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I have wrestled with the following fact/issue for a long time. According to a recent Pew survey, 78% of White evangelical protestants voted for Donald Trump in 2020, and 90% of Black protestants and 67% of Hispanic Catholics (there is not a category in the study for Hispanic protestants) voted for Joe Biden. Note that these labels are Pew’s labels, not mine. But, even considering margin of error and clunky categorizations, the point is clear: the gospel-preaching church in the United States is politically divided. As noted by historian Thomas Kidd, this is nothing new. Orthodox or traditional Christians have never been politically unified in the United States.
So, how should Christians think about politics, pursue unity among Christians and engage the public square in increasingly divided times?
That’s the topic of my discussion with Justin GIboney, an attorney, ordained minister, political strategist, and president of the AND Campaign. He is also the coauthor of Compassion (&) Conviction: The AND Campaign’s Guide to Faithful Civic Engagement and co-hosts the Church Politics Podcast.
Key Takeaways:
- Justin’s call into ministry in the public square and how he developed the conviction that Christians must engage politics differently.
- Why Christians should be engaged in the public square as an expression of love for neighbor and why not engaging is actually just a (poor) form of engagement.
- Why Christians must practice compassion and conviction in the public square and examples of how to do that well.
- Justin’s view on the relationship between church and state.
- Why and how you should do a Biblical political inventory.
- How to treat the two parties as a tool to further kingdom causes rather than as an identity.
- Why Christians can and should engage in forms of protest and advocacy (it’s Biblical).
- Why this approach is not a false equivalency or a naive withdrawal from hard questions and controversies. We should have strong opinions about what is good, true and beautiful, and truth matters. But we are called to engage as Christians. Oh, and a fascinating analogy to two infected legs.
- How Christians can address the political divide in their midst in the context of the two-party system.
- Some thoughts on the future of the American experiment and the church’s role in it.
Connect with Justin and the & Campaign on Twitter: @JustinEGiboney ; @ANDcampaign