Is A Christian Political Agenda Even A Thing?

          So, Titus 3:2 and the Fairness Doctrine.  Be calm and tell the truth.  Not so much a political agenda as a dream for a better, calmer political landscape?  What then is the basis for a Christian Political Agenda-if we are going to use the language of the day?  Is that even a reasonable expectation?

          In the mainline, of which I am of a Presbyterian persuasion, Matthew 25, verses 31 to the end offers a pretty good template. 

31 ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, ³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. ³⁴Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; ³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” ³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” ⁴⁰And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” ⁴¹Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; ⁴²for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” ⁴⁴Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” ⁴⁵Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” ⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

          It is such a good template that it has been the basis of worship resources from the PCUSA for her churches to use. 

          This is a scene from the final judgement.  Now, I grew up with the image that every person will appear before the throne of grace and will be put on trial for their lives.  That image comes from a Christian tract, a mini-comic where the sinner has been walked through the evil of their lives before being cast into the fiery pits of hell, very Hieronymus Bosch in its visual presentation.  It is also highly personalized.  The one panel that sticks in my memory is the one where the man on trial cries out when ‘the dirtiest joke he ever heard’, told to a friend on earth, is being rebroadcast in the Throne room of the Lord.

          So, to avoid hell, let the love of Jesus be expressed in the loving behavior of personal daily living.

          (It is SO tempting to get sidelined into a theological discussion of faith and works, but not today).

          But in Matthew, the schedule of proper and improper behavior is not the behavior of personal daily living, it’s living life in relation to others, by definition it seems, less blessed than we.  To play off a Buddhist metaphor, this is a ‘six fold path’, to feed the hungry, to slake the need of the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit the imprisoned.  To whom is this carried out?  To the least of one of my family (“My” being personal pronoun for God).  It is sort of an applied ‘love of neighbor’.

          It is an agenda of love and justice.  “Peacemaking” is huge for us. It is also a corporate vision. 

          For me, I have preached on how the expression of our love of neighbor, our love being defined in terms of what happens in Matthew 25, being an expression of our love of God. 

          Here’s another bite as food for thought.  Borrowing the Buddhist metaphor, we find the same call to care of others in that faith-maybe more powerfully focused than in our own faith.  If we are going to gather these all into a group we call ‘charity’, it expresses one of the pillars of Islam.  And one does not need a faith-based reason to carry out such behavior.

          Sounds like the basis of a “political platform” that would find broader appeal than just to a Christian base.  Or would it be more appropriate that this expression of ‘love of neighbor’ being the “platform” of good living?

          I do not think a Christian Political Platform can even be a thing.  So what else is there? 

Peter Hofstra