A Brief Alphabet of Christianity and Politics

Anarchic – Christianity is by profession and (one hopes) practice a confounding and irregular element in whatever political system it finds itself. It cannot give such allegiance to a party or platform that its support can be counted upon as a given from election to election. Christian faith knows that politics is one of those “powers” the Bible talks about that God created to establish and maintain human life toward its flourishing. However, somehow, these powers “fell” out of sync with God and became competitors with him as the ground and goal of human existence. They regularly overreach their mandate, demand more of us than they deserve, promise more than they can deliver, and on the whole create mortal mischief in all of life. Christ has defeated these rebellious powers at the cross (Col.2:15) and is in the process of pacifying and restoring them to their proper status and function in God’s plan but they still remain restive and often resistant to his rule. Thus, Christians are always anarchic, refusing to commit to or be defined by these powers (Greek, an is a negative prefix, arche is power). We use or cooperate with them when possible and desirable. But otherwise we keep a wary distance because we know how seductive these powers, politics especially, can be. Jacques Ellul described what I am calling the anarchic character of Christianity in relation to politics when he said a law or platform or party a Christian supports is passes, enacted, or elected, the Christian becomes the chief watchdog and whistleblower over these policies, practices, and parties insisting on their fair and consistent application in the world. This anarchic character of Christianity to politics should devolve in anarchism for anything that becomes an -ism has become a power toward which the church is to be wary.