation.

Our Politics vs. Kingdom of God

The Gospel is ONLY political because this side of creation has created systems and structures that oppose the kingdom of God. When our systems and structures collide with the way of the kingdom of God, the systems of the world force the kingdom of God and, therefore, the Gospel to become political. The Gospel is political only because it demands and calls forth a way of living in the world that opposes the systems and structures (the politics) that create the power in our world.

The Gospel convicts all of us. None of us are free from sin. We are living in a period of time where it seems that one political party is less aligned with the Gospel message as the other.

• Acts of cutting funding for organizations who provide life-saving care to people in the United States and around the world does not align with the kingdom of God.

• Disobeying the rule of law does not align with the kingdom of God.

• Speaking words of hate does not align with the kingdom of God.

• Tearing away freedoms from people who look or act differently than the majority does not align with the kingdom of God.

• Ripping people out of jobs they have served faithfully with integrity for years with little to no compassion does not align with the kingdom of God.

• Ignoring diversity and being exclusive does not align with the kingdom of God.

• Forcing your faith and beliefs on others while misrepresenting scripture does not align with the kingdom of God.

Let us not be lured into a false sense of righteousness. The Gospel may become political but the Gospel does not and cannot align itself with ANY political party other than that of the kingdom of God. The Gospel calls us to speak up and take action against these harmful political actions, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Christians and citizens of the kingdom of God. The Gospel frees us to be bold in those actions remembering the promise of new life and the defeat of death.

We must be cautious in this pursuit that we do not lose sight of the humanity in the other, no matter how anti-Christ the action might seem. The rise of Christian Nationalism demonstrates a Christianity that vilifies an opposing political party and does not in any way align with the kingdom of God nor does it proclaim the actual Gospel of scripture. But if we become unloving and unwelcoming to those who have differing views on life than we do, what then separates us from them? Jesus very clearly says, "love your enemies." We must always remember Jesus' final act on the cross, he forgives his murders. If we want to radically resist the horrific ideologies that seem to be running wild in our country, we must take on the radical and subversive nature of the Gospel and always be asking if our actions align with the kingdom of God.