Navigating Political Conversations with Grace

There isn't anything quite more divisive these days than politics. So, what does it look like to engage in political conversations with grace?

Aug 15, 2024

Love scrabble tiles on book page — Photo by Emmanuel Phaeton on Unsplash

Hey friends!

We’ve had some scorching weather here in the UK this week, but the sun is not the only thing heating up. It is also a big election year. In fact, 2024 is quite a significant year at the polls globally with 64 countries (plus the EU) voting, accounting for 49% of the world’s population.1

A month ago, I wrote a short piece for a newsletter at work about trusting God in political spaces. In July, the UK held an early General Election, which resulted in a landslide win for the Labour party. After 14 years under a conservative government, a new party has taken the helm, and in the UK, the change happens instantaneously. And, just as the U.S. struggles with division, the UK is facing similar problems.

There has never been a more important time to pray for the world’s present and future leaders. But, there is also another prayer we should be praying, a prayer for the right words to engage in political conversations with grace as things become even more emotionally charged and divisive. Today, I want to talk with you about how we can engage in politics from a Christian perspective.

So, let’s dig in together…

When we enter conversations around politics and decide what topics take center stage in the political landscapes we engage with, we must continue to keep Jesus’s teaching at the heart of all we do and say.

Conversations around politics are commonly emotionally charged, and it’s no surprise that often division and anger break out as a result. Even a seemingly healthy debate between friends or family members can quickly turn into a heated argument, leaving both sides angry, frustrated, and drained. Families have been divided. Friends have been unfriended. And, it seems we’ve completely lost the ability to disagree lovingly.

I’ve been in so many rooms with people debating politics throughout my life — among friends, strangers, family members, work colleagues — I’ve heard people debate in healthy ways by being kind to one another and gracious with their words. And, I’ve heard people completely tear one another down and it all end in tears. Quite frankly, I’ve witnessed the latter more than the former. So, my immediate response has either been to avoid these conversations altogether or tip toe along the centerline.

Even as I sat down to write this, I found myself quite weary when approaching the topic. And yet, the more I lingered within the avoidance I so easily embraced in the past, I found myself curious as to whether that is actually a Christlike response. Why do I find conversations on politics so uncomfortable? Surely God wants to speak in this space as well.

Maybe trusting God in the realm of politics requires us to lean into the discomfort and engage in conversations we’d rather avoid. Maybe we can learn to engage in political discussions while keeping the gospel on our lips and in our hearts. Maybe the gospel is the key to it all since at the very heart of Jesus’s message is unity in Christ through the power of his sacrifice. Maybe the message of the gospel could help bridge the gap in political conversations to remind us all what is actually most important.

Rich Villodas is a NYC-based writer and pastor, and his words to the Church concerning politics have been lingering in my thoughts lately. He writes:

“May the Church see politics through the lens of Jesus and not Jesus through the lens of politics. What does this *not* mean?

Political indifference
Social callousness
Heaven-centric discipleship
Refusal to listen to my conscience, values, and convictions.

What does this mean? Minimally that:

Our social imagination finds its starting point in Jesus’s teachings in the Hebrew Scriptures that he’s in the tradition of.
We don’t lose our distinctiveness as Christ-followers (i.e. the fruit of the Spirit) amidst political engagement.
Our participation in a more just, compassionate world – in interpersonal and institutional, systemic dimensions – is prioritized.
The poor and marginalized are given particular attention and care in the larger social and political landscape.
And all of this requires great humility, recognizing that despite our best efforts, we still do not see perfectly. By God’s grace, may we be empowered by the Spirit to recognize this.”2

What would our political conversations look like if we kept Jesus at the center? Would the conversations we have with each other change when we remember what he taught us, when we remember what he said and what he instructed us to do? Would we be more willing to compromise? To listen? To show grace? To love well?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to lose my distinctiveness as a Christ-follower because of impassioned responses to a political debate. I want to be able to engage in difficult and uncomfortable conversations with a heart for others, a curiosity for understanding varying viewpoints, and a love for people which honors them, regardless of their political views. I want to look at the gospel again and listen to what Jesus has said before I stand my ground and dismiss someone else’s point of view. I want to love people well through my words and actions — listening to them, hearing their story, and trying to see their side. I want to walk in empathy.

It would be naive to think that we can all agree when it comes to politics. It would also be ignorant to think that I am always right in my own viewpoint. But, I want to be the kind of person who is full of empathy for others, not disdain. I want to be a safe place for people to express their views and have healthy debates about differing opinions. I want to listen well. I want to be a bridge builder, not throw the dynamite to create more divide.

So, as followers of Jesus, how are we invited to engage in political conversations, and how can the gospel create space for common ground?

Tim Keller wrote an Op-Ed for the Times in which he warned that the Christian faith should never be aligned with a single political party. “Most political positions,” Keller wrote, “are not matters of biblical command but of practical wisdom.” By way of example, he noted that the Bible made lifting up the poor a moral imperative, but that there were many ways to do so. He writes, “Should we shrink government and let private capital markets allocate resources, or should we expand the government and give the state more of the power to redistribute wealth? Or, is the right path one of the many possibilities in between?… The Bible does not give exact answers to these questions for every time, place and culture.”3 What the Bible does give us is the way of Jesus, which we are invited to walk in.

Whenever I’m struggling to understand how I should respond or engage in divisive topics, I think of Jesus. I mean talk about someone who never avoided difficult conversations. He wasn’t afraid to speak truth to the political and religious conflicts of his day. In fact, in a culture that was highly segregated not only between religion and politics, but class and people groups, he continually brought people together from very different backgrounds using the gospel as common ground. He was also never in a rush to dismiss others. He sat with people, listened to their stories, and shared his heart with them.

As Christians, the gospel of Jesus is the foundational aspect of our faith, so what is the gospel that Jesus shared? John Mark Comer says, “If we don’t start with the gospel that Jesus preached, we may very well end up with a gospel that Jesus did not preach.”4

The four gospels in the new testament all reveal the biography of Jesus and share his gospel. Mark 1: 14-15 says, “Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’”

The gospel is the good news. So, what is the good news?

John Ortberg writes, “Jesus’ good news – his gospel – is simply this: the Kingdom of God has now, through Jesus, become available for ordinary human beings to live in.” 5

God has become available to us through Jesus. God’s grace and love and forgiveness and hope is available to us directly through Jesus.

Okay, okay, but why haven’t we always had direct access to God? Wasn’t that always God’s intention in creating humanity? Well, yes. God’s original plan for humanity was a garden city — living in alignment with the Creator, walking in purpose, being good stewards of the world and everything in it, being creative and innovative, creating culture, building cities, and growing his kingdom on earth— but we decided we could do it all on our own. And in the process, we messed things up.

Take one look at the world today and you can see the brokenness humans have created. We’ve shifted our focus inward to selfish ambitious and upward mobility. We’ve followed the counterfeit gods of the world. We’ve tried to be our own god.

And still, despite it all, God has always been desperate for us to know him. He is desperate for us to know how much we are loved. Regardless of the life we’ve lived, the mistakes we’ve made, the mess we’ve gotten into, God is desperate for a relationship with us. Because the reality is, we cannot live life to the fullest, in the way it was intended, apart from the Creator of life.

So, God sent Jesus — the only person to ever live a perfect life — to teach us the way to live. Jesus sacrificed himself for humanity’s mistakes, to bridge the gap we created between ourselves and God, and to take on all the sin and brokenness of the world. God did all of this to reveal himself to us and show us how deeply we are loved. He did this to bring us home.

You see, the gospel is actually the most humbling reality because we were always part of the problem. None of us have lived a perfect life. And yet, the gospel tells us that God loves us anyway and through Jesus, he invites us into close proximity — to know him. And, the more we know of God, the more we begin to know of ourselves.

Jesus’s gospel changes us.

Somehow through grace, we begin to see the world differently. Our priorities shift. Our inward selfishness slowly begins to move outward toward empathy. Our hearts soften. Our love for people grows. Our ability to navigate difficulty expands.

We change.

But the change somehow brings us closer to our truest self. Because it brings us closer to God. Through the gospel, God breaks in.

Ortberg goes on to say, “The gospel is not just about getting you into heaven, it is about getting heaven into you.”6

A deep understanding of the gospel changes us. This is why following Jesus is so transformative. By practicing the way of Jesus and believing the truth of the gospel, we are transformed. We simply cannot know the truth — we are flawed and imperfect and simultaneously loved beyond all measure, God is accessible and close and longs to be in relationship with us, Jesus is present and real and relatable — we cannot know this and move forward unchanged.

Tim Keller writes, “The thing that's great about the gospel is it humbles you. It makes you see that you're such a big part of the problem and if the gospel changes you, you will never see anybody else, anywhere else, as being the enemy — the real problem with the world. It makes you more able to cooperate with people, more able to make common cause with people — I know it — and therefore, ultimately more pragmatic, more willing to compromise, more willing to do things with people…. I think only self-righteousness makes you look at other people saying, ‘the people over there, they're the bad guys, they're the real problem here’. Jesus doesn't do that.”7

The forgiveness and hope and love we receive through grace from the Creator of the Universe is so profound that it moves us to look beyond ourselves. It stirs within us a hunger to know God — to really know him. And the more we know God, the more we know ourselves and the more we see others as also deeply loved and treasured.

What would it look like to recenter our lives around the good news of Jesus?

What would it look like to pause before we react in conversations with those who disagree with us and remind ourselves of Jesus’s invitation to love our enemies. How can your words facilitate a breaking in of God’s kingdom on earth in conversations with those who disagree with you?

Dallas Willard says, “There is no problem in human life that apprenticeship to Jesus cannot solve.” Over the next several posts, I will be writing about the way of Jesus. My hope is that through an examination of the practices of Jesus, explained to us throughout the biblical gospels, we may begin to see transformation in our relationships and interactions with others. And maybe, we can begin to see heaven soaking into us more through the process.

And, as we continue on living through this election season and engaging in conversations around politics, perhaps our words can sound a bit more like Jesus. And perhaps our heart can grow just enough to hold love for those we disagree with, remembering that God’s love can carry it all.

And, regardless of the outcome, regardless of whether your side wins or your candidate gets selected, we must not forget who is actually in control.

As Christians, we believe in one God — a sovereign God. A God who created heaven and earth, the entirety of the cosmos, who spoke life into being, who positioned our world in such a precise way to allow night and day, seasons, and life to flourish.

We believe in the Creator of all things.

We must learn to walk in his truth daily and live our lives according to the gospel in all aspects of society, including politics.

The Poetry Nook

This week’s poem is one I wrote while trying to understand our experiences with suffering. Although I still struggle to come to terms with the suffering of the world, I am sure that God is a God of redemption. He wastes nothing. He has a plan of redemption for every bit of suffering we experience. When I am feeling defeated or discouraged or overwhelmed by the state of the world, I remember who God is, and I am reminded that through it all — despite it all — he is writing a story of redemption.

Nothing is Wasted

You remind me that there is still hope in the wreckage of a burn,

for new life can grow out of the ashes of a scorched earth.

You say,

look and see,

there,

the ground sits still soaking up nutrients,

and although the surface may look depleted and all may seem lost,

beneath there is still so much life waiting.

Seeds planted long ago are protected deep,

buried in the Earth,

bulbs waiting to bloom.

Because life will always begin again.

Oh my darling,

nothing is ever wasted.

There’s a Book on That

Tim Keller has had a huge influence on my understanding of scripture, and I’m so grateful for his teaching and writing. One of my favorite of his books is Counterfeit Gods. This book is hugely relevant and challenges readers to look closely at areas in their life where idols have falsely replaced God, one of those areas can be politics.

As always, here is a taster:

“When love of one’s people becomes an absolute, it turns into racism. When love of equality turns into a supreme thing, it can result in hatred and violence toward anyone who has led a privileged life. It is the settled tendency of human societies to turn good political causes into counterfeit gods. As we have mentioned, Ernest Becker wrote that in a society that has lost the reality of God, many people will look to romantic love to give them the fulfillment they once found in religious experience. Nietzsche, however, believed it would be money that would replace God. But there is another candidate to fill this spiritual vacuum. We can also look to politics. We can look upon our political leaders as ‘messiahs,’ our political policies as saving doctrine, and turn our political activism into a kind of religion.”8

Just in case you missed these recent posts:

An Exploration of Time: We have this one precious life, so how do we live it well? How does God invite us to look at time?
Sacred Stops on the Journey of Calling: The journey of calling is lifelong and God will plant us in different places, jobs, and seasons along the way. Why is it important to tune into God's voice to reflect on the purpose of placement?
Can We Live More Like an Ecosystem?: In a world that celebrates the individual, how can we choose to live differently? Perhaps there is wisdom in God's creation, in nature's systems, which hold the keys to a more Christlike life.
Remembering as a Spiritual Discipline: A reflection on the role of memory in our faith journey. Sometimes we have to look back in order to have faith for what is yet to come

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