The saying goes, “Never discuss sex, politics, or religion in polite company.” Since it was caucus night in our community Feb. 2, I want to discuss politics and religion. In the words of Meatloaf, “Now don’t be sad, ‘cause two out of three ain’t bad.”

I can remember the discussions with my friends in college on the topic of the presidential election of 2000. We were all young, passionate and opinionated, which led to many heated conversations. I can still remember sitting in my friend’s dorm room and loudly asking him, “How can you be a Republican and call yourself Christian?”  Of course, he had a similar question running through his head I am sure.

Here in Winona the conversations continue to grow as we near an upcoming election cycle and I have begun to notice that the position I held as a young collegian is still held by many. Undercurrents in comments and discussions subtly communicate the same questions: How can you be a Republican/Democrat and call yourself Christian? The assumption is clear: the faith of an individual influences his/her politics and should lead in the support of one political party (in America, this most often boils down to the two major parties).

I would agree that the faith of an individual influences their politics. What we believe as individuals or as a community shapes how we look at the world. However, the assumption that an individual’s faith should lead to the support of only one political party/platform should be challenged. Yesterday, both the Republican caucus and the Democratic caucus had faithful Christians in attendance. That fact alone should challenge the assumption that one party/platform is “Christian” and the other is not, but I would like to challenge the assumption further by sharing another vision of the relationship between faith and politics.

In the book God’s Politics, Jim Wallis writes, “Abraham Lincoln had it right. Our task should not be to invoke religion and the name of God by claiming God’s blessing and endorsement for all our national policies and practices—saying, in effect, that God is on our side. Rather, Lincoln said, we should pray and worry earnestly whether we are on God’s side.”

The discussion of faith and politics should not center upon which party is “endorsed by God.” The discussion shouldn’t even focus upon which party is closest to God’s blessing. Instead, as Christians we should be praying and reflecting on how we are witnesses to what we believe God would have the world to be. 

As a Christian who believes that all life is sacred and precious, this means that my goal is not to make sure our nation has a law against abortion or a law banning guns and to support whichever political party that supports the respective issue. Rather, it means that my faith leads me to show the wider world those places where life is kept from flourishing and witnessing to alternatives.
Martin Luther King Jr. did this wonderfully with his “I Have a Dream” speech. King himself may have aligned with a certain political party in belief, but he did not claim that the party was God ordained; rather King tried to witness and influence the politics of the nation by witnessing to a different world.

King shows us that faith has a relationship to politics and he shows us that the relationship does not necessarily entail trumpeting the platform of one political party. I hope we all can keep this in mind as the next election cycle nears and we enter into political dialogue with others.